The No. 7 Gophers defeated Northwestern 25-22, 29-27, 13-25, 25-19 on Friday night in Big Ten volleyball at Evanston (Ill.) Township High School. The match couldn't be played at Welsh-Ryan Arena — the Wildcats' usual home venue — because of renovation work there.

Freshman opposite hitter Stephanie Samedy led the Gophers (25-3, 14-3 Big Ten) with 24 kills and hit .447. Molly Lohman added 13 kills and Alexis Hart 12.

Nia Robinson had 23 kills for the Wildcats (14-15, 4-13).

As a team, the Gophers hit .331, Northwestern .254.

U wrestlers win

The No. 6 Gophers defeated No. 16 South Dakota State 20-12 in Brookings, S.D. This match was not quite as dramatic as last year's, when Minnesota won the final four matches for an 18-17 victory at home.

Minnesota (2-0) never trailed the Coyotes (0-1) after heavyweight Rylee Streifel won 3-1 to put the visitors ahead 6-3. The Gophers won six of the 10 matches in all, getting major decisions from Ethan Lizak at 125 pounds and Tommy Thorn at 141.

In the spotlight match of the night, No. 1-ranked Seth Gross of the Coyotes won 6-4 over No. 6 Mitch McKee. Gross was an NCAA runner-up last season.

U baseball signs 8

The Gophers baseball team announced the signing of eight players. Three are Minnesotans: infielder Zach Raabe of Forest Lake; catcher Riley Swenson of Chaska and outfielder Otto Grimm of Bemidji. Raabe's father, Brian Raabe, was an All-America infielder at Minnesota.

The other signees are infielder Noah Berghammer of Janesville, Wis.; pitcher Jeffrey Massey of Chicago; pitcher Gus Radal of Sioux Falls, S.D.; catcher Chase Stanke of Sugar Grove, Ill., and infielder Andrew Wilhite of Stillman Valley, Ill.

Etc.

• Southwest Minnesota State will play Augustana at noon Saturday in the first NSIC volleyball semifinal at the Gangelhoff Center in St. Paul. Host Concordia (St. Paul) will meet Minnesota Duluth at 2:30 p.m. in the second.

• Bemidji State offensive guard Jake Krause, of Wadena, Minn., was selected by the NSIC football coaches as the Glen Galligan Award recipient. It is given to a student-athlete who plays four years, is academically superior and makes a positive contribution to his school.

• Placekicker John Hoff of Minnesota Morris was named the most valuable special teams player in the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference while Mark Stein of Martin Luther was named the coach of the year after his Knights finished 5-5 the year after a winless season.