SACRAMENTO, Calif. — In addition to battling one another for 90 minutes on the field, the Sacramento State women's soccer team and visiting Montana had to deal with Mother Nature and wind gusts up to 20 miles per hour on Friday afternoon, ending the day in a scoreless draw at Hornet Soccer Field.
The Hornets and the league-leading Grizzlies both picked up a point in the Big Sky Conference standings as a result, with Sacramento State moving to 4-6-5 overall and 2-2-2 in conference play as well as securing an unbeaten home record at 4-0-4 overall.
Entering the match unbeaten in its last nine, Montana maintained that streak, moving to 9-2-4 overall and 3-0-2 in league play.
The visiting Grizzlies out-shot the Hornets by a 22-8 count, but could manage only five shots on goal for the contest — all stopped by sophomore goalkeeper Izzy Palmatier, who tallied her fourth shutout the season and the eighth of her career.
That total ranks her tied for seventh on the school's all-time list alongside Amy Seely (2000-02) and Jenny Lawrence (2005-08).
Sacramento State's defense also stood tall against Montana's top two scorers, limiting the duo of Jen Estes and Chloe Seelhoff, who entered the day with 11 goals combined, to just five total shots — but only one on frame.
At the other end, Candace Ching and Lexi Schroeder each had attempts on frame, but Bayliss Flynn was up to the task, logging her seventh clean sheet of the season.
The Hornets came out firing, attempting three of the first four shots in the match in the first seven minutes with the wind at their collective backs. The Grizzlies responded with five straight shots, including one on frame, but were forced to take a number of their attempts from distance.
Sacramento State ended the first half with a chance by Lexi Schroeder, whose attempt from distance with less than three minutes to play was easily brought in by Flynn.
Montana's best chance came in the 66th minute when Estes was able to get her head on the ball off a cross from Reeve Borseth, but pushed it wide left. In the 85th minute, Kayla Rendon Bushmaker sent a low ball in the box that made its way across the top of the six to Seelhoff, but her one-timer sailed over the crossbar.
With just under a half and hour to play, sophomore Ellie Farber nearly timed her run perfectly at the right post as Teysha-Ray Spinney-Kuahuia placed a perfect ball into the six, but Flynn beat Farber to the ball and was able to secure the pass before the Hornets were able to body the ball in.
Farber finished with a team-high four shot attempts, while Maddie Ditta took eight attempts for the Grizzlies, but put only two of those on frame.
With the team's final two matches of the regular season now on the road, Sacramento State closes out the weekend with a trip to Flagstaff, Ariz., on Sunday (Oct. 20), kicking-off at Northern Arizona at 1 p.m.
