Griz to make home debut

Thursday, August 24

Missoula, Mont.

2 PM

Montana

MSU Billings

Photo: UND Athletics

8/23/2023 11:07:00 AM | Soccer

PDF Game Notes

By: Montana Sports Information

The Montana soccer team, sitting 2-0-0 and holding an early-season regional ranking, will play its first home matches of the fall this week when it hosts MSU Billings and Ohio State.

The Grizzlies will face the Yellowjackets at 2 p.m. on Thursday at South Campus Stadium, the Buckeyes on Sunday at 6 p.m.

The first 500 fans to arrive for Sunday evening's match against Ohio State will receive a free Griz soccer t-shirt.

Montana opened its season with a road sweep last week of North Dakota and North Dakota State. The Grizzlies knocked off the Fighting Hawks 1-0, the Bison 3-1.

Coverage: Both matches this week will air on ESPN+, with Andrew Houghton calling Thursday's game, Ace Sauerwein Sunday's match.

At a glance (Montana): The Grizzlies opened their season with road wins at North Dakota and North Dakota State.

Delaney Lou Schorr scored the game-winner in Grand Forks on Thursday, heading in a lofted pass from Ava Samuelson in the 58th minute for a 1-0 win over the Fighting Hawks.

The Grizzlies didn't allow a shot in the first half, outshot North Dakota 17-7 for the match and helped redshirt freshman Ashlyn Dvorak record a shutout in her collegiate debut.

On Sunday, Montana blitzed North Dakota State early and often, scoring three goals in the opening 12 minutes on its way to a 3-1 victory.

It was just the third time in program history, the first since 1997, the Grizzlies scored three goals in the opening 12 minutes of a match, the first time ever they did so on the road.

Skyleigh Thompson scored at 1:40, the 10th-fastest goal in program history, freshman Riley Carolan at 10:03 and Eliza Bentler at 11:15.

It was Thompson's sixth career goal, Carolan's first, Bentler's third.

Montana entered the road trip with just one win in seven all-time matches at North Dakota and North Dakota State. The Grizzlies are 2-0-0 in a non-Covid season for the first time since 2016.

Griz collect Week 1 honors: Montana earned both a Big Sky Conference Offensive and Defensive Player of the Week award after its road sweep.

Schorr was named Offensive Player of the Week for the second time in her career after scoring her ninth career goal at North Dakota. She added an assist on Thompson's opening goal at North Dakota State.

Molly Quarry, who played 120 minutes in the two matches, was named Defensive Player of the Week for the first time in her career.

She was part of a back line that allowed just 13 shots over two matches, six on goal, and assisted on Thompson's opening goal on Sunday and later Carolan's that made it 2-0.

They were the fourth and fifth assists of her career.

Unbeaten start leads to regional ranking: Montana's 2-0-0 start led the Grizzlies to a No. 9 ranking this week in the United Soccer Coaches West Region poll.

The Grizzlies come in behind seven teams from California, plus Gonzaga and Portland. The 10 teams ranked in the West Region opened the season 13-2-4.

At a glance (MSU Billings): The Yellowjackets, who are counting Thursday's match as an exhibition, opened their season with a 3-3 exhibition draw against Rocky Mountain over the weekend.

MSUB took a 3-1 lead into halftime, but goals in the 47th and 84th minutes allowed Rocky Mountain to battle back for the draw.

The Yellowjackets, who got outscored 36-11, went 3-12-4 last season, which included a 6-0 loss to the Grizzlies in Missoula, a match Montana led 5-0 at halftime.

MSU Billings was picked eighth out of eight teams in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference preseason poll. The poll was topped by defending Division II national champion Western Washington.

The Yellowjackets are led by first-year coach Abiye Jack, who was an assistant in the program the last two seasons.

Series history: Montana leads the all-time series against MSU Billings 4-0-0, including last season's 6-0 win. The Grizzlies have outscored the Yellowjackets 14-0 in their four matchups.

Last year's match was the 10th time in program history Montana won by shutout and scored at least six goals, the second time under coach Chris Citowicki. The Grizzlies defeated Texas Southern 6-0 in 2021.

At a glance (Ohio State): The Buckeyes have been to 16 NCAA tournaments, all since 2002 and all under 27th-year coach Lori Walker-Hock, who has a record at OSU of 283-195-57.

Walker, a goalkeeper, was on four national championship teams as a player at North Carolina in the late 80s and early 90s.

She is a three-time Big Ten Coach of the Year and led the Buckeyes to the national semifinals in 2010, where they lost 1-0 to eventual national champion Notre Dame.

Ohio State returns seven starters and 16 letter-winners from a team that went 11-6-3 last season and tied for fourth in the Big Ten at 5-3-2.

The Buckeyes advanced to the NCAA tournament and defeated Bucknell and current Griz Abby Gearhart in the first round 1-0 in double overtime before losing 5-2 at Arkansas in the second round.

Ohio State lost its three United Soccer Coaches All-North Region players off last year's team, including Kayla Fischer, who was selected 16th in the NWSL Draft.

Senior midfielder Peyton McNamara, junior defender Sydney Jones and junior forward Kailyn Dudukovich made this month's Big Ten Players to Watch list.

Dudukovich scored seven goals as a freshman in 2021, added seven more last year and has scored three of Ohio State's four goals this season.

The Buckeyes, picked seventh out of 14 teams in the Big Ten preseason poll, opened their season with a 3-0 shutout of Miami (Ohio). They lost 2-1 to Buffalo on Sunday despite outshooting the Bulls 18-7.

Ohio State plays at No. 17 Memphis on Thursday night, the Buckeyes' first road match of the season.

Series history: Montana and Ohio State will be playing for the first time on Sunday.

The Grizzlies are 6-15-1 all-time against teams currently in the Big Ten, having played Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, Purdue and Wisconsin.

Montana's last match against a team from the Big Ten was a 1-0 loss at Iowa in 2017. Its last win against a team from the Big Ten was a 2-1 overtime victory at Purdue in 2016.

Montana's most recent home match against the Big Ten was a 3-1 loss to Purdue in 2015, its last home win against the Big Ten a 1-0 victory over Iowa in 2015.

Summary: Montana opened its season last week with 1-0 and 3-1 road wins at North Dakota and North Dakota State, outshooting the Fighting Hawks and Bison 32-13.

Of note is that during coach Chris Citowicki's first four non-Covid seasons – 2018, '19, '21 and '22 – the Grizzlies scored a total of two goals in eight games in their first two matches of each of those seasons.

In other words, he has something in his sixth team that he's never had before at Montana.

"There is no rush to get rid of the ball or anxiety with the ball," he said. "The ability to keep the ball, remain composed, find the right pass, their level of confidence after last week is through the roof.

"There is an ability to keep the ball up the field that we've never had before."

It's led to a hands-off approach. "We don't get in the way of this. We don't over-coach anything," he said. "I've never felt like that.

"I went (to practice on Tuesday) with a bunch of coaching points. We gave them the problems from the games, okay, let's try to fix it today, and they fixed it on their own."

Montana will host MSU Billings on Thursday in the Grizzlies' home opener, then face Ohio State on Sunday evening in a high-profile match.

"I love the fact (Ohio State) accepted the opportunity to come here," said Citowicki. "It says a lot about them. To have someone like that in Missoula, it's an exciting time.

"Come out and watch high-level soccer right here in Missoula. You don't have to watch on TV. It's going to be right here. Let's get a huge crowd and just enjoy the spectacle.

"I'm sure Ohio State will play beautiful soccer and be very good and we're going to try to do the same thing. Come out and be entertained."

Montana has cracked 1,000 for a home attendance twice in program history.

The Grizzlies drew 1,093 for a home match against BYU in 1999 and 1,008 in 1997 against Weber State in the first-ever Big Sky Conference tournament championship match.

Montana notes:

* The Grizzlies are 130-65-30 (.644) all-time in Missoula, 123-62-30 (.642) at South Campus Stadium. After going 14-2-3 at home from 2019-21, Montana went an uncharacteristic 4-3-4 last fall.

* Montana's four goals this season have come from four players. Five different players have assists this season.

* The Grizzlies scored the opening goal in both matches last weekend. Montana scored first in just seven of 20 matches a year ago.

* The two wins gave coach Chris Citowicki 92 for his collegiate coaching career, leaving him eight victories shy of 100.

* Montana's win at North Dakota on Thursday was the only shutout victory for the Big Sky last week. The Grizzlies were responsible for half of the league's opening-week four wins.

* Molly Quarry leads the Big Sky in assists with two, Elize Bentler is tied for the league high in shots per game (3.5).

* Ashlyn Dvorak needed to make just five saves last week to open her collegiate career with a shutout and a 2-0-0 record.

* Charley Boone, at center back, played all 180 minutes last week. Reeve Borseth, also at center back, played 171. Midfielder Maddie Ditta played 159.

* Ava Samuelson's assist on Delaney Lou Schorr's game-winning goal at North Dakota was the seventh of her career. Sydney Haustein also assisted on the play, the third of her career.

* Schorr assisted on Thompson's opening goal on Sunday in Fargo, the second of her career. Ditta assisted on Eliza Bentler's goal that made it 3-0. It was Ditta's third career assist.

Upcoming: Montana will head to Spokane next week for Gonzaga's tournament. The Grizzlies will face Utah Tech (1-0-1) on Thursday, Oklahoma (2-0-0) on Sunday.