Alexander Shun

Web Editor Associate | @alexpshun 

On Sunday night the Minnesota Lynx returned home to Target Center to take on the Phoenix Mercury after playing eight of their previous 11 games on the road. It was a very close game into the fourth quarter but ultimately the Lynx emerged victorious, knocking off the Mercury 71-61. The Lynx took a special moment during the second quarter though to recognize a special group of women that are truly an inspiration in the state of Minnesota.

The University of Minnesota women’s basketball program was honored on Sunday night as part of the Minnesota Lynx Inspiring Women platform sponsored by Land O’ Lakes. The Inspiring Women platform  looks to honor women throughout the state who inspire, motivate, and encourage other through personal and professional leadership; the Lynx certainly made a good choice with the U-of-M women’s basketball program.

“Land O’ Lakes is a huge proponent of our program, obviously they’ve give multi-millions of dollars to our new practice facility so we feel a deep sense of gratitude towards them for that,” said Gopher Women’s head coach Marlene Stollings. “For them to honor us tonight is just a privilege for our team and program and speaks volumes to how they view the Gophers”

“I think it’s awesome,” added  Minnesota Gopher’s All-Big Ten guard Rachel Banham. “It’s great being able to represent women in general and women in basketball. I think basketball is a great sport and just having people support it more and more, and us being able to represent that, is awesome.”

As part of the Inspiring Women platform sponsored by Land O’ Lakes, Peter Janzen and Lydia Botham of the Land O’ Lakes Foundation along with Minnesota Lynx Director of Business Operations, Carley Knox, presented Stollings and Banham with a team autographed basketball. Such recognition means a lot to the two Golden Gophers, especially Banham.

“The Lynx are incredible and we love them. I’m from Minnesota and I’ve always loved them. It’s so fun being able to come to the game and get noticed at their game and, ultimately, we want to follow in their footsteps; they’ve won championships and we want to do the same thing.”

The U-of-M women’s basketball program was selected in part because during the 2014-15 season,  the Golden Gopher women’s basketball program made its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2009. Minnesota went 23-10 last season, tallying its most wins in 10 years. In Coach Stollings’ first year in Minneapolis, the Gophers set new team season records for points, field goals, 3-pointers, assists and blocks. With such an incredible season last year, what will the Gopher’s do for an encore this season?

“We’re going to make it farther in the tournament this year, no doubt about that,” said the confident 5’9 guard. “We’re going to make a run in there and finish even higher in the Big Ten, if not win it, so we’re shooting high this year.”

“We’re super excited to have Rachel back and we want nothing more than for her to go out on top,” said the Gopher women’s basketball coach . “There’s just tremendous excitement for our program, and we felt like we laid the foundation last year and we just scratched the surface of who we really want to be, so we’re excited about what’s upcoming.”