Gopher Women’s Basketball Heads to Marquette for First Road Test

The #17/18 Golden Gopher women’s basketball team will take to the road for the first time in the 2026-27 season on Saturday when they face the Marquette Golden Eagles in Milwaukee. Minnesota will look to equal their effort against Marquette a season ago when they blew out the Golden Eagles 90-47 at The Barn last November. Grace Grocholski led Minnesota with 19 point in that game.

Minnesota enters the game at 1-0 after a 82-62 season opening win against Harvard. Gracie Merkle led the way for the Gophers with 22 points and Grocholski added another 20. Minnesota saw two of their touted freshmen make impacts as Natalie Kussow started and played 32 minutes scoring nine points and Tori Oehrlein came off the bench and scored four points in 14 minutes of action.

Marquette comes in also at 1-0 after a season opening win 80-42 over Mississippi Valley State. Senior Halle Vice led all scorers with 17 points and 16 rebounds in the victory.

Vice is their leading returner as she averaged 13.7 points and 8.9 rebounds per game a season ago. She was named to the All-BIG EAST Preseason team. However, the Gophers held her in check in their matchup last November with her shooting just 2-8 from the field for a total of four points.

Marquette brought in eight new players in the off season after a disappointing 2025-26 season. While they did finish in third place in the BIG EAST, the Golden Eagles finished 18-12 and did not participate in any postseason play after a BIG EAST Quarterfinal loss to Creighton. In the game earlier this week a trio of transfers scored in double figures with Xavier transfer MacKenzie Givens and Middle Tennessee transfer Yu Han Lin each scoring 14 points, while Virginia Tech transfer Kayl Petersen added 10.

The Golden Eagles were predicted to finish sixth in the 11 team BIG EAST this season in the preseason coaches poll.

Minnesota will have the significant size advantage with their transfers. Marquette does not have a player listed taller than 6’2 which should results in Gopher transfer center Gracie Merkle at 6’6 having another big game. Add to that Northwestern transfer Tayla Thomas at 6’3 who recorded a double-double in the Gophers win over Harvard and the post should be where the Gophers look to get their points all afternoon.

Minnesota also will have several players from the Milwaukee area looking to have big games in front of lots of friends and family. Grocholski is from North Prairie, Makenna Christian is from Lomira, and Kussow is from Hartland—all within an hour of the Marquette campus. Minnesota hopes getting those three going along with their post advantage should make this an easy initial road test.

As long as the Gophers play up to their potential, they should leave Milwaukee with a win and return to The Barn 2-0 to host Southern on Tuesday night. Saturday’s tip is slated for 2 PM and will stream on ESPN+ and air on the Gopher Radio Network on 96.7 FM or the I Heart Radio App.