Montana to face Gonzaga on Sunday

The Montana women's soccer team, which picked up its first win on Sunday against MSU Billings, will face its toughest test of the early season this Sunday when it faces Gonzaga in Spokane.

The Grizzlies (1-3-0) and Bulldogs (3-1-0) will play at 2 p.m. (MT) at Gonzaga's Luger Field.

Montana collected win No. 1 of the season at home on Sunday afternoon, scoring four second-half goals to defeat MSU Billings 4-0.

Jaden Griggs scored the Grizzlies' first three goals, in the 51st, 70th and 83rd minutes, for Montana's 17th hat trick in program history and its first since Erin Craig's in 2011.

Coverage: Sunday's match will be streamed at WCCSports.com, with live stats also available.

At a glance (Montana): The Grizzlies dropped their third one-goal decision of the season on Thursday night when they fell 2-1 at Cal Poly.

Sydney Haustein's first career goal in the 19th minute gave Montana its first lead of the season, but Mustang goals in the 64th and 66th minutes allowed Cal Poly to rally for the victory.

The Grizzlies collected their first win of the season on Sunday against MSU Billings. Montana outshot the Yellowjackets 31-8 and took 10 corner kicks to none for MSUB.

It was the first time Montana scored four goals in a half since a 4-0 home win over Portland State in 2019, when the Grizzlies also scored four second-half goals.

It also matched the most goals scored by Montana under fourth-year coach Chris Citowicki.

At a glance (Gonzaga): The Bulldogs are ranked sixth this week in the United Soccer Coaches West Region poll after opening the season with three wins in their first four games.

Gonzaga rolled past Eastern Washington, 4-0, to open the season, then collected a Power 5 road victory, winning 3-1 at Georgia.

The Bulldogs' only loss came at Purdue, 1-0. They rebounded in a big way on Sunday, winning 7-0 at Portland State.

Gonzaga went 7-3-1 in the spring and finished third in the West Coast Conference at 5-2-1.

The Bulldogs were picked fourth in this fall's WCC preseason poll, behind defending national champion Santa Clara, BYU and Pepperdine.

Senior defender Jordan Thompson was voted to the preseason All-WCC team.

Through four matches, Gonzaga is outscoring its opponents 14-2 and outshooting them 81-39.

Junior goalkeeper Lyza Bosselmann has started all four matches and owns a 0.59 goals-against average. Maddie Kemp leads the team in scoring with nine points, on three goals and three assists.

Gonzaga will host Hawaii (0-1-1) on Thursday night before hosting Montana on Sunday afternoon.

The Bulldogs are led by fifth-year coach Chris Watkins, who was voted the WCC co-Coach of the Year in the spring. One of his assistants is Katie Benz, a former assistant at Montana.

Series history:

* Montana leads the all-time series with Gonzaga 13-11-0. The Bulldogs have won 11 of the last 12 matchups after the Grizzlies won the first 12.

* Montana has gone 8-7-0 against Gonzaga in matches played in Spokane, though the Bulldogs have won seven of the last eight on their home field.

* Gonzaga has won the last two matchups, winning 1-0 in Missoula in 2016 and 1-0 in Spokane in 2019.

* Fourth-year Montana coach Chris Citowicki is 0-1-0 against Gonzaga.

Summary:

After playing three solid mid-major programs to open the season -- Creighton, Portland and Cal Poly -- Montana will face it toughest test of the fall when it plays at Gonzaga on Sunday afternoon.

"We've always said it, they are one of the local measuring sticks we want to go up against," said Citowicki. "We get to go out there and test ourselves against them one more time. I'm looking forward to it."

Two of Gonzaga's wins, over Eastern Washington and Portland State, came by lopsided scores against teams expected to finish in the bottom half of the Big Sky Conference.

Georgia was picked 13th out of 14 teams in the preseason SEC poll, Purdue 11th out of 14 teams in the Big Ten poll.

"They've been playing well. They are organized and they attack well," said Citowicki. "It's going to be a good test. I'm really looking forward to it."

Sunday's match comes after a mad rush to open the season for Montana. Including exhibition matches against Rocky Mountain and Carroll, the Grizzlies played six matches in 15 days between Aug. 15 and 29.

"You go from a heavy learning phase in preseason and not playing to the only learning you're doing is through games. It was a lot of learning through experience in the heat of the moment," said Citowicki.

"We've had all sorts of tests and, in my opinion, we've played well in every single one of them. We're playing well.

"Now we have a full week of training, thank goodness, because it's the tiny details that make the difference. We have to figure those out this week if we want to get a result against Gonzaga."

Montana will host Texas Southern and unbeaten Boise State (3-0-0) next week, then close out its pre-Big Sky schedule with a road match at Long Beach State on Thursday, Sept. 16.

The Beach are ranked No. 3 in the West Region and last week won 2-1 on the road over No. 8 Pepperdine before falling 1-0 to No. 4 UCLA.

Montana will open league at Big Sky favorite Northern Arizona on Friday, Sept. 24.

"The goal for the next few weeks is to figure out the true identity of this team," said Citowicki. "Who are we and who are we going to be this year?

"Last year we had a senior-heavy team that could lead us to certain things. What is the identity this year?"

Montana notes:

* The Grizzlies swept the Big Sky Conference Player of the Week awards on Tuesday.

* Jaden Griggs, who had a hat trick against MSU Billings on Sunday after not playing at Cal Poly, was named the Offensive Player of the Week for the first time in her career. She entered the match without a collegiate goal scored.

* Camellia Xu, who allowed two goals over 180 minutes against Cal Poly and MSU Billings, was named the Defensive Player of the Week. Cal Poly was Xu's first complete game played, MSU Billings was her first career shutout.

* Montana's four goal-scorers this year all collected their first career goal this season: Josie Windauer at Creighton, Sydney Haustein at Cal Poly, Griggs' first goal against MSU Billings and Bella O'Brien against the Yellowjackets.

* Taylor Hansen assisted on Montana's first and fourth goals against MSU Billings, both on crosses. That gave her 11 career assists. One more and she will break into the top 10 in program history.

* Molly Quarry had her first collegiate point on Montana's final goal against MSU Billings. She took Hansen's corner kick, gave it right back and watched as Hansen's cross was headed in at the near post by O'Brien.

* Montana's 31 shots against MSU Billings were more than the Grizzlies totaled (27) in their first three matches. ... The Grizzlies put just 11 of those shots on goal. That .397 shots-on-goal percentage was the team's lowest of the season.

* Freshman Ava Samuelson leads Montana in shots with nine. Griggs and Taylor Stoeger have both taken seven.

* Montana has been shut out just twice in its last 19 matches, by Portland this season and by South Carolina in the NCAA tournament in April.

Opponent notes:

* Creighton is now 3-1-0 after winning 3-0 at Oral Roberts on Sunday. The Bluejays' lone loss came 1-0 at Tulsa.

* Portland is 1-2-0. The Pilots lost 2-0 at home to No. 20 California on Friday.

* Cal Poly made it 2-0-0 against Big Sky opponents with a one-sided 4-2 victory at home over Sacramento State on Sunday. The Mustangs outshot the Hornets 21-4.

* Texas Southern is 0-2-0, having been outscored 7-1. The Tigers play at Texas-Rio Grande Valley on Friday before playing at Montana the following Friday.

* Boise State, which opened its season with a win at Utah, added a pair of victories at home last week, 4-0 over Dixie State and 1-0 in double overtime against Pacific.

* Long Beach State (2-1-0) will play matches at San Diego, San Diego State and Washington before making its home debut against Montana on Sept. 16.

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Players Mentioned

Jaden Griggs

Taylor Hansen

Sydney Haustein

Bella O'Brien

Molly Quarry

Ava Samuelson

Taylor Stoeger

Josie Windauer

Camellia Xu

University of Montana Athletics