MISSOULA, Mont. (November 4, 2024) – Northern Arizona Soccer (4-7-5, 4-3-1) will look to make its third-straight Big Sky tournament championship match this week, as a quarterfinal contest is slated with the Sacramento State Hornets (5-6-6, 3-2-3) for Wednesday at 2 p.m. MST to kick things off.
No. 1 Montana (12-2-4, 6-0-2) and No. 2 Idaho (11-5-2, 5-2-1) received the first-round bye while leading the conference standings. The tournament will kick off at 11 a.m. MST, as the No. 3 Eastern Washington Eagles (9-5-4, 4-1-3) meet the No. 6 Portland State Vikings (4-8-4, 2-3-3) for a shot at a trip to the semifinals. Following the EWU/PSU matchup, No. 4 seed NAU will look to advance to the semifinals, picking back up with the No. 5 Hornets following a 1-1 tie between the two in the regular season.
Haylee Phoenix scored for the Lumberjacks in the 4
th minute of the match before Sacramento State's Madelyn Dougherty evened the score in the 11
th minute.
Trinity Corcoran and
Natalie Manzo split time evenly in the box for the Jacks, Corcoran finishing with four, while Manzo picked up five stops in the second half of play. The Hornets goalkeeper Izzy Palmatier finished with four stops in 90 minutes in the box.
Northern Arizona leads the overall series with the Hornets at 16-10-6, while also holding a 2-1-0 advantage in neutral-site meetings. The Jacks are currently led by 2024 Big Sky Golden Boot award winner,
Haylee Phoenix who finished the regular season with five goals in league play, earning her the award for the first time in her career and marking the first NAU player to do so since the 2021 campaign.
Phoenix scored five goals over four conference matches, recording one multi-goal game against Northern Colorado. The senior separated herself amongst the league's other top scorers when she netted her fifth goal of the year in the regular season-finale on Sunday against Idaho State. The Fontana, California native leads the Lumberjacks in points on the season (10) and ranks second in the Big Sky in points through conference-only games.
Alongside Phoenix,
Joey Lujan has made noise in her final season with the Jacks as well, closely following Phoenix on NAU's points leaderboard with nine, coming off three goals and three assists. Lujan scored a goal and grabbed two assists in the final week of regular season play, scoring against Weber State and adding two assists at Idaho State to ramp up momentum heading into the tournament while leading the team in minutes, recording 1,421.
Micala Boex and
Deniah Wells both join Lujan in NAU's three-assist club this season, while Boex adds two goals and Wells adds one.
In goal, Corcoran has tabbed 1,260 minutes, stopping 87 shots for a save percentage of 0.837. The senior keeper has totaled four victories for the Jacks, picking up three solo shutouts and one shared with Manzo. Manzo has totaled 180 minutes in goal for the Jacks this season, making 14 stops for a save percentage of 0.824.
Semifinal matchups will be played on Friday, Nov. 8 in Missoula. The EWU/PSU winner will take on No. 2 Idaho at 11 a.m. MST, while the winner of NAU and Sacramento State's matchup will take on host institution and No. 1 seed Montana at 2 p.m. MST. The championship is set for Sunday, Nov. 10 at 1 p.m. MST
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