The University of Montana women’s soccer team has been crowned the Big Sky Soccer Tournament champions for the second consecutive season. No. 2 Montana defeated No. 4 Weber State 1-0 in a hotly contested match Sunday to punch its ticket to the NCAA Tournament for the third time in four seasons.
The Griz will play at Washington State on Saturday, November 13 in the first round of the NCAAs.
“That was a tough one, the second half especially,” said Montana head coach Chris Citowicki. “Normally, soccer games have some sort of tactic to it, but when you’re desperate, and you’re trying to get back in the game, you start sending players forward into spots that you normally don’t. So it got really messy in the second half. I feel like our conversation of ‘How bad do you want it?’ at halftime did that, and we got it done.”
The Griz had to hold off a Wildcat attack in the second half that pressured their backline. The Wildcats took 11 shots in the second half, but the Griz backline and goalkeeper Camellia Xu put together another clean sheet.
Montana scored the game-winning goal in the first half to take a 1-0 lead. After multiple attempts to break the Wildcats backline, Jaden Griggs got in behind and gathered a square ball from Zoe Transtrum. Griggs struck a solid shot off the right foot that found the center of the goal to beat the goalkeeper.
Weber State outshot Montana in the game 12-10, but the Griz had the shot advantage in the first half, 8-1.
Montana’s Xu had six saves in the match to keep a clean sheet. Weber State’s Kaytlin Bradley had four saves.
Montana has now won its seventh Big Sky tournament title. It is the Grizzlies’ second time winning the title in back-to-back seasons.
Montana’s Xu, Charley Boone, Taylor Stoeger, Taylor Hansen, Caitlin Rogers and Allie Larson were named to the all-tournament team, with Xu named tournament MVP.
