Griz at home for Cougars, Hawkeyes

The Montana soccer team will be back at South Campus Stadium this weekend for home matches against Washington State and Iowa. The Grizzlies will host the Cougars Friday at 5 p.m. and the Hawkeyes Sunday at 10:30 a.m.

Iowa will face Utah State Friday at 2 p.m. Utah State will continue on and play at Gonzaga Sunday. Washington State's match against Montana on Friday is the Cougars' only match of the weekend.

Loaded field: The four teams competing this weekend bring a combined record of 11-2-1 into Friday's matches. Washington State, which is four spots out of the top 25, and Iowa are both 3-0-0. Utah State is 3-1-0, Montana is 2-1-1.

Coverage: All three matches this weekend will have video coverage and live stats, with Jackson Wagner calling the action. Links to all available services can be found on gogriz.com. The Montana soccer team's Twitter feed (@Grizzly_Soccer) also will have ongoing updates of all three matches.

The start of a tough stretch: After hosting Washington State and Iowa this weekend, the Grizzlies will host the four-team Montana Cup Sept. 11 and 13. Montana will play matches against Purdue and Creighton. Both teams are currently 3-1. Seattle is the Cup's fourth team.

Montana will play at UC Santa Barbara on Friday, Sept. 18, in its final pre-Big Sky Conference match.

"The two games this weekend are just going to be a bear. We're moving into a stretch of our season when there is not an easy game on our schedule, and it's not like there was an easy one in our first four," said UM coach Mark Plakorus.

"This schedule is by far the most challenging we've ever had, but I want it to be difficult. I want it to be challenging. That's what we want to build this program off of."

So how did Plakorus get those teams to visit Missoula? Because certainly Montana would never be able to get many of those schools' other programs to travel. Iowa's football team isn't playing a game at Washington-Grizzly Stadium, nor Purdue's basketball team a game in Dahlberg Arena.

Coaching connections help, as does Missoula's location, as does the promise of a return trip (or one already made), as does Montana's program. The Grizzlies finished last season with an RPI of 117, lower than Washington State (24) and Iowa (64) but higher than Purdue (150) and Creighton (178).

"I think we've built our program to the point where teams know they are going to get a good game from us, and that helps to get these teams out here. They want games that are going to challenge them, just like we do," said Plakorus.

"It gives them an opportunity to put their team in an environment they don't normally get to go into and see how they react. And it gives us an opportunity to challenge ourselves against some big-conference teams and show people that we can compete and cause teams problems."

How they got here: After opening at home two weekends ago with a 0-0 draw with Wyoming and 4-3 double-overtime victory over Indiana State, Montana played its first road matches last weekend, and a troubling early-season trend started to develop.

Montana played well in a tough environment (heat, synthetic surface) and came away with a 1-0 victory at Nevada on Friday. On Sunday the Grizzlies led 2-1 at Utah Valley before the Wolverines scored five unanswered goals to win 6-2.

Montana's 3-2 halftime deficit was the first time it had trailed all season; the six goals allowed were the most since the 2010 season.

"Just like against Wyoming the week before, we made some mistakes Friday against Nevada, but our intensity level and work ethic and how hard we played were so good that we could cover those mistakes," said Plakorus.

"And for the second straight Sunday, we didn't play awful, but we just had no enthusiasm or intensity or fight. Everything we've seen on Fridays, we haven't seen on Sundays. The Utah Valley match was the first time we've trailed this season, and we didn't deal with it very well."

Washington State has posted 3-1 and 2-1 victories at Seattle and Boise State, and a 3-1 victory at home over Idaho.

Iowa, which had a home match against South Dakota State canceled 20 minutes in because of monsoon-level rains, has posted all three of its victories at home: Pacific, 1-0, Nebraska-Omaha, 4-0, and Tuesday against Northern Iowa, 2-1 in overtime.

New coach, same results: Washington State is under first-year coach Todd Shulenberger, but the results have continued for the program that has advanced to the NCAA tournament six of the last seven years under a revolving door of excellent head coaches.

Washington State has had just one losing season since 2003 and has seen Matt Potter take over at Oklahoma and Keidane McAlpine at USC in recent years.

Shulenberger takes over after spending the last two years as associate head coach at Texas Tech, which went 16-4-2 last year and made the third round of the NCAA tournament.

"All the coaches they've had are extremely good coaches, but I think Todd may be the best one they've had," said Plakorus. "I think he's that good of a coach."

Washington State was picked ninth in a strong Pac-12. Through three matches and eight goals, no player has scored more than once. The Cougars have outshot their first three opponents 47-28.

"They are very athletic, very strong, very powerful and big," said Plakorus, whose team lost 2-0 at Washington State last season.

"Their pace is something we have to be aware of. We have to do our best to try to control the pace of the game and keep the ball away from them as much as we can and make them defend. We have to keep the game compact.

"If we do those things, I think we have a shot to stay in the game and maybe surprise them. If we let the game get end-to-end and really stretched out, then their athleticism is really going to cause us a lot of problems. It's a great challenge for us but also a great opportunity to try to match up with these guys."

New coach, new system: Washington State plays with a unique style, one Montana saw in 2012 when the Grizzlies faced Texas Tech on TCU's home field. When the game kicks off, expect to see a lot of open grass along the sidelines.

"They'll play four backs, two holding mids, two attacking mids and two forwards. They won't have anybody on the flanks," said Plakorus.

"It will be a unique thing for us to have to deal with. There is a lot of movement to it, so you have to be very disciplined defensively and communicate extremely well, and be right on your decisions and calls. You can't hesitate. You have to be very decisive."

History: Washington State leads the all-time series 9-6-1 and has won the last five meetings and seven of the last eight. Montana is 4-3-0 against Washington State at South Campus Stadium. The Grizzlies' last win in the series came in 2004, 2-1 in overtime in Missoula.

More on Iowa: The Hawkeyes, picked to finish 11th in the 14-team Big Ten, will be more of an unknown, which makes it helpful they'll be playing Utah State Friday afternoon. The team lost six starters and 10 letter-winners off last year's team that went 14-7-1. Eleven newcomers arrived.

Expect a good defensive team. Iowa has allowed just a single goal through three matches, and junior defenders Corey Burns and Amanda Lulek, and senior goalkeeper Hannah Clark were all named to the Big Ten's preseason watch list.

"There are a lot of unknowns, but I expect them to be very athletic and very well organized," said Plakorus. "I've talked to a couple of people who played them last year, but they're different this year. They had a big senior class, and they have a lot of young players this year."

Iowa is under second-year coach Dave DiIanni, whose name would be familiar if you followed NCAA Division II soccer. DiIanni was previously the coach at Grand Valley State in Michigan. In 11 years he guided the Lakers to a record of 221-18-18 and three NCAA titles.

History: Montana and Iowa have met just once before, a 2-0 Hawkeyes victory at Iowa City in 2009.

Montana three-dot notes: Freshman defender Raquel Watts made her Griz debut in Friday's win at Nevada. She played 21 minutes against the Wolf Pack, then 12 in Sunday's loss to Utah Valley. ... Senior Mackenzie Akins' goal 93 seconds into Friday's win was her first of the season in her second match back after missing the game against Wyoming. She put the Grizzlies up 2-1 at Utah Valley in the 18th minute on Sunday with what was her 12th career goal. She is four goals from breaking into the Montana top 10 for career goals scored. ... Freshman Dani Morris opened the scoring at Utah Valley with her team-leading third goal of the season. It was assisted by junior Mary Gintz, who also assisted on Morris's game-winner in the second overtime against Indiana State. ... Akins' goal at Utah Valley was assisted by sophomores Jamie Simon and Jenna Castillo. The assist was Simon's second of the season and second of her career, and Castillo's first of her career. ... Gintz and Simon are tied for the team lead with two assists. ... Four players have scored goals for Montana this season, and all of them have sick shot percentages. Morris has scored three goals on eight shots (.375), Akins two goals on three shots (.667), Gintz one goal on one shot (1.000) and sophomore Chanelle Pederson one goal on one shot (1.000). ... Junior center back Tess Brenneman has played every minute this season (396). The team's next-highest total is Simon's 322. ... Junior Kailey Norman played all 180 minutes in goal last weekend after missing the Indiana State match and the second half and overtime minutes against Wyoming. She took a ball to the head against the Cowgirls. ... Speaking of Wyoming, the Cowgirls are 0-0-3 this season, with ties against Montana, Hawaii and Denver. ... Indiana State is 1-3, with its lone win coming last weekend at home against Belmont.

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Players Mentioned

Mackenzie Akins

Tess Brenneman

Jenna Castillo

Mary Gintz

Dani Morris

Kailey Norman

Chanelle Pederson

Jamie Simon

Raquel Watts

University of Montana Athletics