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BEMIDJI 鈥� When the athletic year comes to a close, it gives us time to reflect.

Bemidji State and its 14 athletics programs are firmly in their offseasons. Before the Beavers arrive on campus this fall, the Pioneer sports department looked back on our favorite moments from this past season.

It was a year of triumphant highs and crushing lows, as is for any institution that competes on the field, ice, pitch, track, course and court. Here are the moments that stuck out to us:

Faber: On Nov. 30, Bemidji State trailed Western Colorado 19-14 on the road with less than four minutes left in the game. The Mountaineers were driving deep into Beaver territory, content with milking out the clock in the second-round Super Region 4 Tournament tilt.

The Beavers needed a miracle . Stephen Hoffman and Gabe Ward provided it.

On a designed quarterback keeper, WCU鈥檚 Josiah Roy rushed past the line of scrimmage and was met by Hoffman, who forced a fumble. Ward scooped the ball up and blitzed 75 yards to the end zone, giving BSU a 20-19 lead with 3:25 left in the game.

The lead stuck, and Bemidji State advanced to the Super Region 4 Championship for the first time in program history.

Rubado: It鈥檚 hard to remember a sporting event as emotional as the Bemidji State volleyball game on Sept. 26.

The Beavers鈥� home opener was heavy, to say the least. It was the first contest BSU played in since the passing of head coach Kevin Ulmer, who died after his three-year battle with cancer.

With his wife and kids in attendance, Bemidji State battled No. 15 Minnesota Duluth and pushed the Bulldogs to the brink. Ultimately losing in five sets, it was a night where any score or result was secondary.

I find myself looking back on that game and thinking about how tough the BSU players were for having the courage to suit up that night. Ulmer, among a plethora of apt descriptors, was a beloved community member, and he would鈥檝e been proud of the effort his players and coaches showed that night.

Rubado: A pair of siblings competing for the same collegiate program isn鈥檛 unheard of. Three of them, however, are worth remembering.

Maria, Bri and Dayna Stocke were raised in Andover, but hadn鈥檛 played more than one high school game together on the same team. Maria, a senior, and Dayna, a freshman, were years apart, with Bri, a redshirt sophomore, splitting the age difference.

In their own ways, all three were and are valuable contributors to the Beavers. But it took a little bit more in the tank for Bri to get there. In high school, she had 鈥渃alf problems,鈥� and was later diagnosed with compartment syndrome. She played in 10 matches this season, the most since she was a Husky at Andover.

Rubado: Going wire-to-wire in a tournament is impressive at any level of golf. Doing it with an individual NSIC championship on the line certainly adds to the resume.

Bemidji State junior Logan Schoepp went to Blue Springs, Missouri, in April and finished every round at the top of the leaderboard. Schoepp edged out Concordia-St. Paul鈥檚 Thomas Gutzmer to win his first individual crown.

Rubado: I never met Tracy (Depew) Lane. I never got to see her golf. I鈥檝e only heard stories about the kind of person and athlete she was.

Unfortunately, Lane鈥檚 golf career can be overshadowed by her premature passing. In August 2013, Lane died after a battle with cervical cancer. Three years later, Judy Mayotte, Tracy鈥檚 mother, has taken time to travel to Bemidji and speak with the players at the Tracy Lane Memorial Golf Tournament about 鈥淭racy鈥檚 dying wish.鈥�

Sometimes, the best sports moments are routine. And while it鈥檚 become part of the yearly routine for Mayotte to speak with the women鈥檚 golfers who make their way to Bemidji in the fall, my conversation with her opened me up to a passionate cause.

Rubado: Mikenna Pattrin decided she鈥檇 thrown enough softballs and taken enough hits on the rugby pitch. During her freshman year at Bemidji State four years ago, Pattrin was offered a spot on the BSU women鈥檚 track and field team as a thrower. She wrapped up her senior spring season with her best.

On Jan. 31, Pattrin heaved a throw of 13.10 meters, breaking into the NCAA Division II College Indoor rankings at No. 48 for the first time in her career.

Rubado: The Bemidji State women鈥檚 cross country season is the shortest of all sports at BSU. The Beavers had just five meets before their focus shifted toward the indoor and outdoor track and field seasons.

However, one meet stuck out. Bemidji State took third place out of 13 teams at the Dragon Twilight meet in Moorhead. Maggie McCarthy (19:26.196, 18th place) and Carol Miller (19:30.02, 23rd) finished inside the top 25. Additionally, four runners notched personal-best times. Miller, Sydney Price (21:58.4), Sophie Rylance (20:44.6) and Ava Werner (23:18.9) all cruised to their best marks under the lights in Moorhead.

Rubado: I think BSU head coach Tom Serratore would scoff if I tried using this space to talk about his 400th win again instead of the team as a whole. Luckily for me, one men鈥檚 hockey moment sticks out above the rest.

Bemidji State trailed its Mason Cup Playoffs quarterfinal series 1-0 against second-seeded Augustana. The Beavers were dead to rights after not recording a shot on goal in the third period in Game 1. Despite that frustrating conclusion, BSU showed its resolve and tied the series, then Adam Flammang sniped the winner. The Beavers鈥� upset over Augustana in the first round, in a lot of ways, mimicked a season packed with highs and lows.

Rubado: When Bemidji State women鈥檚 hockey defensemen get in on the scoring action, the Beavers are typically in good shape. Senior Makenna Deering thought that one goal wasn鈥檛 good enough.

After tallying a power-play goal midway through the first period against Minnesota State on Jan. 31 at the Sanford Center, Deering showcased her overtime magic 20 seconds into the extra session to give the Beavers a 3-2 win.

To that point, Deering hadn鈥檛 scored a goal in her senior season. Her second goal notched BSU its fifth win and surpassed its win total from a year earlier.

Deering wasn鈥檛 the only senior defenseman to make headlines. Kendra Fortin became Bemidji State鈥檚 first-ever finalist for the Hockey Humanitarian Award for her efforts in organ donation awareness.

Faber: Heading into the 2025 season, the Beavers knew they had a star in John Sutherland. They knew they had returning talent and upside in Tate Olson. They knew they had exciting potential in transfer-portal addition Malang Athian.

What might have come as a surprise, though, was this season鈥檚 3-point specialist: John Pecarich.

After a quiet freshman season, the guard from Brainerd made his presence felt just three games into his sophomore season, scoring 24 points and splashing six 3-pointers against Valley City State.

Perhaps his best performance (in a win), though, came against an NSIC opponent on Jan. 30. Pecarich was an efficient 6 for 9 from beyond the arc, finishing with 24 points in Bemidji State鈥檚 88-76 win over U-Mary.

In a season that featured some inconsistency, Pecarich鈥檚 3-point scoring ability 鈥� first off the bench and eventually in the starting five 鈥� was a near constant.

Faber: Outside the BSU Gymnasium on Dec. 19, the wind was whipping and the snow was piling up. But inside, the Beavers were finally heating up.

Bemidji State had kicked off its NSIC slate with four-straight losses when it welcomed St. Cloud State to town. However, thanks to strong scoring performances from Tieryn Plasch and Rachel Koenig, the Beavers finally stopped their conference skid with a 78-74 win over the Huskies .

Plasch scored a team-high 22 points, highlighted by six 3-pointers. Koenig was next up with 20, putting together an efficient 7 for 8 day from the field. Freshman Aubrey Heyer also pitched in with 13 points in the win.

Faber: On April 5, the Beavers achieved something they hadn鈥檛 since 2017. They secured a win over Winona State .

It was a 4-3 victory that perfectly encapsulated the scrappy 2025 squad. Though the Warriors took the doubles point, the pairing of Mia Leshem and Sophie Groen flexed their ability at the No. 1 spot with a 6-2 win.

Groen outlasted Lainey Ristau at No. 1 singles in a three-set battle. BSU picked up another hard-fought, three-set win at No. 2 singles courtesy of Leshem, an exciting freshman from South Africa. Ana Luc铆a Ib谩帽ez Castro and Lauren Rutten won at Nos. 4 and No. 5 singles, respectively, to clinch the win.

Faber: While campus was still busy thawing from winter, the Bemidji State softball team spent the first few weeks of March racking up wins in Clermont, Florida.

The Beavers collected eight victories at the Spring Games from March 6-14. Those wins brought the season total up to 13, matching the final tally from the entire 2024 season.

The most impressive victory was a 1-0 nailbiter on March 13. Bemidji State took down No. 16 Indianapolis, thanks to a stellar performance from freshman pitcher Kennedy Joachim. She gave up four hits and no runs through seven innings, issuing one walk while tallying 10 strikeouts.

Rubado: Wins were hard to come by for the Bemidji State baseball team, but one of them showcased its growth.

Too often did the Beavers let games slip away in the late innings. The regular-season finale against St. Cloud State wasn鈥檛 one of them. Leading 9-1 after seven innings, BSU took the Huskies鈥� best punch. SCSU scored five in the top of the eighth inning at the BSU baseball field, but couldn鈥檛 find the tying run. Ty Schulte recorded a four-out save with two strikeouts.

Brandon Lind had his best. The starting pitcher threw 7 1/3 innings, striking out ten batters in 123 pitches to give the Beavers a shot. Despite making four errors, Bemidji State held on to win 9-7.