Tsuyoshi Nishioka will join the Hanshin Tigers of Japan's Central League, according to news reports over the weekend. Japan Times online, citing a report from the Kyoto Times, posted this brief story on Sunday.

By signing with Hanshin, Nishioka decided against rejoining his former team, the Chiba Lotte Marines.

Earlier this month, Nishioka said that he'd heard from several teams in Japan about resuming his career with them. Nishioka walked away from the third year of his contract with the Twins after spending almost all of last season at Class AAA Rochester, and not appearing to have a chance of playing in the majors in 2013.

In 71 games with the Twins, Nishioka batted .215 with 14 errors in 71 games.

Etc. • For the third time this season, Gophers junior middle blocker Tori Dixon of Burnsville has been named the Big Ten defensive player of the week in volleyball. Dixon had a team-high 28 kills in weekend victories over No. 9 Nebraska and Iowa.

• For the second week in a row, the Summit League named South Dakota State senior point guard Nate Wolters of St. Cloud its player of the week. Wolters averaged 20.2 points, 7.0 assists and 6.2 rebounds in three games last week.

• Gophers guard Mikayla Bailey of Maple Grove was named the Big Ten women's basketball freshman of the week. Bailey averaged 9.5 points, 3.5 assists, 2.5 rebounds and 1.5 steals per game and shot 60 percent from the field to help the Gophers win the Subway Classic title.

• Minnesota State Mankato's most successful season ever in women's soccer ended Sunday with a seven-round shootout loss to Grand Valley State in an NCAA Division II tournament game in Allendale, Mich. The Mavericks (17-1-5) scored twice in the final seven minutes of regulation to tie the score 2-2 and send the match to overtime. MSU fell one match short of the Final Four, the furthest advancement ever by an NSIC school.

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