Griz open home schedule with Cyclones, Zags
8/25/2010 12:00:00 AM | Soccer
The University of Montana soccer team will make its home debut this weekend when the Grizzlies play a pair of matches at South Campus Stadium. Montana will face Iowa State Friday at 6 p.m. and Gonzaga Sunday at 1:30 p.m.
South Campus Stadium will also host a pair of neutral-site matches, with Gonzaga and Nevada meeting at 3:30 p.m. Friday and Iowa State and Nevada meeting at 11 a.m. Sunday.
Where they stand: All four teams have one weekend of play and at least one match to their credit. Montana went 0-1-1 on a trip to New Mexico. The Grizzlies lost a 7-0 decision to New Mexico last Friday at Albuquerque and played to a 1-1 draw against New Mexico State Sunday at Las Cruces.
Iowa State is the only team of the four without a loss. The Cyclones opened their season last weekend with a 0-0 draw against Drake and a 3-1 victory over Northern Iowa.
Gonzaga split a pair of matches at Washington State???s tournament, topping Utah, 2-1, and falling to Florida State, 2-0. The Seminoles are ranked sixth nationally in this week???s NSCAA national poll.
Nevada played a single match last Friday, losing 1-0 at St. Mary???s after giving up a goal in the sixth minute.
Montana is not scheduled to face Nevada because the Grizzlies will be playing the Wolf Pack next weekend in Reno, Nev.
???We played Iowa State last year, and they were a solid team all around,??? seventh-year coach Neil Sedgwick said. ???I remember they had some solid players in their midfield.
???And Gonzaga is just a fast, athletic team, so it will be a couple of good games for us.
???We hope to be a little bit stronger in our depth this weekend, but the players who played last weekend have taken some positive things from Sunday???s performance.???
Live coverage: MontanaGrizzlies.com will offer live stats of all four weekend matches through links on the soccer team???s schedule page.
The start of something: Montana will play five of its next seven matches at home. After a road trip to Reno next weekend to face Nevada and South Dakota State, the Grizzlies will be home to face Wyoming on Friday, Sept. 10, Boise State on Friday, Sept. 17, and North Dakota on Sunday, Sept. 19.
Montana will play six of its final nine regular-season matches on the road, including four of seven in Big Sky Conference play.
More on Iowa State: The Cyclones return six starters from their 2009 team that went 7-9-4 overall and finished last in the Big 12 at 2-8-0 in league play.
In Friday???s scoreless draw against Drake, ISU outshot the Bulldogs 27 to 16 and had six corners to Drake???s zero but could not find the back of the net.
Sunday???s match against Northern Iowa was scoreless through 72 minutes before Iowa State scored three times in the final 18 minutes. The three goals were scored by three different players. The team???s first goal was scored by freshman Emily Goldstein, who earned this week???s Big 12 Newcomer of the Week award.
Coach Wendy Dillinger is 13-21-7 in her third year with the Cyclones.
Series history: Montana and Iowa State have met twice before, both in the last four seasons. The Cyclones defeated the Grizzlies in 2007, 1-0, at Minnesota, and posted a 2-0 shutout at Ames, Iowa, last August. Both matches were scoreless at the half.
More on Gonzaga: The Zags return seven starters from their 2009 team that went 8-12-0 overall and went 2-5-0 in West Coast Conference play to place sixth.
Gonzaga opened the season with a 2-1 victory over Utah last Friday. Junior forward Sarah Rhodes scored her second goal of the match in the 66th minute to break a 1-1 tie.
In Sunday???s 2-1 loss to tournament champion Florida State, the Bulldogs gave up goals in the second and 47th minutes and got outshot 18-3.
Coach Amy Edwards is 9-13-0 in her second season.
Series history: Montana has faced Gonzaga more than any other opponent in UM program history, with Sunday???s meeting the 20th matchup. The Grizzlies hold a 12-7-0 advantage, but the series??? momentum is clearly in the Zags??? favor. Gonzaga has won the last seven meetings dating back to the 2003 season, the last three in shutouts.
In last year???s meeting in Spokane, Wash., the Bulldogs scored twice in the opening 10 minutes and went on to a 3-0 victory.
Depth returning: When Montana takes the field Friday, the Grizzlies may have a couple of key upperclassmen back who missed last weekend???s season-opening matches in New Mexico: senior Frankie Brady and junior Brandee Marone.
Brady was a second-team All-Big Sky Conference selection last fall after leading the team in scoring with three goals. Marone earned honorable-mention honors after leading the team with four assists.
Weekend recap: Montana opened its 2010 regular season with a 7-0 loss at New Mexico last Friday. The Lobos, who would shut out Nebraska Sunday, 3-0, outshot the Grizzlies 15-1 and did not allow a UM shot until freshman India Watne???s attempt in the 85th minute.
Montana rebounded with a 1-1 draw at New Mexico State Sunday. Senior Kaitlyn Heinsohn scored her 11th career goal, unassisted, in the 11th minute to open the scoring. The Aggies tied it in the 68th minute.
NMSU outshot Montana 18 to 13, but the Grizzlies put six of their shots on goal to the Aggies??? five.
Freshman goalkeeper Julianna Jack played all 200 minutes in goal over the two matches. Freshman defender Courtney Watson also played 200 minutes, while freshman midfielder/forward India Watne played 196.
???I think we???re at a point now where we???ve seen all our areas of concern, and now we???re trying to fit players in the right spots,??? Sedgwick said. ???Like any performance, we just need more rehearsals.
???It???s going to come down to the details for us, so we???ll keep training all the basics. When we get to about halfway through the season, it comes down to who makes the error or which player creates something special.
???We???re still focused on getting our defensive shape right, and we???ll spend time developing how we???re going to go forward as a group with our current players.???
Up next: Montana will travel to Reno, Nev., next week for a pair of matches. The Grizzlies will face Nevada next Friday at 3 p.m. (MT) and South Dakota State next Sunday at 11 a.m. (MT).
