Final two-match road trip upcoming

The Montana soccer team will face its final two-match road trip of the regular season this week when it travels south for matches at Northern Arizona and Southern Utah.

The Grizzlies will play the Lumberjacks at 8 p.m. (MT) on Friday in Flagstaff and the Thunderbirds on Sunday at 1 p.m. in Cedar City.

Follow along: Friday's match will have live stats and audio coverage. Sunday's match will have live stats and video coverage. Find the available links at gogriz.com.

Where they stand: Montana is 6-5-3 overall and tied for seventh in the Big Sky Conference with a 2-2-1 record and seven points.

Northern Arizona is 5-7-2 overall and tied with the Grizzlies for seventh in the standings at 2-2-1. Southern Utah is 2-9-1 and tied for last in the Big Sky with North Dakota at 1-4-0 and three points.

Trending (Montana): Up. After playing for four weeks without an identity and winning just once in seven matches, the Grizzlies looked like they did in August on Friday in beating Weber State 3-0 at South Campus Stadium. The Wildcats entered that match on a three-match winning streak.

Trending (Northern Arizona): Down. The Lumberjacks have dropped their last two matches to teams that aren't in last place in the standings by 3-0 scores, losing at both Weber State and Northern Colorado. But Friday's match is at Flagstaff, where NAU has lost only one time this season.

Trending (Southern Utah): Way down. The Thunderbirds, who have allowed two or more goals in nine straight matches, have just two wins this season, over Dixie State and Portland State. SUU lost 4-1 at North Dakota in its last match. Grizzlies beware: Both wins this season came in Cedar City.

What's at stake (Friday): Montana and Northern Arizona would both be on the wrong side of the cut to make the six-team Big Sky tournament as the standings are today, but 1) it's only halfway through the season and 2) teams have not played an equal amount of matches.

But still: Friday's head-to-head result will be big for both teams as the season unfolds and tiebreakers possibly come into play.

What's at stake (Sunday): If Montana wins three of its final five matches, its 16 points in the standings would probably be safe ground to make the tournament. The key: win the matches a team should, which starts at Southern Utah and continues to next Friday when Montana hosts North Dakota.

Most recently: Friday's home match against surging Weber State wasn't mathematically a must-win game for Montana, but the Grizzlies were in need of redefining themselves. Consider it accomplished.

Montana had Weber State on its heels and defending most of the match. The Grizzlies received goals from Madison Adams in the 11th minute and Kaitlin Crowell in the 67th, then added a successful penalty kick by Janessa Fowler in the 79th to conclude the scoring.

Montana had a 17-9 advantage in shots, and it was more lopsided than that. The Grizzlies put eight shots on goal to the Wildcats' one.

"The team really came together last week and decided as a group that we had to start playing together and had to start trusting one another," said sophomore midfielder Hallie Widner.

"That transferred onto the field. It was a good performance. We just have to keep it up and keep moving on from there."

Added coach Mark Plakorus, "It was really good for the team to see that we can perform in a game at the level we see all the time in practice. It gives you confidence and also opens some eyes a little bit. If we do this on a regular basis, we're going to have a chance to do a lot of really good things."

Sophomore streakers: Montana's leading scorers this season are redshirt sophomores Hallie Widner, who has eight points, and Madison Adams, who has seven. Both of their points have come this season in bunches, Widner's early, Adams' more recently.

Widner scored a goal in each of Montana's first three matches and added an assist on McKenzie Warren's overtime game-winner at Purdue in the season's second match. She had seven points going into the Grizzlies' fourth match of the season.

Adams has been on a more recent tear. She scored her first collegiate goal in Montana's 2-0 home win over Idaho State, then added another one in the very next match, a 1-1 draw at Sacramento State. She had a goal and an assist in Friday's win over Weber State, making it seven points in four matches.

Montana three-dot notes: Dating back to last fall's Big Sky tournament at Moscow, when Montana knocked off Weber State 2-0 in the quarterfinals, the Grizzlies have outscored the Wildcats 5-0. It is the first time since 2003 and '04 that Montana has posted back-to-back wins over Weber State. … Montana is 2-3-3 in true road matches this season. Both of those wins came in August: at Purdue and at Denver. … Montana's three goals on Friday were a season high. The Grizzlies had four in their previous seven matches. … Junior Chanelle Pederson's assist on Adams' game-winner on Friday was her first assist of the season, the second of her career. … Junior Ashlee Pedersen and Madison Adams both assisted on Kaitlin Crowell's goal in the 67th minute. It was Montana's second double-assist goal of the season. McKenzie Warren and Mary Gintz assisted on Ellie Otteson's game-winner at Denver on Aug. 28. … Janessa Fowler's successful penalty kick in the 79th minute was her first career goal and made the Grizzlies 1 for 2 on PKs this season. … Friday's shutout gave senior goalkeeper Kailey Norman 22 for her career and 27 wins. She moved past Amy Bemis (1995-99), who had 26 wins, and alone into second place on the all-time wins list. She is safely in second on the shutout lists, trailing only Railene Thorson (1994-97) and her 28.

Montana-Northern Arizona history: The Grizzlies have a 13-6-3 advantage over the Lumberjacks but have just two wins in the teams' last eight matchups. … Montana is 4-5-1 against NAU at Flagstaff. … The teams' last two meetings, at NAU in 2014 and at UM in 2015, finished as 0-0 draws. … Montana has just three goals against Northern Arizona in the teams' last six matches.

Montana-Southern Utah history: The Grizzlies have never lost to the Thunderbirds, winning three and drawing twice in the teams' annual meetings since 2011. … Montana is 1-0-2 in three trips to Cedar City. … Montana defeated Southern Utah 2-1 last fall in Missoula in a match that saved the Grizzlies' season. Five minutes from starting 0-3 in league and going on tournament life support, Ellie Otteson scored in the 86th minute, then assisted on Charlene Burger's game-winner in the 87th minute.

Around the Big Sky Conference: At the halfway point of the season, the league is separating itself into three groups.

The heavyweights: Idaho (5-1-0 BSC) and Eastern Washington (4-0-1 BSC). The Vandals may be leading in the standings but only because they've played one more match than the Eagles. EWU controls its outcome and has a head-to-head win over Idaho.

Idaho has the friendlier schedule as the stretch run draws near. The Vandals play at Weber State on Friday, then close at home against Northern Arizona, Southern Utah and Idaho State. A 9-1-0 finish is realistic.

Eastern Washington goes on the SUU-NAU road trip this week, hosts Northern Colorado and travels to North Dakota next week, then closes at home with Montana. The Eagles might need to win them all to hold off Idaho and host the tournament.

The middleweights (or the six teams battling for the final four tournament spots): Northern Colorado (3-2-0 BSC), Weber State (3-3-0 BSC), Idaho State (3-3-0 BSC), Sacramento State (2-2-2 BSC), Montana (2-2-1 BSC), Northern Arizona (2-2-1 BSC).

The Grizzlies have wins over Weber State and Idaho State and get Northern Colorado at South Campus Stadium a week from Sunday.

The rest of the field: Portland State (1-4-1 BSC), Southern Utah (1-4-0 BSC), North Dakota (1-4-0 BSC).

Friday's schedule: UM at NAU, EWU at SUU, SAC at UND, PSU at UNC, UI at WSU

Friday match to monitor: Idaho at Weber State. The Vandals, who have outscored their last four opponents 14-3, play their final road match. The Wildcats, who lost 3-0 at both Montana and Eastern Washington last week, try to stop their freefall down the standings.

Sunday's schedule: UM at SUU, EWU at NAU, PSU at UND, SAC at UNC, ISU at WSU

Sunday matches to monitor: Sacramento State at Northern Colorado, Idaho State at Weber State. The four teams directly ahead of Montana in the standings. Consider it movement weekend, when the postseason picture gets clearer.

Upcoming: Montana will play its final home matches of the season next week when the Grizzlies host North Dakota and Northern Colorado. Montana will wrap up its regular season at Eastern Washington on Friday, Oct. 28.

If there is a tournament in Montana's future, it opens on Wednesday, Nov. 2, at the home of the regular-season champion.

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Players Mentioned

Madison Adams

Charlene Burger

Kaitlin Crowell

Janessa Fowler

Mary Gintz

Kailey Norman

Ellie Otteson

Ashlee Pedersen

Chanelle Pederson

McKenzie Warren

Hallie Widner

University of Montana Athletics