This weekend marks the first full weekend of Bison athletics. While the main attraction in Fargo this weekend will be the football home opener against Mississippi Valley State, there is plenty more going on this weekend for the Herd.
So if you are not going home for the long weekend, here are some sports events worth checking out.
Volleyball
Interim Head Coach Jennifer Lopez makes her home debut as the Bison host the North Dakota State Classic. The tournament runs Friday and Saturday with the Bison playing three games.
The action starts Friday at noon inside Bentson Bunker Fieldhouse with Northern Colorado and San Francisco in the opening match.
The Bison will play Northern Colorado in the nightcap at 6 p.m. Friday. NDSU will have a pair of games on Saturday. Bison fans can take in the first game of the day at 10 a.m. against San Francisco before heading to the Fargodome. After the football game, NDSU closes the classic against Florida A&M at 6 p.m.
Cross Country
The NDSU cross country team start their season this Friday when they host the Bison Open. Joining the Bison at the meet are North Dakota, Minnesota-Duluth and South Dakota State.
The meet gets underway at the Rose Creek Golf Course Friday at 5:45 p.m. with the women’s four-kilometer race. The men get underway around 6:20 p.m. for the six-kilometer distance.
Last year, the Bison women swept the top five and will replace just two runners. However, there are no seniors on this year’s squad.
Juniors Emma Kusch Dahle, Kayla Huhnerkoch and Annika Rotvold will be joined by sophomore Melina Kuerschner, who finished 10th at the Summit League Championship last year.
On the men’s side, there is just one senior who has moved on. That means the core of last year’s team returns, led by Elliot Stone, Derek Werner and Cameron Roehl.
Soccer
The Bison women’s soccer team enters the second weekend of a three-week road trip.
After a rough going out in Utah, the struggling Bison head to Iowa for a pair of games.
NDSU is still searching for their first win and first goal, and will visit Northern Iowa Friday night. NDSU is averaging 4.3 shots on goal per game, but still have not broken through. UNI have not allowed a goal in three games so far this season.
The Bison will stay in Iowa and will go to Drake for a game Sunday. Drake needed overtime two weeks ago to beat Weber State, a team that defeated the Bison 1-0 last week.
Golf
Both the men’s and women’s golf teams will take a trip down to Omaha to start the fall season. The Omaha Invitational starts Friday.
On the men’s side, a pair of low scoring veterans return.
Will Holmgren, the Summit League’s fifth lowest average scorer last year, comes back for his junior year. Holmgren seeks to improve on his three top-ten finishes from last year.
Also returning is sophomore Andrew Israelson, a two-time Summit League golfer of the week winner. As a freshman, he had five top-20 finishes.
For the women, it is a very similar situation.
The headline returner is Natalie Roth. The senior was a first team All-Summit selection after collecting eight top-10 finishes, including a victory at the Omaha Invitational last year.
Also returning is junior Emma Groom, who had three top-10 finishes last year.