Griz to face pair of Mountain West opponents

The Montana soccer team, riding its first winning streak of the season, will face a pair of opponents this week from the Mountain West Conference.

The Grizzlies (2-2-2) will play at league leader Colorado State (3-1-0) on Thursday at 3 p.m. in Fort Collins, then return home to host Fresno State (0-4-1) at noon on Sunday at South Campus Stadium.

Montana will close out its nonconference schedule with matches at Boise State and home against North Dakota State next week before opening league at Sacramento State on Friday, Sept. 23.

At a glance (Montana): The Grizzlies picked up their first win of the season on Friday, overwhelming MSU Billings 6-0 at South Campus Stadium.

Montana scored five goals in the first half and outshot the Yellowjackets 30-2 for the match.

Kayla Rendon Bushmaker, Ally Henrikson and Riley O'Brien all scored their first career goals, while Maysa Walters finished with three assists, just the eighth time that's happened in program history.

(The program record is four, set by Courtney Mathieson in a 7-1 home win over Arizona in 1996. Walters' three assists was the seventh time that's happened, the first since 2001.)

Two days later, Montana picked up its first Division I win of the season, knocking off CSU Bakersfield 3-0.

Despite outshooting the Roadrunners 16-2 over the opening 60 minutes, Montana held only a 1-0 lead until Eliza Bentler relieved the pressure with her first career goal in the 70th minute.

Delaney Lou Schorr scored twice on Friday, two more times on Sunday to earn Big Sky Conference Offensive Player of the Week honors.

It marked the first time since Erin Craig pulled it off in 2011 that a Montana player scored multiple goals in back-to-back matches.

Montana outshot last weekend's opponents 50-6, put 21 of those shots on goal and generated 19 corner kicks.

MSU Billings and CSU Bakersfield did not put a single shot on goal, which allowed goalkeeper Camellia Xu to add two more shutouts to her collection without having to make a save.

Doing the dirty work in front of her was Montana's backline, anchored by Allie Larsen, who earned Big Sky Conference Defensive Player of the Week honors on Tuesday.

Larsen scored career goal No. 2 on Friday against the Yellowjackets.

At a glance (Colorado State): The Rams, whose first season was in 2013, went 6-8-3 last year under then first-year head coach Keeley Hagen and finished fifth in the Mountain West Conference at 5-5-1. Their season ended with a 1-0 loss to No. 4 Utah State in the first round of the league tournament.

Colorado State was picked seventh out of 12 teams in this year's preseason poll.

The Rams played one exhibition match, against Big Sky preseason favorite Northern Colorado, and came away with a 1-0 victory over a Bears team that is now unbeaten at 4-0-2.

CSU has road wins this season at Utah Tech (formerly Dixie State), 2-1, and South Dakota, 3-1, and a road loss at Utah, 3-0.

Colorado State hosted Southeast Missouri State on Sunday in its home opener and won 2-0.

Six players have scored CSU's seven goals this season, with senior midfielder Liv Layton the only two-goal scorer.

Redshirt senior Emilie Gavillet has played every minute in goal this season, leading a defense that is allowing just eight shots per game.

Series history (Montana vs. Colorado State): The teams have played just one time previously, in 2014 in Missoula. Tyler Adair and Hallie Widner scored first-half goals to lead Montana to a 2-0 victory.

At a glance (Fresno State): The Bulldogs went 9-6-4 a year ago, 7-3-1 in Mountain West matches to finish a close second behind regular-season champion New Mexico.

The No. 2 seed at the Mountain West tournament, Fresno State played to a draw with No. 6 Boise State in the semifinals before losing 6-5 in a shootout.

Despite returning 10 starters and 18 letter-winners from that team, the Bulldogs were selected fourth in the preseason poll, behind New Mexico, San Diego State and Boise State.

Fresno State will be seeking its first win of the season when the Bulldogs play at UC Santa Barbara on Thursday.

Fresno State opened the season 0-4-0, getting outscored 11-1 in losses to Washington, Seattle, Oregon State and Long Beach State, all but the OSU match coming on the road.

The Bulldogs picked up their first result of the season on Sunday, playing to a 1-1 home draw against Pacific, a scrappy match that had seven yellow cards and 27 fouls. It was a solid outcome against an opponent that is unbeaten through its first six matches and regionally ranked.

Junior forward/midfielder Kassandra Ceja, a first-team All-Mountain West selection as a freshman and a sophomore, has scored Fresno State's only two goals this season.

Series history (Montana vs. Fresno State): The Bulldogs lead the all-time series against the Grizzlies 2-0-0, with a pair of 1-0 victories. Fresno State won at home in the 2016 season and won in Missoula in 2018 in the season opener for both teams in what was the debut match for now fifth-year coach Chris Citowicki.

Montana notes:

* Thursday's match will be a homecoming for Schorr, who is a graduate of Fort Collins' Rocky Mountain High. Her dad, Robert, is a senior research associate at Colorado State.

* Allie Larsen and Ava Samuelson will be close to home. Both are from Louisville, which is outside Boulder, one hour south of Fort Collins.

* Eight of Montana's nine goals scored against MSU Billings and CSU Bakersfield last weekend were scored by underclassmen. The only upperclassman to score was Allie Larsen.

* Sophomore Ally Henrikson, redshirt freshman Riley O'Brien and freshmen Kayla Rendon Bushmaker and Eliza Bentler all scored their first collegiate goals last weekend.

* Camellia Xu didn't need to make a save in 180 minutes last weekend to pick up career shutouts No. 13 and 14. The sophomore is already tied with Grace Harris for fourth in program history.

* Sophomores Bella O'Brien and Maddie Seelhoff made their season debut on Friday against MSU Billings, freshmen Georgia Boone and Reeve Borseth made their collegiate debuts.

* Maysa Walters leads the Big Sky in assists with four. No other player in the league has more than two at this point.

* Schorr is tied for the league lead with four goals and leads the Big Sky in points with nine, with four goals and one assist.

* Montana leads the Big Sky in shots, with 100 through six matches. The Grizzlies have outshot five of their six opponents this season. Montana also leads the Big Sky with 34 corner kicks.

* Montana's 2-0-0 weekend at South Campus Stadium made the Grizzlies 16-3-5 at home since the start of the 2019 season, 128-63-28 (.648) in program history.

* Other career firsts last weekend: Kathleen Aitchison, Eliza Bentler, Kayla Rendon Bushmaker and Maddie Ditta all had their first assists as Grizzlies.

* Early-season opponents Creighton (3-0-3), Pittsburgh (6-0-0) and Portland (4-0-2) are unbeaten. Pittsburgh ranks second nationally with 24 goals through six matches, Portland is ranked third in the West Region by the United Soccer Coaches.

Upcoming: Montana will play at Boise State on Thursday, Sept. 15, then host North Dakota State on Sunday, Sept. 18.

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Players Mentioned

Kathleen Aitchison

Eliza Bentler

Georgia Boone

Reeve Borseth

Maddie Ditta

Ally Henrikson

Allie Larsen

Bella O'Brien

Riley O'Brien

Kayla Rendon Bushmaker

Ava Samuelson

Delaney Lou Schorr

Maddie Seelhoff

Maysa Walters

Camellia Xu

University of Montana Athletics