Teammates since Mahtomedi High School, UMD seniors Natalie St. Marie, left, and Erika Hjort ready to lead soccer hopes. Photo credit: John Gilbert

 UMD opened practice with some high-speed scrimmages. Photo credit: John Gilbert

Passing drills are aimed at a few more goals, as all five UMD losses last year were by one goal. Photo credit: John Gilbert

UMD’s soccer team doesn’t attract the attention for fans that hockey, football, or volleyball do, but that might make Natalie St. Marie and Erika Hjort feel right at home.
St. Marie and Hjort are both UMD seniors, and both are long-time buddies who played together at Mahtomedi High School. Mahtomedi is a small community just east of White Bear Lake, known for highly competitive sports teams but on a Class A, not AA, level. As such, finding the media spotlight is rare.
Now as seniors, Hjort, the catalyst of UMD’s dominant defense, and St. Marie, a ball-handling wizard who only needs a goal-finisher to get in front of the opposing goal and get ready, are primed to help lead the Bulldogs into NSIC contention.
“We have nine returning seniors, and 15 juniors and seniors, but we were picked for sixth in the conference,” said Hjort. “We have the problem every year that Mankato is in our league and usually has a dominant team. There are other good teams in our league, too, but I think we definitely can field a team to be a contender. It’s kind of fun to be a lower seed, because we know we can be a lot better than sixth. And I’m excited to see how some of the freshmen from last year and a couple of redshirts might help our scoring.”

Last year, Skye Finley scored 7 goals and Schmitz 6 to lead the Bulldogs in goals. Finley was very skilled at getting free in front of opposing goals, and St. Martin seemed to find her with slick passes through congestion for most of her team-leading 9 assists.
“We had good chemistry,” said St. Martin.
Game after game, St. Martin seemed to stand out with her quick moves and deceptive ball-handling, often beating two or three defenders and then crossing passes that set up teammates. “That’s what I like to do best,” she said. “Go hard and then set somebody up.”
It seems like a hockey sort of mindset, and St. Martin did play high school hockey at Mahtomedi. “I play on the UMD club team here,” she said. “I always play right wing in hockey.”
That’s similar to what she plays on the outside of UMD’s soccer attack.
Hjort, who plays “center back” in UMD’s defensive scheme, said she scored one goal last season for the Bulldogs. But that’s not bad, in a game where one-goal margins can be huge, and finding a way to overturn all those one-goal losses from last year may prove pivotal.
UMD was 10-5-4 in all games, 7-5-3 in the conference, and of the five losses, all five were by one goal.
Ask coach Greg Cane who will score goals, now that Skye Finley has graduated, and he will say, “Good question.” But he figures junior Logan Nash might move up to join Schmitz, a senior from Farmington, and St. Martin to generate some scoring. And Nan Glinsek can shoot with force. 
“I didn’t score one goal in high school,” said Hjort, smiling, but knowing that defensive players aren’t expected to score goals, or even get close enough to shoot. “It’s fun to watch Natalie make plays and set up goals. We’ve been best friends since we were little kids in girl scouts together back in Mahtomedi.”

If St. Martin and Hjort give the Bulldogs a Mahtomedi flavor on offense and defense, respectively, the back end will be guarded by goal-keeper Sisley Ng, another senior from Mounds Park Academy, but who grew up in White Bear Lake.
Cane got practice started this week at UMD, and in his 25th year, he can offer a stabilizing effect to bring the Bulldogs back to contention. They open with six games on the road, starting on the Upper Peninsula August 30 against Michigan Tech, and then Northern Michigan before going to Nortn Dakota. Conference play begins with games at St. Cloud Stdate, Minnesota Crookston and Bemidji State before UMD gets the chance to play at home against Minnesota State Mankato at Malosky Stadium September 21.

Huskies falter, recover on final road trip

The Duluth Huskies, boasting a potent offense and a late season pitching balance, had taken a lead in the race for the second half title in their Northwoods League division. However, the winning streak and the long homestand both ended.
Faced with a six-game road trip to end the regular season, the Huskies lost five of the six to blow the second half pennant, and cost themselves a chance to play any playoff games at Wade Stadium.

But the talent finally came through, in a one-game win-or-go-home playoff at Bismarck Monday night, romping to a 13-5 blowout victory. The Huskies scored two in the first, four in the fourth, then six in the sixth to blow it open. Four pitchers shared the victory, with the fourth, Jason Braziel, going the final 2 2/3 without allowing a hit, and striking out five. 

Meantime, Willmar rallied from a five-run deficit to beat Mankato 8-7 in 10 innings. That meant Duluth had to go immediately to Willmar for another one-game showdown to decide who gets to advance to the best-of-three series for the Northwoods championship. At Willmar Tuesday night, the Huskies fell behind 1-0, caught up 1-1 through five innings, but then started scoring and built a 14-1 lead as they blitzed the Stingers 17-7 to reach the finals against Fond du Lac.