Regionally ranked teams to square off Thursday in Boise

The Montana soccer team will play a pair of Mountain West Conference opponents this week as the Grizzlies close out their August schedule.

Montana (1-1-1) will play at Boise State (1-0-2) on Thursday night under the lights, the match kicking off at 7 p.m. at Boas Soccer Complex in the Broncos' home opener.

The Grizzlies are ranked No. 8 this week in the United Soccer Coaches' West Region poll. The Broncos are ranked No. 8 in the Pacific Region.

Montana will return home and host Nevada (1-1-0) on Sunday at 1 p.m. at South Campus Stadium, where the Grizzlies have lost just once in their last 19 matches.

Montana will open September with a pair of single-match weeks, hosting MSU Billings on Sunday, Sept. 7, and playing at UC Davis on Sunday, Sept. 14.

Coverage: Thursday's match will be streamed on the Mountain West Digital Network, Sunday's on ESPN+ with Ace Sauerwein calling the action.

Thursday summary: Thursday's match will feature the defending Big Sky Conference and Mountain West Conference regular-season champions.

The Grizzlies went 12-2-5 last season and won the Big Sky with a 6-0-2 league record. The Broncos went 16-4-2 and won the Mountain West at 8-1-2.

The two teams are a combined 54-13-19 since the start of the 2023 season.

Neither team advanced to the NCAA tournament last season, Montana's season coming to a close in the Big Sky semifinals, Boise State's in the Mountain West championship match.

The Broncos ended the 2024 season with an RPI of 53, leaving them on the short list of really good at-large teams to miss the cut to the NCAA tournament.

Sunday summary: Montana will try to start a new home-field streak after losing 2-0 at South Campus Stadium on Sunday to Baylor, ending the Grizzlies' run of 18 straight matches at home without a loss.

The Grizzlies and Wolf Pack will be meeting for only the fourth time, the first since Montana's 1-0 victory over Nevada in Reno in 2015.

At a glance (Montana): The Grizzlies went 0-1-1 last week at the strong and balanced Rumble in the Rockies, playing to a 1-1 draw with Seattle and falling 2-0 to Baylor.

Three of the four Rumble matches were draws, with Baylor and Denver playing to a 0-0 tie on Thursday, and Denver and Seattle finishing 1-1 on Sunday.

Sunday's loss to the Bears snapped a pair of record-setting streaks for the Grizzlies.

Montana had gone 15-0-3 in its previous 18 home matches and had gone 10-0-6 in its last 16 matches overall dating back to last season, the second-longest unbeaten streak in the nation behind USC (19).

In Thursday's match against Seattle, Montana fell behind 1-0 just 3:03 in after an own goal. It was the first goal allowed by the Grizzlies in nearly 630 minutes dating back to last season.

Held to just three shots in the first half, none of them on goal, Montana evened the score at 1-1 with a Maddie Ditta penalty kick less than eight minutes into the second half.

It was Ditta's 10th career goal and ended her own streak. Her first nine goals as a Grizzly had all been game-winners.

Bayliss Flynn played the first half in goal, Ashlyn Dvorak the second half, with Dvorak getting credited with the tie.

Facing the Bears on Sunday, Montana fell behind 2-0 in the first half and never recovered.

Baylor played 11-v-10 against Denver on Thursday for the match's final 68 minutes because of a red card, the Bears going scoreless despite out-shooting the Pioneers 23-5.

Baylor scored in the eighth and 43rd minutes on Sunday, twice hit the crossbar in the first half and enjoyed 61 percent of the possession over the opening 45 minutes.

Montana out-shot Baylor 15-11 for the match but put only four shots on goal.

Dvorak made her first start of the season in goal and played all 90 minutes, making three saves.

At a glance (Boise State): Despite losing their top two goal-scorers from a season ago, the Broncos were picked a strong second in this year's Mountain West preseason poll behind Utah State.

Boise State opened the season with surprising 1-1 draws on the road at both Idaho State and Southern Utah, the team Montana opened the season defeating 3-0.

The draw at Idaho State has aged better, as the Bengals sit atop the Big Sky at 2-0-1, including a 3-1 thumping of Summit League favorite North Dakota State.

The Broncos picked up their first win of the season on Sunday, defeating Utah Tech 2-1 on the road, Boise State going up 2-0 in the 64th minute, then holding off the Trailblazers.

Jim Thomas has been the head coach at Boise State since 2013. He is the winningest coach in program history.

Series history: Montana holds an all-time record against Boise State of 10-5-2 and has not lost to the Broncos since 2008.

After Boise State won five straight in the series between 2004 and '08, Montana has gone 8-0-2 in the 10 meetings since, including last year's 2-0 win in Missoula.

The Grizzlies have shut out the Broncos in the teams' last six match-ups, Boise State's last goal against Montana coming in 2011.

It's been an exceptionally tight series over the years, last year's result only the second in 17 all-time meetings that wasn't a draw or one-goal difference.

Montana is 4-2-1 against the Broncos in Boise. The last meeting at Boas Soccer Complex was a 0-0 draw in 2022.

At a glance (Nevada): The Wolf Pack, who host Cal Poly on Thursday night in their home opener, are 1-1-0.

After opening the season with a 2-0 loss at Arizona State, Nevada picked up a 2-1 come-from-behind win at Northern Arizona, scoring in the 66th and 72nd minutes to rally back from a 1-0 halftime deficit.

Nevada began playing soccer in 2000 and has had just two winning seasons in its history, going 11-7-2 in 2005 and 13-5-4 in 2006, when the Wolf Pack made their lone trip to the NCAA tournament.

In the 18 full seasons since that NCAA tournament appearance, Nevada won 86 matches, an average of fewer than five per season.

The Wolf Pack have made strides under third-year coach Vanessa Valentine, who led Nevada to a 6-10-5 record in her first season, in 2023, and 6-13-2 record a year ago.

It marked the first time since 2009 and '10 that the program won six or more matches in back-to-back seasons.

Both seasons ended with a trip to the Mountain West tournament, a first since 2012 and '13.

Nevada, at 4-5-2 in league, tied for sixth last season in the Mountain West. The Wolf Pack were picked ninth of out 13 teams in this year's preseason poll.

Nevada lost Emily Rich to graduation. She was first-team All-Mountain West a year ago, the first Wolf Pack player to ever earn first-team All-Mountain West honors.

Nevada lost three of its four multiple-goal scorers from a year ago, with junior forward Olivia Loomis – five goals, one assist in 2024 – back in 2025.

Senior Mia Collins, in her second season at Nevada after transferring from Missouri, has made both starts in goal this season.

Series history: Montana and Nevada have played just three times previously, with the Grizzlies holding a 2-1-0 advantage.

The Wolf Pack won 3-1 in Reno in 2010, Montana won 2-0 in Missoula in 2013, and the Grizzlies won 1-0 in Reno in 2015.

Around the Big Sky Conference:

* Idaho State (2-0-1) and Weber State (3-1-0), picked ninth and sixth, respectively, in the preseason coaches' poll, sit first and second in the league standings through two weeks of matches.

* After opening with a 1-1 home draw with Boise State, an ISU loss until the Bengals squared it in the 90th minute, Idaho State has posted home wins over North Dakota State (3-1) and CSU Bakersfield (1-0).

* Under first-year coach Kyle Christensen, Weber State has already surpassed last year's wins total, when the Wildcats went 2-13-5.

* Weber State picked up its first win of the season at Oregon State, coming back from a 2-0 halftime deficit to win 3-2 on goals in the 47th, 51st and 56th minutes.

* The Wildcats then matched Idaho State with home wins last week over CSU Bakersfield (2-1) and North Dakota State (3-1), the preseason favorite in the Summit League.

* Sacramento State (2-1-0) and Idaho (2-1-1) also have multiple victories. All nine teams in the Big Sky have at least one win this season, with the league a collective 14-10-6.

* Idaho State faces a tough road trip this week, playing at Oregon State on Thursday, at Seattle on Sunday. Weber State plays at Nebraska on Thursday.

* Other matches to monitor on Thursday: Washington State plays at Idaho and Sacramento State hosts UC Irvine, the team sitting No. 6 in the West Region.

Upcoming: A pair of single-match weeks for Montana, which hosts MSU Billings and plays at UC Davis the first two Sundays of September.

Regionally ranked teams to square off Thursday in Boise

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Players Mentioned

Maddie Ditta

Ashlyn Dvorak

Bayliss Flynn

University of Montana Athletics