It was a great weekend for Sioux sports and hopefully it will lead to a great week as we inch toward mid-February.
The Sioux women's hockey team proved that it could score goals by putting seven in the back of the net to beat Ohio State.
The Sioux men's basketball team proved it could shoot by blistering the net for a season-high 55 percent in garnering an impressive road win at fellow Division I transition school SIU Edwardsville.
This week will be busy to say the least.
The Sioux softball team opens the season indoors at the UNI Dome as it will take part in the University of Northern Iowa Tournament. UND will get in four games over the weekend and get a good early look at where they stand.
It will be the beginning of a long and winding road that will take the Sioux to Corpus Christi, Dallas, Tulsa, Los Angeles and Kansas City until April rolls around and some home games in Grand Forks.
It will be home sweet home for the Sioux basketball teams as they host Great West Conference foes New Jersey Institute of Technology on Thursday and Chicago State on Saturday.
It will be a battle for control of first place for the Sioux women (4-1) as NJIT trails UND by just half a game in the standings (3-1) while Chicago State (5-2) is one game behind the Sioux.
If Gene Roebuck and the 'Elite Eight' can put together a pair of homecourt wins they will be in great shape to win the GWC regular season title.
The Sioux men can climb right back into the GWC race with a pair of home wins. The Sioux are fifth with a 2-3 record, but are just a half game behind NJIT at 2-2 and one game back in the loss column from second place Houston Baptist and even in the loss column with third place Utah Valley. Chicago State is nipping at UND's heals with a 2-5 mark.
After a week of practice, the Sioux men's hockey team travels down I-94 to take on the red-hot St. Cloud State Huskies.
The Huskies and the Bulldogs of Minnesota Duluth are tied for first place in the WCHA and the Sioux face each in the next two weeks.
UND is six points behind Wisconsin and Colorado College, which are tied for fourth place in the WCHA.
If the Sioux are to garner home ice advantage for the first round of the WCHA playoffs, the next two weekends will be key.
The Huskies have won 10 of their last 12 and broke UND's home unbeaten streak at 17 games back in November.
The Sioux women's hockey team, ever so close to a sweep at Ohio State, hope to build off that mojo with a home and home series with Bemidji State this weekend.
Friday's game will be at Bemidji followed by Saturday's game at the Ralph starting at 7:07.
The Sioux tennis team travels to Northern Iowa and Minneapolis for three matches this weekend while the track and field teams travel to Ames, Iowa, for their final meet before the Great West Conference Indoor Championships in Vermillion at the end of the month.
~Go Sioux~
