Minnesota Scene: Unbeaten Gophers softball teams climbs to No. 10

For the first time in program history, the Gophers softball team cracked the top 10 in the USA Today/NFCA Division I Coaches poll.

They are No. 10 — up two spots from last week — and their 14-0 start is the program's best ever. Only two other top 20 teams remain unbeaten.

• Senior guard Grant Shaeffer was named the MIAC's player of the year in men's basketball.

A Carleton player and the Knights' coach received the other two top individual conference honors. Kent Hanson was named the sixth man of the year and Guy Kalland the coach of the year.

Shaeffer led the Tommies to a share of the MIAC title with a 15-5 mark. He averaged 16.4 points, 4.6 rebounds and 4.7 assists.

• North Dakota State beat the Gophers 3-1 in nonconference baseball at U.S. Bank Stadium. Terrin Vavra's single in the bottom of the ninth drove in Minnesota's lone run.

• Minnetonka native Lizzie Odegard, who plays for Wisconsin-Milwaukee, was named to the Horizon League's all-freshman women's basketball team. The 6-foot forward is averaging 5.0 points and 4.1 rebounds.

• Penn State's Vince Pedrie, a sophomore defenseman from Rochester, Minn., was named the Big Ten's second star of the week. He had four assists as the Nittany Lions swept Michigan State on the road.

• Senior forward Brandyn Frelix of Bethany Lutheran was named the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference's player of the year in men's basketball; forward Tim Wendel of Crown the freshman of the year and Northland's Scott Sorenson the coach of the year.

• The Gophers women's golf team is in 11th place after the second round of the Hurricane Invitational in Coral Gables, Fla.