Nov. 6—BEMIDJI — The second NCAA D-II women's soccer regional rankings were announced Wednesday afternoon, and the Bemidji State women's soccer team came in at fifth in the latest Central Region ranking ahead of the regular-season finale.

The Beavers hold a 13-2-3 record against Division-II opponents this season, trailing just Minnesota State (15) and Pittsburg State (13) for most D-II wins in the region. The No. 2 Mavericks lead the Central Region rankings, with Washburn, Pittsburg State and Central Missouri above the Beavers. BSU is one of fivw teams from the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference in the rankings.

The NSIC, the Mid-America Athletic Association and the Great American Conference make up the 36-team NCAA Central Region. The top eight teams in the region will advance to the NCAA region tournament. The two top-seeded teams in each region shall be offered the opportunity to host, provided minimum site selection criteria are met and a bid has been submitted. Automatic bids are granted to the winners of the MIAA, GAC and NSIC postseason tournaments, with the remaining five spots awarded on an at-large basis.

The NCAA Women's Soccer selection show will be streamed online at 5:30 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 17, at NCAA.com.

The month of October saw great success for the program, going 7-0-2 during the month and averaging 2.22 goals per game while holding opponents to just 0.56 goals per game. Senior Katrina Barthelt led the Beavers during the month with 15 points and scored seven goals. She scored a goal in five of nine matches in October, including two multi-goal efforts.

Graduate goalkeeper Sonia Alfieri was nearly flawless during the month with an unbeaten 7-0-1 record between the posts for the Beavers. She allowed just four goals in October, totaled four shutouts, made 23 saves and boasted a 0.52 goals against average and .852 save percentage.

On the season, Bemidji State averages two goals per game while averaging just 0.59 goals allowed per game to rank second in the NSIC with a 1.41 scoring margin. The Beavers' 34 goals scored are the third most in the NSIC, while their 10 goals against are tied for the third least in the conference. BSU has scored first in 13 of 17 matches this season, tied for second most in the NSIC.

The Beavers have clinched home-field advantage for the first round of the NSIC Tournament and play at Chet Anderson Stadium on Monday, Nov. 10.

No. 2 Minnesota State secured its eighth NSIC regular-season championship this past weekend and clinched the No. 1 seed and home-field advantage in the tournament.

Nov. 6—Fourth-year Gonzaga assistant Stephen Gentry made just one game-winning shot during his competitive basketball career. In 2001, Gentry, who attended Fort Scott High School in rural southeast Kansas, was playing a rivalry game against F.L. Schlagle High School, located roughly 95 miles north in Kansas City. The ball found Fort Scott's senior guard on the final possession and Gentry pumped in the shot that sealed a narrow victory.

F.L. Schlagle also happens to be the alma mater of Tyon Grant-Foster, the 25-year-old Gonzaga forward and Kansas City native who transferred to Mark Few's program after stops at Iowa's Indian Hills Community College, Kansas, DePaul and Grand Canyon.

"I was kidding with Tyon that he was on that (F.L. Schlagle) team back in 2001," Gentry said.

The collective age of Gonzaga's 2025-26 roster could be a punchline for numerous jokes throughout the year, but from a practical standpoint it should also be a major asset for the 21st-ranked team in the country. The Zags may give up certain offensive or defensive advantages depending on the night but seldom, if ever, will they enter a game with less cumulative playing experience than the opponent.

The average age of Gonzaga's roster, featuring 12 scholarship players and four walk-ons, is 21.2 years old. The 11 players that could reasonably figure into the team's rotation are 21.5 and that number will rise to 22 by the 2026 NCAA Tournament. The Brooklyn Nets, by comparison, are the NBA's youngest team at 23.3 years old.

Gonzaga's roster includes a 25-year-old set to turn 26 before the WCC Tournament (Grant-Foster), a 24-year-old nearing the tail end of his unique college basketball journey (Steele Venters), two 23-year-olds (Graham Ike and Adam Miller), two 22-year-olds (Jalen Warley and Braden Huff) and a pair of 21-year-olds (Braeden Smith and Emmanuel Innocenti).

Without combing through 365 Division I rosters — an exercise we admittedly did not conduct in researching this story — it's impossible to know exactly where Gonzaga ranks in terms of sheer age, but other metrics could be indicative of how Few's team stacks up against others that also lean older in their roster makeup.

The Zags are No. 10 nationally in KenPom's "experience" statistic, which measures average number of full DI seasons played, weighted by minutes played. Currently, Gonzaga is only scheduled to encounter one other team, UCLA (No. 3), that ranks higher. The Oklahoma team traveling to Spokane for Saturday's 7:30 p.m. (ESPN2) showdown at the Arena ranks No. 28 in experience while no one else on GU's 2025-26 slate is inside the top 60.

"Top to bottom, this group is mature. You see a focus with it," assistant Brian Michaelson said. "They're really tight-knit and I think that comes with age and them wanting to finish off their college careers winning. So I think they're all pulling the rope the right direction and then again, I think that experience leads to them knowing what it really takes to win at this level and buying into that."

There are three former conference players of the year on this year's roster in Smith (Patriot League), Grant-Foster (Western Athletic Conference) and Venters (Big Sky), along with a preseason Mountain West POY in Ike. The West Coast Conference doesn't name a preseason Player of the Year, but Ike, at least in early November, would probably be the favorite to win postseason WCC MVP honors.

Ike and Miller have each appeared in more than 115 college games and six other players are on track to clear the 100-game mark by the end of the season. The Zags have 23 combined games of NCAA Tournament experience between Ike (6), Huff (5), Grant-Foster (5), Smith (2), Miller (2), Innocenti (2) and Ismaila Diagne (1), as well as four 1,000-point scorers in Ike (1,972), Miller (1,219), Grant-Foster (1,162) and Venters (1,136).

Smith and Huff could realistically achieve the milestone before the season's end, with 845 and 727 points respectively.

"I think these guys just come with a lot of battles under their belt and have been in a lot of college practices and a lot of big-time environments," Gentry said. "Been part of winning programs as well. You can't quantify just the value of the experience. I think there's a level of maturity, basketball maturity that comes with that well."

The roster features three sixth-year seniors, multiple fourth-year juniors and two underclassmen who've played at the highest level of professional basketball outside of the NBA. Freshman guard Mario Saint-Supery was on Spain's roster this summer at EuroBasket, playing key minutes in an elimination game against Greece and Giannis Antetekounmpo.

Sophomore center Ismaila Diagne and Saint-Supery both have experience playing in Spain's Liga ACB. During his time with Real Madrid, Diagne played reserve minutes in a preseason exhibition against Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks.

Four-star wing Davis Fogle, the other freshman who could factor into the rotation, comes to GU from Arizona Compass Prep, one of the top high school programs in the country. The 19-year-old Fogle had to grow up in a hurry last season, living by himself in a single-bedroom home in the Phoenix area.

"Some of these guys have just done and seen it all and obviously it's different systems and different teams and leagues, but I think it's just basketball maturity that comes with it and I think allows for us as a coaching staff to hopefully blend the pieces together better than maybe some of these older programs that have full resets and a bunch of young transfers and young pieces," Gentry said. "We feel it's a strength of our group."

Ike's been on six teams during stints at Wyoming and Gonzaga. The preseason All-American started his career in 2020-21 playing on a Wyoming team that had 10 underclassmen and zero seniors. He'll close his career on a Gonzaga team that has eight upperclassmen and four underclassmen.

That's been noticeable in practice, where Ike said players are able to offer constructive criticism to one another without the fear of someone taking it personal.

"I think that's what ties into the age deal, is just the approach we have every single day and the maturity we have every single day, it's unlike no other team I've been on," Ike said. "Not saying the other teams were bad, it's just heightened every single day and it's consistent. That's really what I appreciate about this group is the maturity that comes with the age, or the way the game's played."

It's created healthy banter in the locker room, too, usually from younger players ribbing older, more-seasoned teammates. Freshman center Parker Jefferson has been a main culprit, frequently referring to GU's veteran players as "unc," a colloquial term (short for "uncle") used by the younger generation.

"We're a bit on the older side, so we're not throwing out the team 'unc' too much," Huff said, "but I've heard the freshmen throw it out here or there to the older guys."