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Cianna Selbitschka led UMD with 11 kills against Minot on Friday. Photos by John Gilbert.

The UMD men’s hockey team has already faced one of its storied old rivals when Minnesota came to visit, but this weekend one of their old/new rivals comes to town when North Dakota comes to AMSOIL Arena to take on the Bulldogs Friday and Saturday.

It was North Dakota — then known as the Fighting Sioux — who faced the Bulldogs back when they opened AMSOIL Arena, and now North Dakota — which has been politically adjusted to the Fighting Hawks — comes to town. 

Both teams are coming off disappointing seasons, and both have high hopes based on an infusion of new talent. Both, also, have engraved their programs in the college hockey hierarchy by establishing cultures that resemble families in their cohesiveness.

That puts extra emphasis on this weekend’s series because both teams need a couple of victories to make sure they stand in contention in the NCHC.

Last weekend, a lot of good things happened almost simultaneously. 

The UMD volleyball team has generated a solid following by contending annually near the top of the Northern Sun conference, which might be the nation’s strongest Division II leagues. This has been an uncharacteristic struggling season for the Bulldogs, who have gotten out of the routine of being nearly an automatic winner against top rivals.

There’s still time; last weekend, UMD finally got to face a couple of young and rebuilding foes, and swept 3-0 victories against Minot State (25-19, 25-15, 25-15) Friday night, then did the same to Mary (25-15, 25-5, 27-25) Saturday afternoon. 

Samantha Paulsen was the main force for the weekend, with 10 kills against Minot and a whopping 18 kills against Mary.

Samantha Paulsen slams one of her 18 kills in UMD's 3-0 sweep of Mary Saturday in Romano Gym.

A highlight for the Bulldogs was that Cianna Selbitschka, who has been greatly restricted in her final season by a leg injury, looked a lot more like her potent self. Although not playing as many minutes, she led the Bulldogs with 11 kills against Minot, and 13 against Mary — second only to Sam Paulsen. 

Coach Jim Boos used Selbitschka judiciously and she gave the Bulldogs her familiar infusion of explosive kills.

As the NSIC volleyball season hurtles toward its final week, the top teams are St. Cloud State 15-0, and Concordia of St. Paul 13-1, followed by Wayne State at 11-3 and Southwest Minnesota State at 10-4. 
But the crazy part in the 15-team conference is the battle for the remaining playoff slots: Northern State (9-5), Minnesota State Mankato (8-6), Winona State (8-6), and Sioux Falls (7-7) are in the thick of that chase, with UMD (7-8) and Augustana (6-8) on the outer edge. None of the bottom five teams have more than 4 wins. UMD plays at Concordia and at MSU Mankato this weekend, after which the Bulldogs have only one remaining match — at home against Winona State on Nov. 16.

About the time the volleyball Bulldogs were re-establishing themselves, the UMD football team put on a big show at Winona State. 

Junior quarterback Kyle Walljasper, who had been hampered by injury for the previous two weekends, clicked back into his own unique focus — running for five touchdowns and passing for a sixth as the Bulldogs prevailed 42-38. 

Walljasper opened with a 74-yard touchdown pass to Sam Pitz, who caught six passes for 132 yards in the game. As the Bulldogs fought back from a 28-14 deficit, and a final 38-31 deficit, Walljasper scored the winning touchdown plunge with 23 seconds to go.

If you’d like to look up all the great performances by quarterbacks in all NCAA divisions last weekend, go ahead,and compare them to Kyle Walljasper. He finished with 236 yards rushing on 26 attempts, with the five touchdown runs, and added 184 yards passing, hitting on 8 of 10 throws. 

“It was a long day,” said Walljasper, back home at practice at Malosky. 

As for the 236 yards? “That’s the most,” he acknowledged.

Bryar Nordby raced past Two Harbors defenders Tate Nelson (10) and Carter Nelson to finish his fourth touchdown -- a 52-yard run for Pequot Lakes in their 36-15 Section 7AAA final at Malosky Stadium.

UMD’s running backs had taken the spotlight in recent weeks when Walljasper was slowed by injury. Obviously, he felt better Saturday. 

“I didn’t ask him how he felt,” said coach Curt Wiese. “He had a phenomenal game. He ran hard. Our running backs, who had done so much rushing the previous couple of weeks, did a lot of blocking for him at Winona. Our game plan, going into the season was pretty much ‘Put the ball in Kyle’s hands and let him win the game’.”

About the same time UMD’s football and volleyball teams were winning, the Gophers surprised Illinois 25-17 at Champaign, Ill., and St. Scholastica gave it the “old college try” at Walt Hunting Stadium, but they were facing MIAC royalty in St. John’s. 

Ranked No. 3 in Division III, St. John’s stood ready to administer a terrible licking on the Saints. I suggested it could be an upset, but it also could be 65-0. Turns out, St. John’s led 63-0 at halftime and finished by going light for a 70-0 romp.

That brought us to Sunday, where some highly entertaining NFL games were awaiting our quick thumbs on the remote. 

But first, on Sunday morning, Max Verstappen put on a worldwide show on ESPN with a spectacular performance in Sao Paulo, Brazil. A repair after qualifying left him to start 17th at the Brazilian Grand Prix, where raceday was greeted with a heavy rainstorm that remained almost constant throughout the race. 

In what looked like a great script for a movie, Verstappen sped past several cars to rise to 10th after two laps, then continued to navigate past the best drivers in the world to win the race. Verstappen brought his Red Bull/Honda to the checkered flag, with Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly second and third in Alpines — Alpines! — ahead of all the McLarens, Ferraris, and Mercedes contenders.

The Vikings needed to rebound after two straight losses, but that game was on Sunday night. 
First we were treated to the Detroit Lions taking first place in the division by winning in the drizzle at Green Bay, 24-14 as Jared Goff picked apart the Packers defense. 

There were other big games. Kirk Cousins looked comfortably at home in Atlanta, as he out dueled Dan Prescott and led the Atlanta Falcons to a 27-21 victory against the Dallas Cowboys. Cousins completed 19 of 24 passes for 222 yards, including 13 in a row in one stretch, and threw three touchdown passes for the first-place Falcons.

The Vikings survived Indianapolis 21-13, as Sam Darnold overcame a fumble and three interceptions to fire three touchdown passes in the second half, going 28-34 for 290 yards — 7 of them, for 137 yards, to Justin Jefferson.

The Minnesota Wild, having come home from a 5-1-1 road trip to beat Tampa Bay 5-3, beat Toronto 2-1 in overtime Sunday night at Xcel Energy Center. Jared Spurgeon, who had assisted on Ryan Hartman’s first-period goal, made a superb defensive play in the 3-on-3 overtime session, coming back hard defensively to foil a Maple Leaf chance, then spinning and firing a pass up the middle to Matt Boldy at the far blue line. Boldy skated in alone and scored on the breakaway at 2:14 of OT to give the Wild the victory.

That made a fitting climax to a big sports weekend.