Griz end regular season seeking third straight title

The Montana soccer team, still in contention to win its third consecutive Big Sky Conference championship, will wrap up its regular-season schedule this weekend with home matches against Weber State and Idaho State.

The Grizzlies (9-5-1, 5-1-1 BSC) will host the Wildcats (9-6-0, 6-1-0 BSC) on Friday at 3 p.m. at South Campus Stadium, the Bengals (2-14-1, 2-5-0 BSC) at 1 p.m. on Sunday.

Sunday will be Senior Day for Emme Fernandez, Kendall Furrow, Taylor Hansen, Caitlin Rogers, Sami Siems, Taylor Stoeger and Zoe Transtrum.

Montana has already clinched a spot in the six-team Big Sky Conference Championship, which will open on Wednesday, Nov. 3, in Greeley, Colo., with a pair of quarterfinal matches.

The semifinals will be played on Friday, Nov. 5, the championship match on Sunday, Nov. 7.

What's at stake: There are three teams still in contention to win the Big Sky regular-season championship. Two of them will be squaring off on Friday afternoon at South Campus Stadium.

Weber State and Northern Colorado are tied atop the Big Sky standings with matching 6-1-0 league marks. Weber State's lone loss came at Northern Arizona, Northern Colorado's at Idaho on Sunday.

Hovering two points back is Montana, with a 5-1-1 record.

The Grizzlies' most direct path to a championship would be to defeat Weber State and Idaho State, then have Weber State win at Northern Colorado on Sunday.

And there's more: The three teams are not only playing for this year's title. The 2021 regular-season champion will host next November's Big Sky tournament.

At a glance (Montana): After going through a late-season rough patch, with a 0-0 home draw against Portland State and a 1-0 loss at Northern Colorado, the Grizzlies got things back on track with a road sweep last weekend of Idaho and Eastern Washington.

Montana rallied from a 1-0 halftime deficit to win 2-1 at Idaho on Friday night, getting two goals early in the second half from Taylor Stoeger.

On Sunday the Grizzlies won 2-0 at Eastern Washington. Skyleigh Thompson scored twice, once in each half, and Camellia Xu posted her ninth shutout of the season, which has her tied for first in the nation and one off the Montana single-season program record.

The road sweep earned Stoeger Big Sky Conference Offensive Player of the Week honors for the second time this season. Xu was named the Defensive Player of the Week for the fifth time.

Montana has earned nine Big Sky Player of the Week awards this season, matching the number the Grizzlies collected the past four seasons combined and breaking the program record of six, set by the 1999 team.

Xu has won five of them, Stoeger two, with Taylor Hansen and Jaden Griggs each winning one.

At a glance (Weber State): The Wildcats will go into Friday's match on a three-game winning streak, which started with a 1-0 road win at Southern Utah and added home victories last weekend over Sacramento State, 3-0, and Portland State, 3-2.

Weber State tied for sixth with Eastern Washington in the preseason coaches' poll but has mostly exceeded expectations under second-year coach Craig Sanders, starting with a season-opening 2-0 win at Kansas State.

Senior Taylor Slack and freshman Morgan Furmaniak are tied for third in the Big Sky with five goals. Furmaniak is tied for third in assists with four. Three of Slack's goals have been game-winners, a total that leads the Big Sky.

Senior goalkeeper Kaytlin Bradley (0.86) ranks second to Montana freshman Camellia Xu (0.62) in the Big Sky in goals-against average, but she's only played in eight matches, getting seven starts. She splits time in goal with junior Mekell Moss.

At a glance (Idaho State): The Bengals were picked last in the preseason coaches' poll after going 0-8-1 in the spring and started this season 0-12-1, but have gone 2-2 in their last four matches, with a 3-2 win at Southern Utah and a 2-0 home win over Portland State.

ISU lost 1-0 at home to Sacramento State on Sunday when the Hornets scored the game-winner in the 87th minute.

Since the start of the 2017 season, Idaho State is 9-64-6.

Of the 28 players on this year's ISU roster, 24 are listed as freshmen, though not all of those are first-year players. A number of them were true freshmen last year and have been COVID-classified as freshmen again this fall.

Idaho State, which plays at Northern Colorado on Friday night, has been outscored this season 45-9.

Series history (Montana-Weber State):

* The two teams were the league's first rivals when the Big Sky started sponsoring soccer in 1997. Montana won regular-season titles in 1997 and '99, with Weber State finishing second. The teams tied for the title in 1998, each going 6-1-0.

* Montana has won five Big Sky tournament titles, which is tied with Idaho State for most in Big Sky history. Weber State has won four, the most recent coming in 2013.

* Montana leads the all-time series 16-13-3 and has gone 4-1-1 against the Wildcats in the teams' last six meetings.

* Montana is 11-3-1 against Weber State in Missoula, with four straight wins. The Wildcats' last win at South Campus Stadium was a 4-0 victory in 2010, the final season of then coach Neil Sedgwick.

* Weber State has not scored in Missoula since that match in 2010, losing 1-0, 1-0, 3-0 and 1-0.

* The teams did not play in the spring, so their most recent meeting came in 2019, a 1-0 home win for Montana in a match when just 15 shots were taken by the two teams. The Grizzlies won it when Rita Lang scored in the 76th minute.

Series history (Montana-Idaho State):

* Montana leads the all-time series with Idaho State 14-8-4 and has gone 10-2-1 against the Bengals in Missoula.

* One of ISU's two wins at South Campus Stadium was a shocking 2-1 victory in the semifinals at the 2014 Big Sky tournament after Montana had rolled through the league with an 8-0-2 record.

* Idaho State's other win in Missoula came in 2006.

* Montana has won two straight against Idaho State in Missoula and has gone 4-1-0 against the Bengals in the teams' last five meetings overall.

* The teams' most recent matchup was a 2-1 Montana victory in Missoula in 2019. Idaho State grabbed a 1-0 halftime lead with a goal late in the first half. The Grizzlies, who outshot the Bengals 18-7, won it with goals by McKenzie Kilpatrick in the 68th minute and Alexa Coyle in the 71st.

Summary:

After picking up just one point in a scoreless home draw with Portland State and a 1-0 road loss at Northern Colorado, Montana turned its focus to the offensive end of the field last week and the results were multiple goals against both Idaho and Eastern Washington.

It was the first time this season scoring multiple goals in back-to-back matches after being held to one or no goals in 11 of its first 13 matches.

"In soccer, there is defending, there is attacking and then there are the principles of scoring in the 18-yard box. That's the piece we've really tried to figure out. You can play a through ball or cross a ball, but what do you do in the 18-yard box when it gets in there?" said coach Chris Citowicki.

Montana outshot last week's opponents 41-11, putting 24 of those shots on goal. The Grizzlies created 19 corner kicks in the two matches, five more than the previous seven matches combined.

"It allows a lot of the control of the game to fall to the players to execute the game plan, and I'm lucky to have a very talented team of great players who can get it done," said Citowicki.

"When we lose, we find ways to continue getting better, and when we win, we find things we're not happy with, so we're always continuing to get better."

At Idaho, it was Stoeger who scored both of Montana's goals, but it was center back Allie Larsen who took a team- and career-high five shots. Six players took multiple shots against the Vandals.

On Sunday in Cheney, again six players took multiple shots.

"It was a lot of fun to play in those games. The freedom we had going and the flow we had was incredible," said fifth-year senior Taylor Hansen, who put four of her five shots on goal in the two matches and picked up her Big Sky-leading sixth assist on Stoeger's equalizer on Friday.

"We've always been a very defensive team. To be able to do both very well, it's a great shift and a lot of fun to be a part of."

Montana's road sweep allowed the Grizzlies to get their mojo back and kept them in the hunt for their third consecutive regular-season championship.

It also clinched a spot at the Big Sky tournament, which is the most important end result of all.

"First and foremost, you've got to get into playoffs. If you don't get into playoffs, you don't make the NCAA tournament," said Citowicki. "It's nice to get that out of the way."

It all sets the stage for a monster of a matchup on Friday afternoon in Missoula. Montana can't win the outright title without a win against the Wildcats, and Weber State wants to put the pressure on Northern Colorado with a win of its own.

"It's a matchup, like Northern Colorado, that I'm excited about and looking forward to," said Citowicki, who picked Weber State first in the preseason poll. "It's a very good team, one I've kept an eye on because they move the ball so well and play so well.

"A great team against a great team, so fireworks on Friday. Let's go."

Montana notes:

* At 9-5-1, Montana is one win from reaching the 10-win mark for the first time under fourth-year coach Chris Citowicki. The Grizzlies won seven matches in Years 1 and 2 under Citowicki, then went 9-2-0 during last spring's condensed schedule.

* For the first time in his head coaching career, Citowicki's record is at .500, at 79-79-17. His first team at Division III Saint Catherine went 1-17-0 and he's been climbing up from that ever since. His teams are 18-7-1 in calendar year 2021.

* Montana has lost just twice in its last 21 home matches, going 12-2-7. The Grizzlies fell at home to Eastern Washington in overtime, 3-2, in the spring and 1-0 to Portland this season.

* Since the start of the 2014 season, Montana is 23-3-9 in Missoula in league matches. Two of those three losses came in overtime. The only team to defeat the Grizzlies in regulation in that eight-year span was Idaho, which won 4-1 in 2016.

* Citowicki is 25-5-8 against Big Sky opponents, including the postseason. Three of those five losses have come against Northern Colorado, plus one against both Weber State and Eastern Washington.

* Taylor Hansen, at 87, in now the Montana leader in career games played. She is also the career leader in minutes played (7,111).

* Hansen is tied for fourth in matches started. If she starts twice this weekend, she'll sit alone in second at 79, four behind program leader Shannon Forslund, who started 83 matches between 1997-2000.

* Hansen's assist on Taylor Stoeger's game-tying goal in the 47th minute at Idaho on Friday night made it 15 for her career. She is alone in sixth place on the program list.

* Idaho scored 3:06 into Friday's match. It was the fastest goal scored against Montana since Washington State scored 1:57 in in the Cougars' 3-1 win in Pullman in 2018.

* Montana took 15 corner kicks on Friday at Idaho, the most the Grizzlies have taken under Citowicki and the most for Montana since 2017 against Northern Arizona.

* Stoeger's game-winner at Idaho on Friday, in the 52nd minute, came off an assist from McKenzie Kilpatrick, whose shot went off the crossbar and back to Stoeger. It was Kilpatrick's third career assist.

* Skyleigh Thompson scored both goals for Montana at Eastern Washington on Sunday to give her three for the season. It's the most for a Griz freshman since Alexa Coyle had four in 2017.

* Thompson's first goal, in the 15th minute, came off a sweet feed from Sydney Haustein. It was Haustein's first career assist.

* Camellia Xu leads the Big Sky in shutouts (9), goals-against average (0.62) and save percentage (.868). In the national statistics, she is tied for first with seven others in shutouts. She ranks 16th in save percentage, 25th in goals-against average.

Around the Big Sky Conference:

* Schedule for the Big Sky tournament in Greeley: quarterfinals at noon (3 vs. 6) and 3 p.m. (4 vs. 5) on Wednesday, Nov. 3, semifinals at noon (2 vs. 3/6) and 3 p.m. (1 vs. 4/5) on Friday, Nov. 5, and the championship match at noon on Sunday, Nov. 7.

* Going into the final weekend of the regular season, only Southern Utah has been eliminated from the chase to make the six-team tournament.

* After starting league 0-3-0, Northern Arizona has won four straight and sits alone in fourth with 12 points, behind Weber State, Northern Colorado and Montana. The Lumberjacks, the preseason favorites, have won their last four matches by a combined score of 9-1.

* Idaho did itself a huge favor by knocking off Northern Colorado on Sunday 3-2. The Vandals are sitting in fifth place with 10 points but only have one match remaining to collect points, Sunday at Eastern Washington. That match could end up being a play-in game to make the tournament field.

Friday matches: WSU at UM, ISU at UNC, SUU at PSU, NAU at SAC

Sunday matches: ISU at UM, WSU at UNC, UI at EWU, NAU at PSU, SUU at SAC

Upcoming: The Big Sky Conference tournament, with seeds and matchups to be determined on Friday and Sunday.

Griz end regular season seeking third straight title

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Players Mentioned

Alexa Coyle

Emme Fernandez

Kendall Furrow

Jaden Griggs

Taylor Hansen

Sydney Haustein

McKenzie Kilpatrick

Rita Lang

Allie Larsen

Caitlin Rogers

Sami Siems

Taylor Stoeger

Skyleigh Thompson

Zoe Transtrum

Camellia Xu

University of Montana Athletics