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University of Minnesota Athletics
History of Gopher Women's Athletics - 2000s
2000
The softball team plays its first game in Jane Sage Cowles Stadium; the facility will host an NCAA Regional two years later.
2000
Women’s rowing becomes the 12th women’s varsity sport at the U of M and Wendy Davis is hired as the first head coach.
2000
Women’s hockey wins the AWCHA national championship giving Minnesota its first women’s team national championship.
2002
The University’s men’s and women’s athletic departments become one on June 30, 2002, under newly hired athletics director Joel Maturi.
The University announces it’s dropping men’s golf, women’s golf and men’s gymnastics; a group called Save Gopher Sports raises funds to save them.
2002
The Baseline Tennis Center opens on campus.
Ridder Arena, the first arena dedicated solely to collegiate women’s hockey, opens its doors.
2002
Women’s gymnastics advances to the NCAA Championships for the second time and earns its best national finish, coming in ninth.
2002
Volleyball wins its first Big Ten championship, sets a program record for victories and reaches the NCAA Sweet 16 for the third time in four years.
2004
Minnesota’s women’s basketball team reaches the NCAA Final Four for the first time with three-time All-American Lindsay Whalen leading the way.
2004
Women’s volleyball team takes runner-up honors at NCAA Tournament during its 11-year streak of consecutive tourney appearances.
2005
The women’s hockey team wins its second straight national championship, after a 36-2-2 regular season. Krissy Wendell is named recipient of Patty Kazmaier Award as nation’s top female college hockey player.
2006
Heather Dorniden wins 800 meters race in NCAA Indoor track and field championship. She becomes Minnesota’s first national champion in track and field. She proceeds to earn a school record 12 All-America awards.
2007
The Minnesota rowing program moves into new boathouse along the Mississippi River; it also places sixth at the NCAA Championships, wins the Second Varsity Eight title and wins its first Big Ten championship.
2007
Cross Country wins the Big Ten title for the first time and repeats in 2008.
2008
Liz Roehrig is runner-up in the NCAA heptathlon and repeats the following season. Roehrig finishes her career as a five-time All-American, a three-time Big Ten champion in the outdoor heptathlon and a three-time Big Ten champion in the pentathlon.
2008
Gopher soccer program reaches the NCAA Sweet 16 for the first time after winning the Big Ten regular season title.
2009
For the third time, women’s volleyball team advances to the NCAA Final Four.
2009
Indoor track and field wins the Big Ten Indoor Championships for the third straight year.
2010
Kelci Bryant wins NCAA three-meter springboard title, and is runner-up in the one-meter. After winning her second national title in 2011, she would become a two-time Olympian with a silver medal performance in the synchronized three-meter in 2012.