The University of Montana soccer team will travel to Reno, Nev., this week for a pair of matches at the University of Nevada. The Grizzlies will face the host Wolf Pack Friday at 3 p.m. (MT) and South Dakota State University in a neutral-site match Sunday at 1 p.m. (MT).
Nevada and South Dakota State will meet Saturday at 3 p.m. (MT).
All three matches will be played at Nevada’s Mackay Stadium.
Live coverage: All three matches at Nevada this weekend will have live stats through the soccer schedule page at NevadaWolfPack.com.
Where they stand: The three teams have played nine games between them and are all still seeking their first victories. Montana is 0-3-1, Nevada is 0-2-1 and South Dakota State is 0-1-1.
All three teams have struggled offensively this season, which has made wins hard to come by. Montana has three goals through four matches, Nevada has two goals through three matches and South Dakota State has yet to score in two matches.
Most recently: Montana and Nevada both played a pair of matches at Missoula last weekend.
The Grizzlies fell to Iowa State Friday, 1-0, and Gonzaga Sunday, 3-2.
Nevada played the opposite match of Montana both days. The Wolf Pack played to a 1-1 draw against Gonzaga Friday and dropped a 2-1 decision to Iowa State Sunday.
South Dakota State has played just two matches through its opening two weekends of the season. The Jacks opened the season with a scoreless draw at Creighton on Aug. 20, then lost at home to Drake, 1-0, last Sunday.
More on Nevada: The Wolf Pack will be making their home debut when they host the Grizzlies Friday afternoon. Nevada lost its season opener at St. Mary’s, 1-0, two weekends ago.
Senior defender Erin Smith and freshman midfielder Aleina Dominguez both scored goals last weekend, with Dominguez scoring in the 1-1 draw with the Zags and Smith scoring in the 2-1 loss to the Cyclones.
Nevada has been out-shot through three matches, 67 to 29, and has allowed 12 corners to its opponents while only generating three for itself.
Coach Melissa Price is in her first season.
The Wolf Pack went 10-12 last year and finished fourth in the Western Athletic Conference with a 5-3 league record. Nevada, the No. 4 seed, advanced to the championship match of the WAC postseason tournament where it fell 1-0 to No. 3 seed Boise State.
Series history: Friday’s meeting will be the first between Montana and Nevada.
More on South Dakota State: The Jackrabbits only added soccer to its athletics program in 2000, but they were playing in the second round of the NCAA College Cup just two seasons ago in 2008.
Despite having 10 returning starters and 20 returning letterwinners, SDSU has struggled, at least offensively, out of the gate in 2010, with a scoreless draw at Creighton and a 1-0 home loss to Drake.
In Sunday’s loss to the Bulldogs, South Dakota State gave up what would be the game-winning goal in the 14th minute but couldn’t find the equalizer despite out-shooting Drake 15 to 0 in the second half.
Players who accounted for 24 of South Dakota State’s 29 goals in 2009 are back, led by senior midfielder Kaitlin Justice, who scored a team-leading seven goals last fall, and junior forward Kayla Braffet, who scored six goals and added eight assists.
Coach Lang Wedemeyer has been coaching the Jacks since the program’s inception.
SDSU went 11-7-2 a year ago and tied for the Summit League regular-season title with a 7-2 league record. Playing as host, the Jacks lost the Summit League’s postseason tournament championship match to No. 2 IUPUI, 4-1.
Series history: Montana and South Dakota State have split their previous two meetings, each winning on its home turf.
The Grizzlies won the last meeting, a 1-0 decision at Missoula in 2006. The Jacks won the first meeting, 2-1, in 2005 in Brookings.
Weekend recap: Montana dropped its home opener last Friday to Iowa State, 1-0, giving up the game-winning goal less than three minutes into the second half.
The Grizzlies got five shots off in the final 20 minutes, including a strike from freshman Rachel Bindl that hit the crossbar in the 79th minute, but couldn’t find the equalizer.
Both teams put six shots on goal.
Sunday against Gonzaga, Montana jumped out to leads of 1-0 and 2-1 but could not hold them.
The Zags’ Sarah Rhodes tied it at two in the 26th minute, then scored the game-winner in the 70th minute.
Sophomore Erin Craig opened the scoring off an assist from freshman India Watne in the seventh minute.
Senior Kaitlyn Heinsohn scored her 12th career goal off an assist from senior Frankie Brady in the 25th minute to make it 2-1.
Montana was out-shot on the weekend 41 to 17 but put 10 shots on goal (58.8 percent of its total shots) to 13 (31.7 percent) for ISU and GU.
Freshman Julianna Jack played all 180 minutes in goal. She allowed four goals and made nine saves.
Freshman defender Courtney Watson also played all 180 minutes. Sophomore defender Lauren Costa played 172 minutes, Heinsohn 163.
Up next: Montana will have its first single-match weekend of the season when the Grizzlies host Wyoming at South Campus Stadium on Friday, Sept. 10, at 5:30 p.m.
Five minutes with coach Neil Sedgwick
Q: Despite playing in three tight games through the opening four matches of the season, you have yet to record that breakthrough victory. Does the team need that first win for its well-being and confidence?
“I think we need to continue to be close to winning. They need to know they are getting better and putting out strong performances over long periods of time within a game.”
Q: You’ve talked about the progress the team has made through the opening two weekends of matches. Can the team see that despite not coming up with its first victory?
“I think they believe it. They know that the group is young, and I think they see that the team is improving. They see that potential every day in training. They just know they have to put together a good 90 minutes of effort.”
Q: Are you seeing things in your day-to-day training that are not carrying over to the field?
“We know what we can do in games, because we saw it last weekend. We scored two goals on Gonzaga with some good attacking play, but can we do that for 90 minutes? That’s our goal now.”
Q: After the 1-0 loss to Iowa State, you mentioned that the team was back on its heels early in the second half when the Cyclones scored the game-winner. How do you address that as a coach?
“Mental rehearsal is as much a part of the game as physical rehearsal. As a coach you do your best to give reminders about the tools the players need to be successful.”
Q: What do you expect from Nevada?
“Nevada is a good team, with good, solid players. They have three very dangerous players, and they play a very attacking style and push a lot of players forward. Perhaps not as many as Gonzaga did, but their dangerous players could cause more problems than Gonzaga’s.”
Q: You had the opportunity to see Nevada twice in action last weekend on your field. How much scouting goes on when you face a team like South Dakota State?
“You’re not going to see many differences (between teams) in the college game. You’re going to see a few different systems, a few different dangerous players in different spots, but you’re not going to see huge changes.
“We need to worry more about ourselves right now than the opponent.”
Q: Without a detailed scouting report like you see in other sports, do you trust the players to be able to identify early in the match what the other team is trying to do?
“Absolutely. And we can certainly help figure that out from the sideline and make a couple of adjustments, but you don’t want to adjust too much because then it takes away from your long-term purpose.”
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