Cheney, Wash.  – The Eastern Washington women's soccer team fell to Montana in tough, physical battle, by a score of 1-0, in a match that featured several scoring chances for the Eagles on Friday, Oct 31.

Won-Loss Records
EWU finalizes its regular season record to 8-8 overall, and its Big Sky Conference record to 5-5. Montana remains undefeated through its league matches, going 8-0-2 in the conference, for a record of 12-5-2 overall.

Turning Point
After a tough 67 minutes of scoreless play from both teams, a goal from the Grizzlies' Jamie Simon broke the deadlock as she one-timed a shot into the net from around the top of the box. The blistering attempt sailed just out of reach of senior goalkeeper Nathalie Schwery, to give Montana a 1-0 lead.

The Eagles, however, responded quickly by pushing the UM defense to its limits. Eastern failed to give up and were able to get a number of quality looks at the goal for the remainder of the match. Despite EWU's advances into Grizzly territory, the Montana defense was able to close out the game, giving them the 1-0 shutout victory.

Top Performers
Freshmen Chloe Williams and Savannah Hoekstra led Eastern's offensive attack by earning four shots, and one shot on goal apiece.

Senior Cassie Black and junior Tasha Luu each netted two on target shots out three in today's competition.

Key Stat
The Eagles were able to outshoot Montana by a tally of 9-7 in the first half, and 7-3 in the second, for total of 16-10 overall.

A number of Eastern's attempts came off of its 5 corner kicks in today's game.

Quoting Coach Bodnar
"We missed some chances that I think we could have made, that would have made it a different game. I'm very proud of our group though today. We would have really liked that bye in the first round, but if our kids play like they did today, I really think we can win a game or two to make a run at the Big Sky Tournament. I think our team has improved dramatically over the course of the season. It was a great team we played today and we played well."

Looking Forward to the Big Sky Tournament
With today's result, the Eagles can now finish no better than fourth place, after both Portland State and Idaho State were able to pick up a win this afternoon.

Eastern could face Southern Utah, Northern Arizona, Idaho, Idaho State or Northern Colorado in the first round depending on tonight's final Big Sky match results.

Game Notes
*The Eagles finish their regular season with a final record of 8-8, the second best record in program history.
*EWU's five conference wins is good enough for the all-time best conference record for Eastern.
*Eight seniors were honored in today's match, celebrating their final regular season game as an Eagle. The seniors recognized are Black, Schwery, Jessica Wallace, Kayla Sutter, Katie Cashman, Haley Stading, Marianne Johnson, and Meghan Sorensen.

Up Next
Eastern will play its first round match up in the Big Sky Championship on Thursday, Nov. 6, at either 11:00 a.m., or 2:00 p.m.