Griz host Vikings as season comes to a close - University of Montana Athletics

The Montana soccer team's season will come to an end on Thursday when it hosts Portland State at South Campus Stadium in Missoula.

The Grizzlies (3-12-1, 1-6-1 BSC) and Vikings (3-13-1, 1-6-1 BSC) will kick off at 1 p.m. as the regular season concludes across the Big Sky Conference.

The six-team Big Sky Conference Championship will begin next Wednesday at South Campus Stadium with a pair of quarterfinal matches.

Semifinals will be played on Friday, Nov. 13, the championship match on Sunday, Nov. 15.

Montana and Portland State have both been eliminated from the chase to make the postseason.

Coverage: Thursday's match will stream on ESPN+ with Ace Sauerwein calling the action. Sauerwein and Scot Gladstone will call the five Big Sky Championship matches next week.

At a glance (Montana): The Grizzlies entered their final stretch of home matches with a chance to win their way to a spot in the postseason but losses to Eastern Washington and Idaho ended those hopes.

On Thursday, Montana lost 1-0 to Eastern Washington, the Eagles scoring the game-winner in the 32nd minute.

The Grizzlies recorded season highs in both shots (22) and shots on goal (11) but couldn't get anything past EWU goalkeeper Payton Hyde, who saved all 11 shots on goal.

On Sunday, Montana lost 2-1 to Idaho. The Vandals scored early, in the 12th minute, then added another goal early in the second half, in the 57th minute, to build a 2-0 advantage.

The Grizzlies cut their deficit in half less than four minutes later when Grace Morton scored her second goal of the season, in the 61st minute.

Montana out-shot Idaho over the final 30 minutes but could not find the equalizer.

Morton's goal moved her into a tie with Megan Wilson-Sofield and Elli Lewis for the team lead with two. Morton's assist at Northern Arizona has her leading the team with five points.

The last Montana freshman to lead the team in scoring was Alexa Coyle in 2017. Coyle had four goals and two assists that season.

A freshman has led the Grizzlies in scoring only four times in program history: Coyle in 2017, Hallie Widner in 2014, Kaitlyn Heinsohn in 2007 and Courtney Mathieson in 1994.

Montana has scored three goals in eight Big Sky matches while allowing 14. For the season the Grizzlies have been out-scored 33-8.

Avery Heeb (3-11-1) has been the goalkeeper of record for all but one of Montana's matches this season. She has a 1.98 goals-against average, a .716 save percentage.

Morton (38), Wilson-Sofield (38) and Lewis (28) have accounted for more than 60 percent of Montana's shots this season. No one else on the team has taken more than eight.

Montana will miss its first Big Sky Conference Championship since 2013 and only its sixth since the league began holding a postseason tournament in 1997. The others: 2005, '07, '09, '10, '13.

At a glance (Portland State): Like the Grizzlies, the Vikings have struggled to score this season. They have 10 goals in 17 matches.

Portland State opened the season getting shut out four straight matches and has been shut out 10 times overall, four times in eight Big Sky matches.

The Vikings picked up their first win of the season over Western Oregon, 3-2, then added a 1-0 shutout victory over San Diego, their only shutout of the season.

Their third win was a surprising 2-1 home victory over Weber State in mid-October, the only league loss of the season for the first-place Wildcats.

Portland State played Eastern Washington to a 1-1 draw at home on Sunday, which allowed the Vikings to pull into a ninth-place tie with Montana.

Junior forward Aliayha Saldana has three goals and one assist. Senior forward Elle Frazier and senior forward Yammile Picon have both scored twice.

Sophomore Kendel Johnson, who spent her freshman season at Montana last year, has a pair of assists.

Senior Finley Crabtree has played all but 31 minutes in goal this season. She has a 1.92 goals-against average and .714 save percentage.

Series history:

* Montana leads the all-time series 19-13-4 and has gone 10-6-3 in Missoula against Portland State.

* The Grizzlies have won four straight over the Vikings, all by shutout.

* Over the teams' last 10 match-ups, Montana is 8-1-1 against Portland State, out-scoring the Vikings 16-2.

* Portland State's last win in the series was a 1-0 victory at home in 2022. The Vikings have not defeated the Grizzlies in Missoula since 2013.

* Montana's 1-0 win at Portland State last season on the final day of the regular season, on a Maddie Ditta penalty kick in the 62nd minute, gave the Grizzlies the outright Big Sky championship.

Around the Big Sky Conference:

* The Big Sky schedule concludes on Thursday with five league matches, all being played at 1 p.m. (MT).

* Weber State (6-1-1 BSC) and Northern Colorado (5-1-2 BSC) are the only two teams in the running for the regular-season championship. The Wildcats have 19 points, the Bears 17.

* Five of the six teams that will travel to Missoula next week are known: Weber State, Northern Colorado, Idaho, Northern Arizona and Utah Tech.

* Four of those were expected, with Weber State, Idaho, Utah Tech and Northern Arizona being picked in the top four spots in the preseason coaches' poll. Northern Colorado was picked ninth.

* The sixth spot is up for grabs between Idaho State (9 points), Southern Utah (8 points) and Eastern Washington (6 points). ISU plays at Weber State, SUU hosts Utah Tech, EWU hosts Idaho on Thursday.

* Only Montana and Portland State have been eliminated going into the final day of the regular season.

* Thursday schedule: PSU at UM, NAU at UNC, ISU at WSU, UT at SUU, UUI at EWU

* Big Sky Conference Championship schedule:

Wednesday, Nov. 11 – Quarterfinals, 10:30 a.m./1:30 p.m.
Friday, Nov. 13 – Semifinals, 10:30 a.m./1:30 p.m.
Sunday, Nov. 15 – Championship, 1 p.m.

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Players Mentioned

Maddie Ditta

Avery Heeb

Kendel Johnson

Elli Lewis

Grace Morton

Megan Wilson-Sofield

University of Montana Athletics