SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Sacramento State got a goal in the 68th minute to cut its deficit to just one but couldn't find another score as Montana held on for a 2-1 win on Friday at Hornet Field.

"We played well for a good portion of the game but we had a couple mental lapses defensively that cost us a couple goals," Sacramento State head coach Randy Dedini said. "That's been kind of a familiar theme in each of our conference games - we play well but there are moments when we have mental lapses and it costs us goals. Every one of our games has been really close this year but we just can't seem to avoid the mistakes that cost us games."

Sacramento State (5-7-0, 0-3-0 Big Sky) lost by just one goal for the sixth time this season after its first of four home conference games over the next two weeks. With the win Montana (7-5-0, 3-0-0 Big Sky) remained atop the Big Sky table.

Sophomore Adaurie Dayak scored her first goal of the season on Friday as sophomore Kassidy Kellogg had a break from near midfield and found Dayak for a low finish to the far post from the right side of the box. She became the 10th Hornet player to score a goal this season.

The Hornets had to play catch up from the start of the game, as Montana scored just five minutes and 19 seconds into the match. Montana senior Paytyn Wheeler had an open shot to the left side of the Hornet goal that was stopped by Hornet goalkeeper Kimberly Mata, but Griz senior Tyler Adair corralled the rebound and finished into the open net.

Mata made six saves in the first half, including a lunging denial on a Grizzly shot in the 40th minute, to keep the deficit at one. Montana continued to keep pressure on early in the second half and was able to double its lead in the 57th minute as Savannah Witt and Mackenzie Akins had a give-and-go off a corner kick with Witt burying a shot in the upper 90.

After the Dayak goal the Hornets attempted five more shots but couldn't score again. Senior Kassi Anast came close on a free kick from just beyond midfield that required Griz goalkeeper Kailey Norman to make a leaping save. Kellogg and senior Kristen Bridges also had good looks on goal in the final minutes but couldn't find the net.

Norman made three of her four saves in the second half while Mata had a season-high 10 total stops in the game. The shots were 16-13 in favor of Montana while corner kicks were even 6-6.

Sacramento State hosts Eastern Washington at 1 p.m. Sunday.