MISSOULA, Mont – In a battle for first place in the Big Sky Conference, Montana edged the University of Idaho women's soccer team, 0-1, with an overtime goal in the 96th minute to break a 0-0 stalemate Friday evening at South Campus Stadium.

With Idaho's first loss in conference play, they are now 3-10-1 on the year and 3-1-1 in conference play. Montana improves to 9-5-0, including a 5-0-0 league record.

“Montana is a very good team and we worked our tails off to defend and to limit their chances on goal and for long periods of time we were able to do that,” head coach Derek Pittman said. “Our entire team defended well and stayed very organized”

After a hard-fought 90 minutes of regulation, neither team had capitalized on their offense. In the first overtime period, UM earned a penalty kick off of an Idaho foul, senior Brooke Moody took the shot and knocked the ball into the goal on her attempt securing the victory for the Grizzles.

Overall, the Grizzlies held the edge on shots 18-5 in the match. Five Vandal players added one shot over the match, while sophomore goalkeeper Torell Stewart made three saves.

“I'm very proud of our players for battling toe to toe on the road with the top team in the Big Sky,” Pittman said “We did a lot of things well today and take confidence in the fact that we competed at a high level. We need to do better to create more chances to score, but we will recover quickly and be ready for EWU.”

This was the third overtime match for Idaho this season. The Vandals are now 0-2-1 in overtime play this year.

The Vandals continue their weekend action Sunday when they faceoff against Eastern Washington on the Eagles home pitch at 1 pm. PT.