The Gophers baseball team will play its home opener against Northwestern at 3 p.m. Friday at Siebert Field. Minnesota (7-13, 0-3 Big Ten) was swept last weekend by Maryland.

Senior righthander Ben Meyer (0-3, 4.99) will be the Gophers' starter. Right fielder Matt Fiedler is hitting .403, second in the conference.

This is the Big Ten opener for Northwestern (5-18), which has lost four in a row and seven of its past eight games. The Gophers won two of three games with the Wildcats last season.

Zahui's award finalist

Amanda Zahui B., the Gophers' 6-5 sophomore center from Sweden, was named one of 12 finalists for the Wade Trophy, given to the top Division I women's basketball player. The winner will be named April 6 during the Women's Final Four.

Five other Gophers have been finalists: Janel McCarville (2004, 2005), Lindsay Whalen (2004, 2003), Carol Ann Shudlick (1994), Marty Dahlen (1982) and Linda Roberts (1980, 1981). Shudlick won it.

Etc.

• The Gophers men's golf team was in 18th place after one round of the Goodwin Invitational in Stanford, Calif. Runar Arnorsson, a freshman from Iceland, was the top individual for Minnesota, shooting an even-par 70. He is tied for 36th.

• The Gophers will compete in the Big Ten men's gymnastics championships Friday and Saturday at Penn State. The No. 2 Nittany Lions and No. 3 Michigan, the two-time defending national champion, are the favorites. Minnesota is No. 6 and led by Ellis Mannon, the defending champion on the pommel horse.

• Junior Manny Pollard of the Gophers finished in 13th place in 1-meter diving in the NCAA men's swimming and diving meet in Iowa City. Teammates Zoe Dylan and Matt Barnard were 20th and 36th, respectively. Senior C.J. Smith was 35th in the 500-yard freestyle preliminaries and sophomore Jakub Maly 41st in the 200 individual medley preliminaries.