A perfectly frustrating day.

Byline: Chris Hansen The Register-Guard

The silence on the Oregon sideline spoke volumes Sunday afternoon.

Frustrated coaches, disappointed players and not a whole lot of joy followed the Ducks' first misstep of the new season, a 1-0 nonleague soccer loss to Montana before 428 at Pape Field.

Statistically, Oregon (3-1-0) dominated the Grizzlies (1-3-0), outshooting them 17-8 and getting eight corner kicks to Montana's two.

But it was a score off a penalty kick in the 75th minute that proved to be the only shot that mattered.

"I'm disappointed in the result, but I'm also not really pleased in the way we played, even though the stats show we could've won that game," Oregon coach Tara Erickson said.

Her beefs? Effort. Physical readiness. Mental preparation. The typical culprits when one team thinks it is facing a team it should beat - and Montana certainly fit that bill, as it came in with an 0-3 record, including a 4-0 loss to Oregon State on Friday.

"You've got to come out to play every game," Erickson said. " You've got to give credit to Montana, but this is a bad loss for us. I hope that our team can recognize that that can't happen. ... We need to take care of the teams that we can and not let teams like that sneak in on us."

Erickson said Oregon has struggled to be sharp at the beginning of games this season, including on Friday night, when the Ducks were locked in a scoreless tie with UC Riverside at the half before going on to win 5-1.

"I think these past two games we've kind of been caught on our heels a little bit," sophomore midfielder Danielle Sweeney said.

"We're always used to being the team that gets fired up to play the big guys, and now the roles are kind of reversed. Now after this loss we'll get our act together and not take anything lightly."

Sweeney, who leads the Ducks with three goals and seven points on the season, took three shots on Sunday, two that were saved by Montana goalie Grace Harris and one that went over the crossbar.

Dani Oster and Jill Jensen led the Ducks with four shots each, though Jensen's best chance came when an attempted clear by Harris deflected off her and bounced back just wide of an empty net in the first half.

Harris finished the game with six saves. Oregon goalie Jessie Chatfield wasn't nearly as busy. She finished with four saves on half the attempts.

The one shot Chatfield couldn't corral came on a penalty kick by Mahlleace Tomsin, whose first goal of the season was set up when Oregon's Jessica Goodell was whistled for tackling the Grizzlies' Sara Campbell in the penalty area as Campbell was setting up to shoot.

"I don't think we really had to give up the penalty in order to save that from being a shot on goal," Erickson said. "I'm sure she had the best intentions, but maybe we should try and defend that a little more and not go for the tackle there."

The penalty put Chatfield in a one-on-one situation with Tomsin from 12 yards out.

"There's not a whole lot a goalie can do (on penalty shots)," Chatfield said. "You can do your best to read the player and do your best to react, but for the most part it's put everything on the line and hope for a mis-hit."

But Tomsin didn't, sending her shot into the top right corner over Chatfield's outstretched arms.

"I think it's really unfortunate the way that we had the result today," Chatfield said. "I'm sad for our team, and I'm sad for the players who will look back on this game and feel like they didn't put it all out on the field today."