Griz back home for pair of matches

The Montana soccer team will seek to pick up its first win of the season this week when it hosts Lethbridge and MSU Billings at South Campus Stadium in Missoula.

The Grizzlies (0-3-0) will face the Pronghorns on Thursday at 5 p.m., the Yellowjackets at 1 p.m. on Sunday.

Thursday's match is an exhibition for Lethbridge, which does not open its regular-season schedule until Sept. 5.

MSU Billings plays its season opener on Thursday night when it hosts Minnesota-Crookston. Sunday's match in Missoula is an exhibition for the Yellowjackets.

Montana dropped a pair of 4-0 decisions last week on the road, falling at Seattle and at No. 10 Washington after opening the season with a 1-0 home loss to Bucknell.

Coverage: Both matches this week will stream on ESPN+ with Ace Sauerwein calling the action on Thursday, Asher Lynde on Sunday.

Storylines:

* After Sunday's match against MSU Billings, which will be Montana's third home match of August, the Grizzlies will only have one home match in September, against Wyoming on Friday, Sept. 11.

After hosting the Cowgirls, Montana won't play at home again until hosting Idaho State on Thursday, Oct. 15.

* Sunday's match at Washington was Montana's 24th all-time against a ranked opponent. The Grizzlies are 3-21 in those matches, their last win coming in 2000.

* Thursday's match will be Montana's first regular-season meeting against Lethbridge and the Grizzlies' first-ever regular-season match with a Canadian team.

* Montana leads the all-time series against MSU Billings 7-0-0 and has yet to allow a goal against the Yellowjackets, outscoring MSUB 25-0.

The teams played last September in Missoula, with Montana rolling to a 5-0 victory.

* Lethbridge went winless last season, finishing the year 0-13-1. The Pronghorns were outscored 47-6.

* MSU Billings played to a 2-2 draw with Rocky Mountain on Saturday night in Billings. Cesia Swain opened the scoring in the 15th minute, Abby Thompson scored the equalizer in the 75th minute.

Abiye Jack is entering his fourth season as head coach.

* The Yellowjackets went 3-15-0 last season, all three wins coming at home at Yellowjacket Soccer Field. MSUB finished eighth out of eight teams in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference at 2-12 in league.

MSU Billings, outscored last season 37-7, was picked seventh in this year's preseason coaches' poll, ahead of Saint Martin's.

* Sophomore goalkeeper Jill Miliffe made her collegiate debut at Seattle on Thursday, replacing starter Avery Heeb in the 70th minute and the score 4-0.

Miliffe made four saves over the final 20:46, then started and played all 90 minutes on Sunday at Washington.

* Lucie Rokos, Hayley Bass and Ellen Hampton have played every minute this season.

* Megan Wilson-Sofield has played 257 of 270 minutes this season and has taken seven of Montana's 14 shots through three matches.

* Freshman Josephine Frischknecht has started the season's first three matches.

Freshman Grace Morton started the season opener and at Washington, freshman Sofia Ballesteros started both matches of the Seattle-Washington road trip.

* In Thursday's 4-0 loss at Seattle, Montana fell behind 1-0 in the 33rd minute and trailed 1-0 at the half. The Redhawks scored three times in the opening 20 minutes of the second half to pull away.

* Seattle was credited with 24 shots in the second half, 34 for the match, the second-highest total faced by Montana in program history behind Washington's 39 shots in 1994 in a 2-0 road loss.

* The No. 10 Huskies struck for two goals in the opening 6:04 of Sunday's 4-0 loss, the second coming on a penalty kick. Washington added two second-half goals.

Upcoming: Montana will play road matches at Air Force (3-0-0) and Denver (0-3-0) next week.

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Players Mentioned

Sofia Ballesteros

Hayley Bass

Josephine Frischknecht

Ellen Hampton

Avery Heeb

Jill Miliffe

Grace Morton

Lucie Rokos

Megan Wilson-Sofield

University of Montana Athletics