Montana sweeps Player of the Week honors

The Montana soccer team, which defeated a pair of opponents at South Campus Stadium over the weekend by a combined score of 9-0, has swept this week's Big Sky Conference Player of the Week honors, the league office announced on Tuesday.

Delaney Lou Schorr was named the Offensive Player of the Week, Allie Larsen the Defensive Player of the Week. Both were recognized as Player of the Week for the first time in their careers.

Montana jumped out to a 5-0 halftime lead on its way to a 6-0 victory over MSU Billings on Friday. On Sunday, the Grizzlies scored two second-half goals to pull away from CSU Bakersfield and win 3-0.

They were Montana's first two victories of the season after opening 0-2-2 in matches against Creighton, Pittsburgh, Wyoming and Portland. Creighton, Pittsburgh and Portland are still unbeaten through three weekends of matches.

Schorr, a sophomore, entered last weekend's two-match home stand with one career goal, the game-winner she scored last September in Montana's 1-0 home win over Boise State.

She doubled her career total with two first-half goals on Friday against the Yellowjackets, then scored two more on Sunday against the Roadrunners.

It marked the first time since Erin Craig had consecutive two-goal matches in 2011 that a Grizzly soccer player has had multiple goals in back-to-back matches.

All four goals scored by Schorr, who is 5-foot-11, were headers. They came a week after she had her first career assist, when she headed a pass to Skyleigh Thompson that allowed Montana to tie Wyoming 2-2.

Against MSU Billings, she headed in a long pass from McKenzie Kilpatrick in the 28th minute to make it 2-0. She made it 5-0 in the 43rd minute when she headed in a corner kick by Maysa Walters.

Two days later, against CSU Bakersfield, Schorr was at it again. She headed in a cross by Kayla Rendon Bushmaker in the 33rd minute to open the scoring. She closed the scoring when she was at the receiving end of another ball lofted in by Kilpatrick in the 87th minute.

Schorr is tied for the Big Sky lead in goals scored with Northern Colorado's Lauren Woodhull.

While Schorr was scoring goals, Larsen and her defensive teammates were preventing them. Montana allowed just six shots in the two matches, none of which were on goal, allowing goalkeeper Camellia Xu to go 180 minutes without having to make a save.

Larsen, second-team All-Big Sky as a sophomore, honorable mention last fall, played 65 minutes on Friday against MSU Billings, then went the full 90 for the fifth time in six matches this season against CSU Bakersfield.

Larsen also got in on the scoring in Friday's lopsided win over MSU Billings. The 6-0 victory was only the 12th time in program history Montana has scored six or more goals in a match.

Larsen took a corner from Walters and from straight on, from 20 yards out, unleashed a violent line drive that MSUB goalkeeper Clare Keenan was perfectly positioned to save but was unable to do. The ball overpowered her attempt to stop it, and Montana went up 4-0 in the 39th minute.

Larsen's other career goal came in Montana's 3-0 home win over Portland State during the 2021 spring season.

Montana will play at Colorado State at 3 p.m. on Thursday, then face Fresno State at noon on Sunday at South Campus Stadium.

University of Montana Athletics

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Players Mentioned

McKenzie Kilpatrick

Allie Larsen

Kayla Rendon Bushmaker

Delaney Lou Schorr

Skyleigh Thompson

Maysa Walters

Camellia Xu

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