Video by Cole Trace

SLIDESHOW: Sophomore quarterback Greg Morse tosses a pass to sophomore wide receiver Fritz Waldvogel. (Josh Kleven/TommieMedia)

Ben Wartman rushed for 236 yards and two touchdowns to help St. Thomas roll to a 34-7 win over Coe College Saturday in O’Shaughnessy Stadium in the second round of the NCAA playoffs.

“I love running behind [the offensive line] and my fullback,” Wartman said. “The first quarter we were just kind of figuring out what we were doing – coach Caruso with his play calls and that kind of stuff – and it just propelled from there.”

The win is St. Thomas football’s first second round win in history and only the second time the program has reached the second round.

After a four-game hiatus, Greg Morse started the game under center for the Tommies and had a great day with three total touchdowns – one on the ground and two through the air to Tony Margarit and Fritz Waldvogel. The sophomore completed 11 of 16 passes for 196 yards and no interceptions.

“It’s always easy when you can go into a game and just hand the ball off for a majority of the game,” Morse said.

Morse’s job at quarterback was made considerably easier by Waldvogel, who was named the MIAC’s most valuable player earlier in the week and finished the day with six catches for 123 yards.

“It makes my job a lot easier when I can just throw it in [Waldvogel’s] vicinity and he’ll come down with it,” Morse said. “He’s an amazing player. There’s not much more you can say about him.”

The Tommie defense came up huge again for the second time in two playoff games. This time the defense held Kohawk offense to just 225 yards and an abysmal two yards rushing. Safety Brady Ervin had two interceptions and one pick one set up Wartman’s 44-yard touchdown run at the end of the first half.

Though the game wouldn’t be over for another two quarters, the turning point proved to be Ervin’s interception and Wartman’s run for six with just 36 seconds remaining the half.

“We had just scored two minutes before that,” Coach Glenn Caruso said. “We felt good enough in how our defense was playing that if we were able to come up with back-to-back scores at some point in the game, we [would feel] very comfortable with the game.”

Wartman’s run was the product of careful play calling and setting up Coe’s defense.

“Toward the end [of the first half] they thought we were going to pass a little bit and we had a little play off that,” Wartman said. “We just kind of tried that and it worked our way. It was great. We had our lineman blocking down field and I finally could beat one guy – something I haven’t done all year.”

In addition to Ervin’s two interceptions, the rest of St. Thomas’ defenders came up big, too, recording eight sacks and another pick.

Next week, St. Thomas will travel to McMinnville, Ore., to battle Linfield College (12-0). Linfield beat the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor 53-21 this Saturday in order to advance. The game will start at 2 p.m. CST.

Click to see extended interviews from Caruso, Waldvogel and Wartman from the press conference after Saturday’s win over Coe.

Matt Wolfgram can be reached at mnwolfgram@stthomas.edu

Click to view the entire NCAA D-III playoff bracket.

This Saturday’s matchup appears to be a game between the nearly unstoppable force – St. Thomas’ rushing attack – against the seemingly immovable object – Coe College’s stout run defense.

The Kohawk defense allows about 97 rushing yards per game. Put that up against St. Thomas’ 253 average yards per game on the ground and it’ll be a battle of wills.

The heart of Coe’s defense is the linebacking corps of seniors Tate Harrison, Calvin Thomas and Ross Yeast. The trio has accounted for 276 tackles this season. They are aided by freshmen defensive lineman Frank Weymiller, who has 82 tackles on his own.

On offense, the Kohawks rely heavily on quarterback Brad Boyle, who is first on the team in scoring with 16 rushing touchdowns. It’s fair to say that Boyle is the linchpin of a Coe offense that averages about 31 points and 390 yards per game – the vast majority of which is gained through the air.

Junior running back Ben Wartman and St. Thomas' top notch run game need to find holes in Coe College's stout defense that gives up just 97 rushing yards per game. (John Kruger/TommieMedia)

Behind Boyle in scoring is wide receiver Tyler Takes with nine touchdowns on the season. As far as scoring is concerned, the second most rushing touchdowns on the team is two.

Coe’s air attack could give the Tommie defense some trouble as Monmouth threw for 361 yards in last week’s game, but failed to punch the ball into the end zone while in scoring position in the second half. For the Tommies to win, Boyle must be stopped.

The Tommies have the edge with special teams as sophomore Fritz Waldvogel is the nation’s best return man with six punt or kick returns for scores. He is also the freshly crowed MIAC Most Valuable Player, a feat no Tommie or no sophomore has ever completed.

As for the Kohawks? Coe hasn’t scored on special teams – returning a punt or kickoff – all year.

Matt Wolfgram can be reached at mnwolfgram@stthomas.edu

Video by Michael Ewen

Cornerback Kirk Baglien forces a fumble that the St. Thomas offensive quickly turned into seven points. (John Kruger/TommieMedia)

Ben Wartman and Colin Tobin combined for 263 yards rushing and three touchdowns to lead the Tommies (10-1) past Monmouth College (10-1) with a score of 43-21 Saturday at April Zorn Memorial Stadium in Monmouth, Ill.

The win is the first playoff victory for the program since 1990, when the Tommies defeated the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.

“It’s huge, you know, to think how far we’ve come,” Wartman said. “It’s these guys buying into the team, it’s the community buying into the team.”

The first half was a high-scoring affair – both teams took turns scoring – but the second half was all St. Thomas. The Tommies added 13 points to its halftime score of 30, while the Scots failed to put any points on the board in the second half.

“We kind of had to just get settled in there,” safety Brian Villar said. “It took us a while in the first half – we got beat deep a few times – but once we settled in, we showed who we are.”

With both teams sporting high-scoring offenses – St. Thomas averaged almost 41 points per game during the regular season as Monmouth averaged 47 – whichever defense managed to get the most stops would prove to be the winner. In the second half St. Thomas’ defense did just that, holding Monmouth to 144 total yards in the second half.

“The offense was fantastic today,” Wartman said. “It was a total team concept, effort just pounding the ball.”

Though the defense stepped up in the second half, perhaps the most important play of the game came in the first half. Defensive back Matt Griswold blocked a punt and Tyler Erstadt scooped it up and returned it for a touchdown.

“There’s a very effective stat that says you win 85 percent of the games in which you block a punt,” coach Glen Caruso said. “Any time you can score without your offense on the field is obviously it’s nice…It was a big play. If you want to boil the game down to one play [the blocked punt] is probably as pivotal as any.”

St. Thomas will play at home next Saturday against Coe College. Coe College nixed any chance the Tommies and Johnnies could could meet in the second round when the team knocked off St. John’s 34-27.

Matt Wolfgram can be reached at mnwolfgram@stthomas.edu

It’s easy to think of St. Thomas teams that are competitive year in and year out. The basketball team has been at the top of the conference the past few years, as well as the baseball, softball and track teams. But one team that’s also always on its game is the dance team.

The team’s first-place ranking in the preliminary round seems to indicate another successful year at the Universal Dance Association National College Dance Team Championships – dance’s version of college basketball’s March Madness – which will be held next Jan. 14 – 18.

“This year, we’re really focused on winning,” senior captain Jackie Kling said. “It’s hard to say that but we all know we can achieve that goal and we all know we’re talented dancers. We have the tools, we have the coach, we have the choreographers, and we have the dances that can be national champion dances.”

A program on the rise

The St. Thomas dance team’s record at UDA nationals is a laundry list of accolades: second place in the jazz category in 2005, first in jazz and second in hip-hop in 2006, second in both jazz and hip-hop in 2007, first in jazz and second in hip-hop in 2008 and second in both jazz and hip-hop in 2009.

To say that the dance program has blossomed under coach Alysia Ulfers, who began coaching the team in late 2004, would be an understatement. It’s more like the program has gone from zero to 60.

“I think a lot of [the success] has to do with how the program is run,” Kling said. “[Ulfers] knows how the competition is run. She knows what the company that hosts the competition is looking for. She takes all that information and applies it to our team.”

But Ulfers gives all the credit to women on the team.

“Each year it keeps getting better and better,” she said. “I give the girls a lot of credit for that.”

How nationals work

Dance nationals begin with each team submitting a video-taped performance, called the preliminary round, which is scored and ranked by judges. Teams ranked either first or second have all expenses paid for the trip down to Walt Disney World for the competition. This is huge incentive for a program with a limited budget. The team has gone into nationals ranked either first or second in 2005, 2006, 2008 and 2009.

“We take taping very seriously simply because of the monetary reward that’s up for it,” Ulfers said. “We get funding from the school but not completely. We’re not under athletics. We’re under campus life so the money’s just not there.”

After the tape is scored and the rankings come out – the date was Nov. 11 this year – teams must wait a little more than two months for nationals to arrive.

“It’s always hard because you don’t know what your competitors are doing and it’s so early,” Ulfers said. “You have to go in knowing that teams are going to change.”

And with each passing day, practices count for a little more, culminating with a grueling two week “camp” right before nationals.

“We meet for nine hours a week for practice and then we have ballet outside of practice for an hour and we have our trainer come in,” Kling said. “And in addition we have workouts twice a week on our own time … We’ll have all-weekend practices. When we hit J-Term, before we go to nationals in the second or third week, we’ll have two-a-day practices. So we’re here every day for six hours a day just getting ourselves ready to compete.”

Once in Orlando, Fla., the first round begins. Teams can compete in up to two of three categories. The categories being jazz, hip-hop or pom, which was introduced last year. Routines are then scored by a panel of judges and teams move onto the next round.

Scoring dance routines is rather discretionary.

“It’s really subjective,” Ulfers said. “It’s not like football or basketball where you cross the line or make a basket and get so many points. It’s not like that with dance. It’s purely subjective and can be really frustrating at times. You can love it or hate it.”

The finals are then scored by a completely new panel of judges, which can be a blessing or a curse, Ulfers said. Last year, the team went into finals in first place in both jazz and hip-hop, but ended up finishing second in each.

Matt Wolfgram can be reached at mnwolfgram@stthomas.edu

“We’ve been studying this for a little more than a year internally,” said Sam Levy, vice president of Information Resources and Technology. “We wanted to see how this would develop, what [other college and universities’] experience would be with it before we made the switch.”

The trend of colleges and universities using an outside e-mail service has picked up recently as institutions are looking for ways to cut costs. Already, 145 colleges and universities nationwide have switched to Google’s free e-mail service, which is the most popular, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education.

The University of Minnesota and Macalester College have both switched to Google’s Gmail as their e-mail provider. Yet the University of Minnesota’s program is voluntary; students can still use Gmail or the school’s e-mail service, GopherMail. Macalester switched only after its server crashed and workers were unable to get it up and running again.

It comes down to saving money

“When you maintain e-mail and related services internally, you have servers that all of that has to run on, people to maintain those servers,” Levy said. “So you have operating costs associated with that.”

Outsourcing e-mail to Google allows schools to cut those costs and save the money or reinvest it into the school’s network. In addition to the cost-saving aspect of outsourcing, many students and faculty already use outside e-mail providers, Levy said.

“I’ve been asking students for four years whether they have e-mail accounts other than their St. Thomas account,” he said. “The number of hands that come up grows every year.”

But not all students use outside e-mail.

“I only have my St. Thomas account,” senior Caitlin Madzo said. “I use it for everything – personal and school [related] – and I have no problem with it.”

Too good to be true?

Considering that many students have e-mail accounts and the fact that Google’s service is free, the choice to outsource may seem relatively simple.

“On the face of it, it sounds almost like a no-brainer,” Levy said. “Why wouldn’t we do that? Here’s the difference with Google; it’s ‘free.’ That’s their way of getting everyone into Google. The question is: ‘How long will it be free?’”

This is especially important because Google makes most of its money from advertising, something Levy said wouldn’t be part of any deal St. Thomas might make with Google.

In addition, ownership of content stored on Google is a concern.

“Let’s say you’re using Google apps and Google’s storage,” Levy said. “So you have all your stuff basically sitting on their storage area and network. Well, does that belong to you or to them? Because you aren’t paying them, they aren’t getting any revenue from it. How is it still yours?”

Like the ads, any agreement St. Thomas might make with Google would protect the interests of students and faculty regarding ownership of information, Levy said. But it’s an unanswered question at this time.

“It’s a question of accountability,” Levy said. “We are accountable [for] your stuff, including student records, transcripts [and] academic portfolios.”

This accountability still applies even if Google provided St. Thomas’ e-mail and accountability is ultimately what it is all about, Levy said.

“There is a sense that some people would say, ‘I don’t think [Google] is going to be as accountable to me as the people who are right here at the institution,’” he said. “Whatever we would do with Google, we would sign an agreement with them that would guarantee the recovery of information of students, faculty and staff here.”

Getting a read on the situation

In addition to the internal study by IRT, a pilot group of students will use both Gmail and St. Thomas’ e-mail this spring and provide feedback for the study. If the feedback from the pilot group was favorable, St. Thomas might allow students to use Gmail while still offering its own e-mail service, Levy said.

But in the end it all comes down to cost.

“We have a pretty good idea what it will cost us now,” Levy said. “What we don’t know is the costs we are going to incur … There are always trade-offs with these things. It would be premature to talk about costs at this stage because we just don’t know exactly.”

Matt Wolfgram can be reached at mnwolfgram@stthomas.edu

Video by Pauleen Le

Sophomore quarterback Dakota Tracy completed 15 passes for 185 yards and three touchdowns in his first career start Saturday at O’Shaughnessy Stadium as St. Thomas (7-1, 6-1 in MIAC) pounded Augsburg College 42-3.

SLIDESHOW: Photographer Josh Kleven caught more than just wide receiver Fritz Waldvogel's elusive plays on the field as the Tommies trounced visiting Augsburg. (Josh Kleven/TommieMedia)

“I didn’t really approach it as a first start,” Tracy said. “I just thought it was an opportunity to go out there and play the game with the brotherhood of St. Thomas and it was fun.”

The game looked to be a clash of the MIAC’s offensive titans – St. Thomas was ranked first and Augsburg (4-4, 3-3) was second in total offense in the conference – but both Augsburg’s offense and defense failed to show up.

“We watched a lot of film,” senior linebacker Tommy Becker said. “And they ask their quarterback to do a lot running the ball and throwing the ball. We knew if got in our drops and read the quarterback’s eyes we could make some plays.”

The opening kickoff set the tone for the game. Fritz Waldvogel returned it 87 yards for a touchdown giving the Tommies a lead the team built on for the rest of the game.

The offense rolled all day gaining 519 total yards and averaging almost eight yards per play.

“The offense definitely needed to put some points up on the board,” Tracy said. “That was the main goal … I think we just wanted to get in a flow, get things clicking a little bit better. Obviously penalties killed us a today, disrupted the flow a little bit.”

Penalties were the most interesting aspect of a game that was never close. St. Thomas was penalized 14 times for 141 yards while Augsburg was penalized only four times for 26 yards. Yet the difference was not a factor in the game at all.

Because of the two high-powered offenses, defense was an important factor. The Tommies forced six turnovers – five interceptions and one fumble recovered in the Augsburg end zone – while holding the previously potent Auggie offense to just 320 yards. In addition to the fumble recovery in the end zone, Becker had an important interception in the third quarter at the goal line that killed any chance of Augsburg getting into the game.

“That play was meant to be a blitz,” Becker said. “I was supposed to blitz strong B-gap but I saw [number] eight in the slot and I knew they were going to run the slant so I just ran over there and the ball hit me in the hands. I just ran with it.”

After picking off the ball, Becker moved his 250 pounds as fast as he could, but it wasn’t fast enough.

“I was just trying to run as fast as I could,” he said. “That quarterback cut me off and I tried to get a little help from the blockers but they just weren’t fast enough.”

The St. Thomas fans weren’t the only people disappointed by Becker’s failure to return the pick.

“Tommy Becker’s pick was definitely the highlight,” Tracy said. “I just wish he would have scored six on that.”

In addition to playing well on both sides of the ball, St. Thomas accomplished other goals in the process.

“The one thing [coach Caruso] said last night after we watched a movie together [was], ‘Lets have some fun out there,’” Becker said. “And I think we did that today. We were laughing around on the field today between plays. It was just a good time.”

That goal of having fun was definitely met in the fourth quarter with a trick play. Senior wide receiver Tony Margarit hit quarterback Greg Morse for a 21-yard touchdown pass.

“We came into this game – it wasn’t a revenge game for us – as more of a statement game,” Becker said. “We wanted to play well on every side of the ball including special teams. I think we really did that today.”

Sitting in second place in the conference, St. Thomas plays Saturday in Arden Hills against Bethel University (6-2, 5-1). The Royals are right behind the Tommies in third place.

Matt Wolfgram can be reached at mnwolfgram@stthomas.edu

Sophomore Kyle Reynerston takes down Carleton's quarterback for a sack in St. Thomas' 48-28 win over the Knights Oct. 24. (John Kruger/TommieMedia)

“Last year was a tough loss,” senior linebacker Zach Sturm said. “But we’re excited to get another opportunity.”

The Tommies are ranked 15th nationally and look to keep rolling after crushing Carleton College 48-24 last week. As for Augsburg, the Auggies are trying to extend a three-game winning streak.

The game looks to be a shoot out between the top two offenses in the MIAC. St. Thomas averages almost 424 yards per game with Augsburg not far behind racking up 396 yards per game.

As a result, defense figures to be important.

Need for strong defense

“[The defense] has to play as a unit and play as a team,” Sturm said. “We have to get some pressure on the quarterback and just stick to the game plan. They have a solid quarterback and a decent receiving corps, so they’ll be passing the ball quite a bit.”

The Tommie defense has the task of stopping the potent trio of sophomore quarterback Marcus Brumm and wide receivers junior Muneer Al-Hameed and senior Mike Nourie. Al-Hameed and Nourie lead the team in receiving yards, averaging about 93 and 92 yards per game, respectively.

But St. Thomas currently leads the MIAC in pass defense – allowing a paltry 158 yards per game. Augsburg’s defense ranks last in the MIAC giving up 428 yards per game.

St. Thomas sophomore quarterback Dakota Tracy should see significant playing time after scoring two touchdowns with his feet in last week’s win.

Matt Wolfgram can be reached at mnwolfgram@stthomas.edu

“It’s a great affirmation of the vision of the university’s trustees when they decided to re-establish a law school here and really laid out a vision of what the place would look like and be; what it would value,” said Vincent Thomas, the assistant dean of student affairs at the law school.

While St. Thomas’ law school came in fourth this year in “Best Quality of Life,” the school ranked No. 1 in the category in both 2006 and 2007 and second place in 2008 and 2009.

The Princeton Review annually ranks 172 law schools, as well as other post- and undergraduate schools, in several categories. Aside from the quality of life category there are titles for best career prospects, most competitive students and most diverse faculty, just to name a few.

The Review’s Web site said the “Best Quality of Life” category is based on students’ assessment of “whether there is a strong sense of community at the school, how aesthetically pleasing the law school is, the location of the law school, the quality of the social life, classroom facilities, and the library staff.”

Such a ranking is important to the school because it reflects its direction and mission, Thomas said.

“If students have a high quality of life here, they’re going to want to spend more time here, they’re going to want to spend more time around each other, around their professors,” Thomas said. “If they do that they’re going to get a better education because they’ll spend more time thinking about the law, they’ll spend more time testing out their own ideas their own thoughts on others and finding out what works and what doesn’t.”

The administration’s attitude toward the environment at the law school and its efforts to foster a comfortable one is not lost on its students.

“The school here is amazing,” said law school student Alex Wasserburger. “It’s a nice little community. Everyone takes care of everyone else. It was a big part of why I came here. It’s more like a family experience rather than just any other law school experience.”

Such a high ranking in a prominent publication has helped spread the school’s reputation.

“It is a great way for us to tell our story to a much larger audience than we would otherwise be able to [reach],” Thomas said. “To have an independent source recognize that and say, ‘This is what is actually happening there,’ and then have that go out across the country and be read by people that respect the Princeton Review. It’s a real blessing to us.”

Though people are excited about the review, what it really means is probably more important.

“[The review is] big,” Wasserburger said. “It’s very important to us. I think it’s one of the highest honors a school can get; that their students are happy – especially in a law school environment – it means a lot.”

Matt Wolfgram can be reached at mnwolfgram@stthomas.edu

“That sounds like a great idea,” sophomore John Hasbargen said.

Earlier this year the board of trustees made it clear that keeping tuition increases down was a top priority for the new budget due to current economics.

“They are basically saying to us that people are dealing with a new financial reality,” said Mark Dienhart, executive vice president and chief administration officer. “There are lots of families that have no more, or less, income and they just want to make sure that we adjust to that new reality even though our enrollment remains strong.”

Keeping tuition increases down has become something of a national trend with private colleges and universities since last year. Duke University (3.9 percent), the University of Pennsylvania (3.75 percent) and Drake University (2.99 percent) – just to name a few – all touted their relatively low tuition increases for the 2009-2010 academic year. But that was a trend St. Thomas was not a part of last year when it was among the first schools to announce its 2009-2010 budget.

“Last year was 5.9 percent,” Dienhart said. “Minnesota private [schools] were closer to 3.5 percent on average and nationally it was about that also. So we lived last year with an increase that was about two percent above what comparable institutions were going with and it fortunately didn’t affect our enrollment … The idea was to maintain the quality of what we were trying to do here.”

But unlike some schools with monstrous endowments, St. Thomas doesn’t have the financial maneuverability that other schools enjoy when it comes to cutting costs.

“If you’re an Ivy League institution like Dartmouth or Yale or Harvard and you have an endowment like Harvard does, you can choose to do pretty much whatever you want to do,” Dienhart said.

The disparity between schools with large endowments and smaller private schools like St. Thomas is the relatively small difference in actual cost and net cost. This means the difference between the sticker price and what is actually paid by the student. At St. Thomas the actual cost is considerably lower than the net cost because of the financial aid given by the institution.

“Right now, not all of financial aid comes from the endowment income,” Dienhart said. “A lot of [financial aid given to students] comes from redistributing dollars from other revenue sources, so if you want to continue to provide more financial aid, it comes from the overall revenues. If you don’t have additional revenues, you don’t have additional financial aid. That’s a problem for students who are in need or are getting financial aid.”

The majority of incoming freshmen receive some sort of financial aid from the university, Dienhart said.

“I get a lot of financial aid,” Hasbargen said. “It really helps. But lower costs are nice too, especially for the kids who don’t get a lot of [financial aid].”

Dienhart said it all comes back to cutting costs in one form or another without giving up much in terms of being a top-tier institution that attracts intelligent students.

The board of trustees will approve the 2010-2011 budget Feb. 18, 2010.

Matt can be reached at mnwolfgram@stthomas.edu

Video by Kari Jo Johnson

SLIDESHOW: TommieMedia photographers caught all the homecoming action including Tommie the mascot's antics. (Aaron Hays/TommieMedia)

The day began cold and snowy but ended on a high note as the red-hot St. Thomas football team (5-0, 4-0) beat Concordia-Moorhead 31-17 at O’Shaughnessy Stadium.

The Cobbers (2-3, 0-3) roared out of the gate by returning the opening kickoff to the 2-yard line. Concordia punched the ball in moments later for the early 7-0 lead. But the Cobbers were unable to achieve any kind of rhythm through the air or on the ground for the rest of the game. The St. Thomas defense sacked Concordia eight times, interception three passes and held the Cobbers to just 295 offensive yards.

The defensive highlight for the day was freshman linebacker Kyle Mulrooney’s third-quarter interception and 53-yard return for a touchdown. Mulrooney’s key play put the game away for the Tommies.

“I saw the pass read,” Mulrooney said. “I dropped back, looked up, the ball was in the air and I made a play on it. The blocking was fantastic; I made a cut to the outside and I made it in.

“My heart might of stopped a little bit, but I made the catch and it was a blur after that.”

After the play, Mulrooney ran back to the sideline to celebrate and nearly tackled coach Glen Caruso.

“[Caruso] has pretty good ups,” Mulrooney said. “He jumped up there and I wasn’t expecting it and I kinda caught him and went down.”

Though the Tommies seemed to struggle at times on offense, there was no shortage of big plays. Fritz Waldvogel caught 12 passes for 141 yards and Greg Morse still threw for 218 yards even though the sophomore tossed three interceptions.

The duo helped stretch Concordia’s defense so that sophomore Colin Tobin could rush for 74 yards on just 11 carries for two touchdowns. Junior Ben Wartman recorded another 100-yard rushing day finishing with 105 yards and a score.

St. Thomas pounded out 388 yards on offense, averaging more than four yards per play.

Though he didn’t finish with the most yards, Tobin was the offensive star of the day, shining brightest on a 45-yard touchdown run in the third quarter.

“Our line was great today,” Tobin said. “I thought they did a great job of adjusting to different looks because [Concordia's defensive line] was mixing it up all day and the [offensive line] made the adjustments. They came out and did a great job today opening up lines for me and Ben [Wartman].”

Taking care of Concordia was key for St. Thomas as the Tommies’ next game is against St. John’s in Collegeville.

“This game was huge,” Tobin said. “They were a great team and they played us hard. It’s really important to go into the St. John’s game coming off a big win so we can kind of get the momentum running.”

St. Thomas takes on St. John’s at 1 p.m., Oct. 17, in Clemens Stadium.

Matt Wolfgram can be reached mnwolfgram@stthomas.edu