Griz to get early start to season
8/12/2019 4:05:00 PM | Soccer
With an eye on its season opener, now just 11 days away, the Montana soccer team will prepare for North Dakota and the rest of its schedule with a pair of exhibition matches this week at a refurbished South Campus Stadium.
The Grizzlies will host the Mount Royal University Cougars, of Calgary, on Wednesday at 11 a.m. and the MacEwan University Griffins, of Edmonton, on Sunday at 1 p.m.
Both games are free of charge. Both matches will be three periods of 30 minutes.
Montana will open its season next week, with a match at North Dakota on Friday, Aug. 23, another at North Dakota State on Sunday, Aug. 25.
Wednesday's match will arrive just one week after the Grizzlies, who are coming off a Big Sky Conference championship and NCAA tournament run, opened the season with their first training session.
"Practice has been very competitive. Nobody is holding back," said second-year coach Chris Citowicki, who has on his team 15 returners and 12 newcomers, all of whom are striving for the same thing: starting spots and minutes.
"The competition for spots right now is intense. I have no idea who's going to start (next week) up front. I have no idea who's starting in the midfield. I have no idea who's starting on the back line.
"We have two games this week to figure it out. It comes down to, are you performing in games? That's a different psychology than practice. These games will let us test that."
Montana played a single exhibition game last August, against North Idaho, which the Grizzlies won 9-0, pulling away easily from an overmatched opponent in the second half.
It probably came too easily. Opening at home the next weekend, Montana got shut out in back-to-back matches, 1-0 by Fresno State, 2-0 by San Francisco.
"(Our exhibition match against North Idaho) was competitive in a sense, then the game kind of got away in the end and eased off," said Citowicki.
"When we got to our first two games, it took us until the second half against San Francisco before we realized, okay, we're playing college soccer now. The pace is higher, the level is higher, we've got to compete. We had to lose two games to figure that out."
Mount Royal went 6-7-2 last season. MacEwan finished 9-3-2.
MacEwan will play at Eastern Washington on Saturday, then pick a third match on the road trip when it faces Carroll on Monday in Helena.
"These are both competitive teams that are coming down, two good teams," said Citowicki. "They are going to push us. They are going to physically challenge us, which is exactly what we need."
Citowicki's plan is to give his 11 freshmen a good look on Wednesday. By Sunday, based on Wednesday's results and another week of practice, his lineup should start to look like it might a week from Friday, in Grand Forks.
When Montana opens the regular season, it will be against a North Dakota team that was picked sixth out of nine teams in the Summit League preseason poll that was announced on Monday.
North Dakota State was picked third, behind defending champion Denver and South Dakota State.
The Big Sky Conference preseason poll gets announced on Tuesday morning.
"We'll really push the freshmen in the first one and see how it goes with that. The second one will be more what I think the lineup might look like for North Dakota," said Citowicki.
"I want nobody playing more than 45 minutes on Wednesday, nobody playing more than 60, maybe 75 minutes on Sunday. I want to slowly ease into the amount of time everyone is playing."
There will be a mix of new and familiar this week. The most noticeable development will be the fresh playing surface at South Campus Stadium, a project completed in June.
The field is level for the first time in many, many years, and the grass is short and strong, which means the pace of play should be up and the level of soccer improved.
Montana's leading scorers are back, in juniors Alexa Coyle (six goals, one assist) and Kennedy Yost (five goals, one assist), as is junior goalkeeper Claire Howard, who had 10 shutouts a year ago.
One position to keep an eye on will be the back line. One hole was left when center back Taryn Miller, first-team All-Big Sky and third-team all-region as a junior and senior, graduated.
If Citowicki follows through on his idea of moving junior Taylor Hansen into an attacking position, instead of the outside back spot she's filled the last two years, half the back line will need to be replaced.
After nearly a week of practice, he's no longer worried if he has the players to fill those spots. His main concern now is that he has too many who have stepped up and put in a claim through their play.
It's a good problem to have. And it's good that a pair of exhibition matches have arrived. The play on the field will sort things out, as it usually does.
"We thought we were going to have these gaping holes we would have to fill. Now I'm wondering which is the best player to go in there, because they are all good enough to do it," said Citowicki.
"I've got three different scenarios in my head, and they are all good. It's very good right now."
After facing North Dakota and North Dakota State, Montana will go on the road and play Washington State and Gonzaga on Aug. 30 and Sept. 1.
Montana will play its first home match on Friday, Sept. 6, when the Grizzlies host UC Santa Barbara, a team coming off a second-place finish in the Big West Conference.
The Grizzlies will host the Mount Royal University Cougars, of Calgary, on Wednesday at 11 a.m. and the MacEwan University Griffins, of Edmonton, on Sunday at 1 p.m.
Both games are free of charge. Both matches will be three periods of 30 minutes.
Montana will open its season next week, with a match at North Dakota on Friday, Aug. 23, another at North Dakota State on Sunday, Aug. 25.
Wednesday's match will arrive just one week after the Grizzlies, who are coming off a Big Sky Conference championship and NCAA tournament run, opened the season with their first training session.
"Practice has been very competitive. Nobody is holding back," said second-year coach Chris Citowicki, who has on his team 15 returners and 12 newcomers, all of whom are striving for the same thing: starting spots and minutes.
"The competition for spots right now is intense. I have no idea who's going to start (next week) up front. I have no idea who's starting in the midfield. I have no idea who's starting on the back line.
"We have two games this week to figure it out. It comes down to, are you performing in games? That's a different psychology than practice. These games will let us test that."
Montana played a single exhibition game last August, against North Idaho, which the Grizzlies won 9-0, pulling away easily from an overmatched opponent in the second half.
It probably came too easily. Opening at home the next weekend, Montana got shut out in back-to-back matches, 1-0 by Fresno State, 2-0 by San Francisco.
"(Our exhibition match against North Idaho) was competitive in a sense, then the game kind of got away in the end and eased off," said Citowicki.
"When we got to our first two games, it took us until the second half against San Francisco before we realized, okay, we're playing college soccer now. The pace is higher, the level is higher, we've got to compete. We had to lose two games to figure that out."
Mount Royal went 6-7-2 last season. MacEwan finished 9-3-2.
MacEwan will play at Eastern Washington on Saturday, then pick a third match on the road trip when it faces Carroll on Monday in Helena.
"These are both competitive teams that are coming down, two good teams," said Citowicki. "They are going to push us. They are going to physically challenge us, which is exactly what we need."
Citowicki's plan is to give his 11 freshmen a good look on Wednesday. By Sunday, based on Wednesday's results and another week of practice, his lineup should start to look like it might a week from Friday, in Grand Forks.
When Montana opens the regular season, it will be against a North Dakota team that was picked sixth out of nine teams in the Summit League preseason poll that was announced on Monday.
North Dakota State was picked third, behind defending champion Denver and South Dakota State.
The Big Sky Conference preseason poll gets announced on Tuesday morning.
"We'll really push the freshmen in the first one and see how it goes with that. The second one will be more what I think the lineup might look like for North Dakota," said Citowicki.
"I want nobody playing more than 45 minutes on Wednesday, nobody playing more than 60, maybe 75 minutes on Sunday. I want to slowly ease into the amount of time everyone is playing."
There will be a mix of new and familiar this week. The most noticeable development will be the fresh playing surface at South Campus Stadium, a project completed in June.
The field is level for the first time in many, many years, and the grass is short and strong, which means the pace of play should be up and the level of soccer improved.
Montana's leading scorers are back, in juniors Alexa Coyle (six goals, one assist) and Kennedy Yost (five goals, one assist), as is junior goalkeeper Claire Howard, who had 10 shutouts a year ago.
One position to keep an eye on will be the back line. One hole was left when center back Taryn Miller, first-team All-Big Sky and third-team all-region as a junior and senior, graduated.
If Citowicki follows through on his idea of moving junior Taylor Hansen into an attacking position, instead of the outside back spot she's filled the last two years, half the back line will need to be replaced.
After nearly a week of practice, he's no longer worried if he has the players to fill those spots. His main concern now is that he has too many who have stepped up and put in a claim through their play.
It's a good problem to have. And it's good that a pair of exhibition matches have arrived. The play on the field will sort things out, as it usually does.
"We thought we were going to have these gaping holes we would have to fill. Now I'm wondering which is the best player to go in there, because they are all good enough to do it," said Citowicki.
"I've got three different scenarios in my head, and they are all good. It's very good right now."
After facing North Dakota and North Dakota State, Montana will go on the road and play Washington State and Gonzaga on Aug. 30 and Sept. 1.
Montana will play its first home match on Friday, Sept. 6, when the Grizzlies host UC Santa Barbara, a team coming off a second-place finish in the Big West Conference.
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