Weekend preview

Kind of a light weekend for Augsburg sports this weekend, with football having a bye week, and the volleyball and men's soccer teams hosting their alumni games this Saturday (volleyball at 11 a.m. at Si Melby Hall and men's soccer at 1 p.m. at Edor Nelson Field).

The Augsburg women's soccer team hosts St. Thomas in a good early-season MIAC battle at 4 p.m. at Edor Nelson Field. We'll have live stats online of Saturday afternoon's game and St. Thomas will have an audio webcast of the game.

The Auggies are coming off a dramatic 3-2 victory over Hamline on Wednesday night in what head coach Mike Navarre admitted was not the best game of the season for the Auggies. However, they showed a lot of character in rallying from a 2-1 second-half deficit with two goals in the last 15:50 -- a terrific bender by Kelsey Watsabaugh and a rebound goal by Katie Medd with 1:16 left to play. Augsburg is 5-1-1 on the season, while St. Thomas is 5-0-2, coming off a 3-1 win over St. Catherine on Wednesday night. Erin Sprangers leads the Tommies with six goals on the season.

The men's and women's cross country teams are in Northfield on Saturday for the St. Olaf Invitational. Action starts at 10 a.m. on the St. Olaf course, a layout that has hosted NCAA Division III national championship meets in the past. Fourteen men's teams and 15 women's teams will be participating in the meet.

Augsburg is coming off a fine performance at the Tufts (Mass.) Jumbo Invitational last weekend, a meet where junior Brent Haglund won the men's 8K race and earned MIAC Co-Athlete of the Week honors for men's cross country.

The men's golf team has split squad action this weekend. The Maroon team (varsity) will be competing at the Wisconsin-Eau Claire Frank Wrigglesworth Invitational this Sunday and Monday at the Eau Claire (Wis.) Country Club, while the Gray team (JV) will compete at the St. Olaf Invitational at Fountain Valley Golf Club in Farmington.

Augsburg is currently standing fifth among MIAC schools in team stroke average, with a 313.0 average through its first four meets of the season. The MIAC is considered one of the top Division III men's golf conferences in the country, with two-time defending national champion St. John's currently ranked No. 1 in the latest Division III national poll and Gustavus ranked No. 18. Senior Colby Anderson is currently averaging 75.0 strokes per round (3-over-par), ranking seventh among MIAC golfers in overall statistics.