Career Day for Bethke as Gophers Rout Coyotes, 9-0

St. Paul, Minn. - Junior Katie Bethke (Eau Claire, Wis.) assembled a career day, in what has become a career season, as the University of Minnesota soccer team disposed of the visiting University of South Dakota by a 9-0 final this afternoon (Oct. 4). Bethke recorded 10 points on four goals and two assists (all career highs) to lead the Golden Gophers as they put up the best offensive performance in the Mikki Denney Wright era.

The nine goals by Minnesota (9-2-2) are the most since the Gophers scored 10 in 1996, and sit tied with another nine-goal effort in 1994 as the fourth most in a single game in team history. South Dakota (3-7-1) becomes the second team this season that Minnesota has held to just one shot (Montana, 9/20) as the Gophers outshot the Coyotes 26-to-1 on the day.

In the shadow of Bethke's exploits, it might be easy to miss the stellar day composed by Olivia Bagnall (Lakeville, Minn.). After scoring her first career goal a week ago, Bagnall one-upped herself today with a career high two goals, including her first career game-winner. She scored each of the Gophers first two goals, starting with a score in the 11^th minute, and then less than five minutes later in the 15^th minute.

Bethke notched her first of the afternoon in the game's 16^th minute, which made the score 3-0 at the 15:51 mark, and ended the Gophers three-goal flurry that happened in just over a five-minute span.

After taking the 3-0 lead, head coach Mikki Denney Wright swapped goalkeepers, relieving Cat Parkhill (Apple Valley, Minn.) with Katie Roberts (Apple Valley, Minn.). In the first action of her career, Roberts played over 66:00 minutes between the pipes to preserve the shutout.

Tamara Strahota (Burnsville, Minn.) added her third goal of the season before the halftime break and Gophers went into the locker rooms with a comfortable 4-0 lead.

Coming out of the break, Bethke began to make her mark. She scored three-straight goals to open the half, giving the Gophers a 7-0 lead with scores in the 47^th, 56^th, and 60^th minutes. She becomes just the second player in school history to tally a four-goal game as she ties the record set by Erin Hussey in the 1996 season. She also improves her season total to 11 goals which is tied with Rachael Roth from 2002 as the best mark of the 2000's and the best since Nicole Lee scored 17 in 1998.

"I didn't know that it was a record or anything, Bethke said. "But it was just a team effort, whoever was on the end of it, it just happened to be me on a couple of them today."

Bethke also knocked Roth out of the top-10 in the career points list and she jumped into the top-10 at number nine with 56 career points. Bethke's 20 career goals are also number nine all-time, as are her 16 career assists.

Allie Phillips (Vadnais Heights, Minn.) also joined in the scoring party with her first career goal just minutes later before Dana Tripp (White Bear Lake, Minn.) closed the scoring with the Gophers ninth goal and her second of the season.

"I just saw that someone was crossing it in," Phillips said. "I think there was a rebound and Marissa (Price) shot it again, and it went off the post. I'm just glad I was running after it, because I was just there, I guess, I saw it bouncing out and the keeper wasn't going to get to it."

Katie Shelander (Roseville, Minn.) netted her first three points of the season as well today, notching three assists. Shelander fed a pair of balls to Bethke before passing off to Tripp for the final goal of the match. Her three helpers tie the school record for assists in a game, and she becomes the first Gopher since 1998 (and the fifth ever) to accomplish the feat.

With their final non-conference match in the books, the Gophers resume Big Ten play with a single match in the coming week. Minnesota gets back on the road for the trip to Purdue who is currently tied with them atop the league standings with a 2-0-1 record.