The Gophers women’s volleyball team saw their season come to an end in the NCAA Tournament’s Round of 32 in each of the past two seasons. Julia Hanson personally made sure her senior season didn’t come to the same conclusion on Saturday.

Behind a dominant performance from Hanson, the Gophers punched their ticket to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2022, beating Iowa State in three sets (25-22, 25-21 and 25-14) on Saturday, a night after they swept Fairfield.

“It’s been an amazing four years here just with the crowd and every team that I’ve been apart of, so I’m going to go out strong, no matter what it is,” Hanson said. “I knew this was my last match here (at Maturi Pavilion), so I played hard and my teammates had my back the entire time.”

The Cyclones had no answers for the All-Big Ten outside hitter on Saturday night at Maturi Pavilion as she finished the night with 23 kills.

Hanson led the Gophers with 11 kills in the first set. It was a tight set, but one in which Minnesota never trailed. In the second set, during which the two teams traded leads, Hanson had nine more kills including four on the Gophers’ final five points. And in the third, the team’s most dominant set of the night, she tallied three more to cap off her performance.

“I just trust my teammates to be able to — I’ll go for it in big moments and I think I trust them to just have my back and yeah, I just try to play free,” Hanson said.

In a season full of adversity, Hanson has been a constant for the Gophers.

Minnesota has been starting five freshmen for much of the season alongside Hanson after injuries to four starters. Two of those freshmen, Carly Gilk and Kelly Kinney, added eight kills of their own while redshirt freshman Stella Swenson had 35 assists.

And yet, despite injuries and new lineups, the wins have kept coming for the Gophers.

“When the injuries happened, it was early enough in September that I thought ‘We’ve got time,’” coach Keegan Cook said. “I knew that some of our more experienced players would carry us through a lot of matches while the young players were coming up to speed. So, you saw it kind of happen piece by piece and in the last month, I thought the last couple pieces came online and it felt like a team that was ready to try and do something.”

And now, they’ll try to keep it rolling in the Sweet 16 as the win earned the Gophers — the No. 4 seed in their section of the 64-team bracket — a date with Pittsburgh — No. 1 in the Gophers’ section of bracket — in Pittsburgh.

“I told them I don’t think we played our best match, but we don’t need to anymore, which is great. I thought Stella ran an awesome offense. I thought we fought off some amazing serving,” Cook said. “It took a lot. A three-set sweep I think sometimes doesn’t tell the whole story of just how challenging that was so I’m proud of our guys.”

Related Articles

River Falls rolls past St. John’s into Division III football quarterfinals

Gophers volleyball: Minnesota sprints to second round of NCAA Tournament

St. Thomas volleyball: Tommies fall in a first-round thriller

Gophers likely bowl destination: Rate Bowl in Phoenix

Gophers dismiss defensive line coach Dennis Dottin-Carter

Look closely at the new official buttons for the 2026 St. Paul Winter Carnival.

No — look even closer.

Forest Lake artist Randall Peterson demonstrates the style of pointillism during an art fair in June 2025. Peterson is the featured button designer for the 2026 St. Paul Winter Carnival, the 140th anniversary of the festival. (Courtesy of Randall Peterson)

The buttons, designed by Forest Lake illustrator Randall Peterson, are in a pointillist style, meaning each design is made up of tens of thousands of individual dots drawn in pen.

The collection of four buttons was unveiled Saturday night at the annual tree lighting ceremony at Union Depot. The upcoming Winter Carnival is the 140th anniversary of the annual cold-weather festival.

One button depicts the ice castle built for the first St. Paul Winter Carnival in 1886, and the illustration took Peterson 81 hours to complete. In another button design, families build snowmen in front of the State Capitol building. Peterson spent about 76 hours on it.

The process, he said, is meditative.

“I like to persevere in it and have the patience to do it,” he said. “But needless to say, nobody wants me on their Pictionary team.”

You can buy the buttons online at www.wintercarnival.com/p/marketplace/buttons or at businesses including all Cub Foods and Blaze Credit Union locations, East Metro locations of Kowalski’s (Grand Avenue, Woodbury, Oak Park Heights, White Bear Lake and Shoreview) and the following:

Alary’s Bar: 139 E. 7th St.
Bad Weather Brewing: 414 W. 7th St.
Borchert’s Meat Market: 1344 Frost Ave., Maplewood
Bright Corner Gift Shop: 640 Jackson St. (inside Regions Hospital)
Camp Bar: 490 N. Robert St.
CandyLand: 435 N. Wabasha St.
City & County Credit Union: 1661 E. Cope Ave., Maplewood
History Theatre: 30 E. 10th St.
Honest-1 Auto: in Roseville (3114 N. Lexington Ave.) and Falcon Heights (1565 N. Hamline Ave.)
Landmark Center Gift Shop: 75 W. 5th St.
Minnesota History Center Museum Store: 345 Kellogg Blvd.
Pillbox Tavern: 400 N. Wabasha St.
Russell’s: 656 Grand Ave.
Saint Paul Corner Drug: 240 Snelling Ave.
Saint Paul Hotel: 350 Market St.
Teri’s Hair Studio: 2966 White Bear Ave., Suite 31, Maplewood
West St. Paul Antiques: 880 S. Smith Ave., West St. Paul

Buttons are $5 each or $19 for a pack of all four. A limited number of four-packs with a commemorative pin are available for $20.

Peterson grew up in the Midway area in St. Paul in elementary school before moving to Maplewood and then, after getting married in the 1970s, to Forest Lake. His family were not die-hard Winter Carnival-goers, but “of course, being a little whippersnapper, we did some events,” he said.

Peterson began creating pointillism illustrations about four decades ago while working in publishing; the methodical art form proved to be a calmer counterpart to the fast-paced deadlines in his day job. Many of his illustrations feature lighthouses, streetscapes, old hotels and well-known buildings like the ones depicted in his Winter Carnival buttons.

Since retiring about four years ago, Peterson now has more time for pointillism artwork — which is to say, he manages to create about 10 to 12 pieces per year, given how time-intensive the technique is.

He also runs an Etsy shop and occasionally sets up booths at art markets. In fact, it was at the 2024 Holiday Bazaar at Landmark Center that Peterson’s art first caught the eye of Winter Carnival CEO Lisa Jacobson, who then approached him about designing the 2026 button set.

“Downtown St. Paul is so historic, and so for me I thought that was a big part of the button itself,” he said. “And I wanted to also include community and family, because it’s such a family-oriented event. So I thought, let’s take the historical structures and combine them with different family events.”

The upcoming Winter Carnival, the festival’s 140th year, will take place Jan. 22 to Feb. 1, 2026.

Related Articles

History and fantasy blend in ‘Rollicking! A Winter Carnival Musical’

Review: History Theatre’s Winter Carnival musical tuneful but scattershot

Queen of the Snows candidates inspired subplot in Marisa Coughlan’s movie

St. Paul Winter Carnival seeks your memories

Winter Carnival: Candidates sought for 2026 Aurora, Queen of the Snows

In what is already a magical season, the University of Wisconsin-River Falls football team accomplished something Saturday the program has never done, by doing something that has not occurred since before World War II.

Kaleb Blaha threw for 245 yards and three touchdowns, ran for 97 more and River Falls dominated the second half to pull away from St. John’s 42-14 in a Division III college football third-round game.

Beating the Johnnies for the first time since a 12-6 victory in 1937, the third-ranked Falcons (11-1) will be back at Ramer Field on Dec. 13 against Wheaton (10-2). The first national quarterfinal appearance in school history comes in a season River Falls won the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference title for the first time since 1985.

“Making it this far and doing stuff that’s never been done around here, it’s just,” defensive end Jack Olson said before his voice trailed off. Then, after a pause, adding, “You can’t really put words to it.”

Nathan Wasko returned a third-quarter interception 56 yards for a 28-7 Falcons lead. After Dylan Wheeler’s receiving touchdown got the Johnnies back within two scores, Jaylen Reed scored on a 38-yard reception to start the fourth quarter, a play neither Blaha nor coach Matt Walker would call a dagger.

“We got our sword out at that point,” Walker said.

A 1-yard score by Blaha midway through the fourth made it 42-14 and a “Goodbye Johnnies” chant was voiced by many of the Falcon faithful in the packed bleachers.

“He’s really tough because he’s got that quick burst,” St. John’s coach Gary Fasching said of Blaha. “I thought there were times where our defensive line had him cornered, and he burst through a little hole and picked up four or five yards. He did that a lot today.”

Throwing for 3,753 yards and 31 touchdowns, and running for 1,053 yards and 15 scores makes Blaha the leading candidate for the Gagliardi Trophy that is awarded to Division III’s most outstanding player.

“Someone’s not watching very close, if he doesn’t get it,” Walker said, after Blaha shook off an early interception Saturday to finish 22 of 28 through the air.

Hamstring injuries limited Blaha to just three games in 2024, in what was supposed to be his final season.

“I didn’t have to come back, but I wanted to come back, and I knew we could really make this happen. I knew this was a possibility. … Living in it right now, it’s great,” he said.

Trey Feeney was 33 of 59 for 274 yards with two touchdowns with an interception for a one-dimensional Johnnies’ offense. Andrew Harren and Wheeler caught scores for St. John’s (10-2), which entered averaging 526 yards per game but finished with 295.

“One of the more physical secondaries we’ve seen,” Wheeler said.

With its burly, physical offensive line controlling the trenches, River Falls ran 51 times for 188 yards. St. John’s had 22 yards on nine carries.

“You’re not going to win games like this if you can’t run the football,” Fasching said.

The Falcons finished with 433 total yards, 142 yards below their average.

Looking to increase its 14-7 lead in the second quarter, River Falls lined up for a chip-shot field-goal attempt. However, a fake put the ball in the hands of kicker Justin Scheberl, who used his right foot — and left — in a different way. Running right, he dove for the corner but was stopped inside the 2 by Hoyt.

With sudden momentum, St. John’s countered with its best first-half drive that reached the Falcons 18. Back-to-back sacks by Olson and Kody Curtis ultimately forced St. John’s to try a 38-yard field goal in the waning seconds. It was no good.

Related Articles

Gophers volleyball: Minnesota sprints to second round of NCAA Tournament

St. Thomas volleyball: Tommies fall in a first-round thriller

Gophers likely bowl destination: Rate Bowl in Phoenix

Gophers dismiss defensive line coach Dennis Dottin-Carter

D3 Football: Patience, persistence paid off for Matt Walker and Wisconsin-River Falls

Minnesota Wild fans can be excused if they have an outdated idea of who veteran forward Vladimir Tarasenko is, and what he can offer, at this point in his career.

For Tarasenko’s first decade in the NHL, he was a Wild killer, coming to town a few times a year as a member of the St. Louis Blues, and using his deadly shot to zip pucks past Minnesota goalies with frustrating regularity.

Tarasenko — who came to Minnesota in a trade with Detroit over the summer — will turn 34 next week, and thus far has not been the consistent offensive contributor that he was at 24, to be sure. Entering Saturday night’s game in Vancouver, Tarasenko had two goals and eight assist in his first 21 games with the Wild. He also missed seven games in late November with a lower-body injury.

In his three outings since returning to the Minnesota lineup, Tarasenko had been held without a point prior to the meeting with the Canucks. But a reporter in Vancouver who asked about Tarasenko’s contributions to the team on Saturday, following the Wild’s morning skate at Rogers Arena, got a different perspective from the Minnesota coach.

“I think Vladdy’s playing pretty solid. I think his details are strong,” John Hynes said. “The thing I like about him is maybe some offensive things. Because he’s known as a scorer, find some opportunities to get his shot more and use his shot in scoring situations. But I think when you see the way that he plays the game overall, you can see why he’s been a part of two Stanley Cup winning teams.”

Originally from Siberia, the wild northern reaches of Russia, Tarasenko played pro hockey in his home country before joining the Blues in 2013. He was a key part of their 2019 NHL title — the first in franchise history — and after a trade to the Panthers in 2024, he scored five goals in Florida’s run to its first Stanley Cup that spring.

Tarasenko spent last season in Detroit, posting 11 goals and 33 points in 80 games. The Red Wings shipped him to Minnesota essentially for free, but Hynes was so invested in integrating the veteran into the Wild’s culture that Hynes traveled to the Tarasenko family home in South Florida shortly after the trade, working to make sure Tarasenko felt welcome playing for his former foe.

While he would certainly welcome more offense from Tarasenko — which is a common theme for a Wild team that had scored four times in its previous three games before facing the Canucks — Hynes is seeing other contributions that he likes.

“I think he plays without the puck really well, I think he’s competitive. He makes a lot of the right decisions,” Hynes said. “I liked that line the other night in Calgary. It was probably one of our better lines with (Nico) Sturm, Tarasenko and (Yakov) Trenin. So, I think he’s progressing.”

With all of that said, Hynes admitted that seeing more of that shot which used to frustrate Wild fans so often, would be a good addition to Tarasenko’s contributions in Minnesota.

Related Articles

Recent scoring drought has Wild thinking power play

‘Boring’ goalie tandem behind Wild’s climb in West standings

Flames dominate late to douse Wild point streak

Nico Sturm a greater asset for Wild as he gets up to speed

NHL: Cretin-Derham Hall’s Ryan McDonaugh signs extension with Lightning