Minnesota Scene: Vikings' preseason schedule released

The Vikings got their first look at their full five-game preseason schedule on Thursday. They will open it by playing in the annual Hall of Fame Game in Canton, Ohio — which they already knew — against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Then they play host to the Buccaneers and Raiders before finishing on the road against the Cowboys and Titans.

The regular-season schedule is expected to be released in the next couple of weeks.

Here is the Vikings' preseason schedule:

Aug. 9: vs. Pittsburgh Steelers (Canton, Ohio), 7 p.m.

Aug. 14-16: vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers,

Aug. 21-23: vs. Oakland Raiders

Sept. 3: at Tennessee Titans

Note: The exact day for the games against Tampa Bay, Oakland and Dallas and the starting times for the final four preseason games have yet to be announced.

Matt Vensel

The Gophers men's gymnastics team barely missed qualifying for the team finals in the NCAA championships in Norman, Okla. Minnesota finished fourth in the first session of team competition on Thursday — the top three teams advance — with a score of 432.700, or 0.200 behind Penn State.

Minnesota had season highs of 74.30 in floor exercise and 71.65 on pommel horse and was in second place until high bar, its final routine.

Nine Gophers, including Mannon, will be in the individual event finals on Saturday. Senior Steve Jaciuk will be in two events, high bar and still rings, the others in one. Mannon, the defending champion on the pommel horse (15.050), placed third in the preliminaries while freshman Yaroslav Pochinka tied for third in vault (15.100).

Also in the finals are senior Jack Metcalf (still rings), juniors Paul Montague (parallel bars) and Danny DiBenedetto (high bar), sophomore Zach Liebler (floor exercise) and freshman Joel Gagnon (floor exercise) and Jalon Stephens (high bar).

All of them advanced by finishing among the top three in their events, not counting the gymnasts on the top three teams from the first session: Stanford, California and Penn State.

Concordia (St. Paul) will add women's lacrosse as a varsity sport, starting with spring of 2017. The Golden Bears will be the first Division II team in the five-state Upper Midwest region.

A search for a full-time head coach will begin immediately, with the position starting in 2015-16 to establish recruiting, schedules and other day-to-day details. The team will compete and train at Sea Foam Stadium and the Concordia Dome.

• Big Ten-leading Northwestern (20-11, 8-0 conference) will play a three-game softball series with the No. 15 Gophers (30-7, 6-3) this weekend, starting at 6 p.m. Friday at Jane Sage Cowles Stadium.