Montana takes its shot at Texas Friday

The Montana women's soccer team will wrap up its nonconference schedule this week when it plays at Texas on Friday. The Grizzlies and Longhorns will meet at 6 p.m. (MT) at UT's Mike A. Myers Stadium in Austin.

Coverage: Friday's game will be broadcast on the Longhorn Network and WatchESPN.com. Audio coverage and live stats are available at TexasSports.com.

"It's a great opportunity and challenge for us to go out and play a team like Texas at their place," said UM coach Mark Plakorus. "It's their senior day, so it's going to be an intense, emotional environment.

"It's another opportunity to experience a situation like that and get ourselves ready to play at a high level. We're going to go down and compete with everything we have, and enjoy every second of it."

Montana at a glance: The Grizzlies (8-9-2, 5-4-1 Big Sky) punched their ticket to the six-team Big Sky Conference tournament last weekend with a pair of 1-0 shutout victories over Portland State and Sacramento State at South Campus Stadium in Missoula. ... Montana will be making its fourth tournament appearance in five years under coach Mark Plakorus. ... After opening Big Sky play with 2-1 and 3-2 losses at North Dakota and Northern Colorado, the Grizzlies went 5-2-1 the rest of the way to fight their way back into tournament contention. ... The shutouts against the Vikings and Hornets give Montana six for the season. ... The Grizzlies will open the tournament next Thursday at Moscow, Idaho, against an opponent still to be determined.

Texas at a glance: The Longhorns (7-5-4, 4-3-1 Big 12) wrapped up their Big 12 schedule last weekend with 2-1 home losses to Oklahoma and Baylor. ... The losses snapped Texas's five-match unbeaten streak and ended its chance of winning a Big 12 regular-season title. ... The Longhorns will open the Big 12 tournament on Wednesday at Kansas City, Mo., against an opponent yet to be determined. ... Texas played five teams this fall who were nationally ranked at the time. The Longhorns went 2-2-1 in those matches, with 2-1 victories over UCLA and Texas Tech. Both of those wins came on the road. ... Texas is averaging 671 fans for its home matches this season. ... The Longhorns are 3-3-3 at Mike A. Myers Stadium this season.

No strangers: Montana and Texas met in Austin last season as well, with the Longhorns coming away with a 2-0 victory. ... The Grizzlies put shots off the crossbar and post in the first half, but it was Texas that opened the scoring in the 67th minute on a penalty kick. The Longhorns also scored in the 90th minute. ... Abby Smith made two saves to earn the shutout for Texas. ... The Longhorns finished with a 23-6 advantage in shots, but only six of their shots were on goal.

"They are a very athletic team, so they'll present problems for us in the middle of the park as well as being able to get at them. Their goalkeeper is one of the best in the nation, so it's going to be a challenge for us to score goals," said Plakorus.

"And they'll have athletic, talented players coming at us. Overall it's going to be a great challenge for us."

Texas Notes: Freshman forward Alexa Adams leads the Longhorns in scoring, with five goals and three assists. ... Abby Smith, who Plakorus believes will be on the U.S. national team within three years, has allowed 16 goals this season in 16 matches. She has five shutouts and a 0.94 goals-against average. ... Texas drew a season-high 2,195 fans to its 2-0 home loss to then No. 5 North Carolina on Aug. 28. ... The Longhorns are in third place in the Big 12 standings behind No. 2 West Virginia and Baylor. ... Texas has not been shut out since playing to a 0-0 draw at Oklahoma State on Oct. 4.

Montana Notes:

* The Grizzlies and Longhorns are in the same situation this week. Conference matches are done. Both teams now have a single nonconference match before next week's Big Sky and Big 12 conference tournaments.

"We want to go down there and compete with everything we have Friday, but at the same time we need to make sure we come out of it prepared and as healthy as we can be for the conference tournament next week," said Plakorus.

* To win the Big Sky tournament next week, Montana would need to win three matches in four days: a quarterfinal match on Thursday, a semifinal match on Friday against either the No. 1 or 2 seed who got a bye to the semifinals and the championship match on Sunday.

Montana won the 2011 Big Sky tournament in Greeley, Colo., in Plakorus's first season as the No. 4 seed, but that tournament went just four teams deep and required two wins.

* Montana and Texas have played one common opponent this season, UC Santa Barbara. Texas lost at UCSB 2-0 on Sept. 4. The Grizzlies played at Santa Barbara two weeks later and lost 1-0. Of course the Longhorns rebounded pretty nicely after their loss. Two days later they won 2-1 at then No. 14 UCLA.

* Single-match relief: Montana has played two matches every weekend the last five weeks. And as the Big Sky's lone wolf of this year's schedule, every Sunday opponent has faced Montana without having played a match on Friday.

Of the Grizzlies' 10 weekends of matches since the season began on Aug. 21 against Wyoming, nine have featured Friday-Sunday doubles. Only Montana's trip to UC Santa Barbara in mid-September was a one-match weekend.

"It's going to be nice to play one game for the weekend to give us a little bit of a break," said Plakorus, whose team has faced a number of must-win matches the last two weeks.

"And it's nice that this isn't a do-or-die game for us. I think we can relax a little bit more and just go out and play, and enjoy getting to play in that environment and see if we can give them another game this year."

* Scoring notes: Sophomore Allie Lucas scored her second goal of the season and fifth of her career in the 87th minute of Montana's 1-0 victory Friday over Portland State. Senior Mackenzie Akins had the assist, her team-leading fourth helper of the season. ... Sophomore Aspen Peifer scored her first goal of the season, the second of her career, in the 43rd minute in Sunday's 1-0 win over Sacramento State. Sophomore Ashlee Pedersen had the assist, the first of her career.

* Lucas has scored two of Montana's most important goals of the season. Her goal in the 108th minute gave Montana a 2-1 victory over Eastern Washington on Oct. 9. Then she scored late on Friday against Portland State.

* Norman, POW: Junior goalkeeper Kailey Norman, who played all 180 minutes in goal last weekend in the shutout victories, was named the Big Sky Conference Defensive Player of the Week on Tuesday. Norman made three saves against Portland State and two against Sacramento State. One of those saves came on a penalty kick. It was Norman's second award of the season, the fourth of her career.

* Montana coach Mark Plakorus will have to decide between Dani Morris (4 goals, 8 points) and Ellie Otteson (3 goals, 1 assist, 7 points) for his nomination for the Big Sky Conference Newcomer of the Year award. The two forwards rank second and third on the team in scoring.

Of course whatever Plakorus decides will probably be moot. Idaho freshman goalkeeper Amanda Poertner has a Big Sky-leading nine shutouts this season in 17 matches for the league's regular-season champion. She'll likely sweep the Newcomer of the Year and Goalkeeper of the Year awards.

* Records watch:

Most Shots
1. 232, Lindsay Winans (2003-06)
2. 205, Karen Hardy (1995-98)
3. 202, Erin Craig (2009-12)
4. 196, Jodi Campbell (1997-2000)
5. 189, Mackenzie Akins (2012-present)

Most Assists
1. 25, Courtney Mathieson (1994-97)
2. 24, Sara Overgaag (1995-98)
3. 23, Karen Hardy (1995-98)
4. 19, Jodi Campbell (1997-2000)
5. 17, Mackenzie Akins (2012-present)

Most Game-Winning Goals
t1. 13, Heather Olson (1997-2001)
t1. 13, Courtney Mathieson (1994-97)
3. 11, Karen Hardy (1995-98)
t4. 9, Jodi Campbell (1997-2000)
t4. 9, Mackenzie Akins (2012-present)

Most Wins
1. 45, Railene Thorson (1994-97)
2. 26, Amy Bemis (1995-99)
t3. 20, Grace Harris (2005-09)
t3. 20, Kailey Norman (2013-present)

Most Shutouts
1. 28, Railene Thorson (1994-97)
2. 15, Kailey Norman (2013-present)
3. 14, Grace Harris (2005-09)

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Players Mentioned

Mackenzie Akins

Allie Lucas

Dani Morris

Kailey Norman

Ellie Otteson

Ashlee Pedersen

Aspen Peifer

University of Montana Athletics