The UMD Women’s basketball makes a pitstop home before heading to Dallas, TX

The roundabout in front of Romano Gym was surrounded with love from the community as the bus rolled, cheers and celebration began to rang out as the No. 2 University of Minnesota Duluth women’s basketball team returned to town after their historic NCAA DII Final Four game win against No. 6 Catawba College 70-59 in St. Joseph, Missouri.

Graduate Forward Brooke Olson shared how they handed the game and took control in their hands. “In the first half, we were like, okay we just got to stay with them. In the second, third, and fourth quarters, we just really amped it up on the defensive end and got some stops we needed to do. Instead of trying to hold the lead and feeling the pressure of holding the lead, we were just like let’s play and finish this game out, and I thought we did a really good job of that.”

Olson led the game in scoring with 34 points, but teammate Maesyn Thisesn led the game in minutes playing all 40 minutes of them!

“The crazy part is she was like I wasn’t even tired, and the other part is that there were three minutes timeouts. We’re used to a minute and a half, so, that’s a long time for an athlete. She is used to playing 30-35 minutes, so I think those breaks really helped her and everyone else on our team,” said UMD Women’s basketball head coach Mandy Pearson.

The Bulldogs will hit the road on Tuesday bound for Dallas, Texas to play in their first-ever national championship game with a motto they’ve had all season long. “We just kept saying one more, one more game, and then we won and one more game, and so we were always focused on that opponent happening that night and it really helped us keep winning down the stretch in the postseason,” graduate guard Maesyn Thiesen mentioned.

The championship tip-off is Saturday, April 1st at 2:30 pm at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas.