2017 UofMinnesota Gophers Soccer at National Tourney - Arizona

Kyle's University of Minnesota soccer team received an at-large bid to play in the National Championship Soccer Tourney this year. Last year we traveled to the first round qualifying tournament that, once again this year, was held at Iowa State University in October. After playing this year, they were asked to participate in the Open Division (non-qualifying division) over the weekend of November 16-18 at the Reach 11 Sports Complex in Phoenix, Arizona.

Needless to say, Rox and Tim decided this may be one of the last chances they will get to chase a kid around for an athletic tournament so we headed out to Phoenix for a quick weekend get-away.

We know that Kyle really enjoyed himself as this was the third year he played with a number of the guys on the team.

Kyle was successful in his recruiting attempts to get his Freshman roommate to try out for the team. He became their goalie!

The Gopher's Maroon Team finished 1-1-1 by losing to Illinois, tieing the University of Connecticut, and beating Cal State Fullerton. One note: the Cal State Fullerton was crazy game where the Gophers went down to 10 players in the first half after a red card was issued. They were down 0-1 but fought back and with a last-second goal, won the game 2-1!

Since the Gophers were eliminated from the Championship round, Rox and Tim decided to take a sightseeing tour.

We really enjoyed the Sedona area and thought it was aboslutely beautiful! Of course a blue-sky, 80 degree day was quite appealing. Check out a few photos below:

In the area, we stopped at the Chapel of the Holy Cross which sits atop a small mountain with a glorious view of Sedona.