Grizzlies open season on Wednesday

When second-year Montana soccer coach Chris Citowicki goes to bed tonight, on the eve of the 2019 season, he may be restless, but it won't be for the reasons that kept him awake last year at this time.

"It's preseason. You always get nervous and excited about it, but I feel a million times better than I did last year," he says.

Hired just 15 months ago and not in Missoula until early June last summer, Citowicki, who was previously working at North Dakota, had mere weeks to get a handle on his new program.

There were names to learn. Faces to put with those names. Recruiting to be done. Practices to plan. A new style of play to implement. He was a Division I head coach, but the situation wasn't ideal.

The results last fall, at least early on, suggested a disharmony within the program. Not for lack of effort or intention, mind you, just a natural extension of a coaching change coupled with lack of time.

Citowicki arrived with new ideas. Everyone had to adapt, mostly on the fly. There were moments, flashes, encouraging signs, but something always seemed to be a touch out of sync.

A list of season-ending injuries that reached five deep didn't help, most notably Hallie Widner, whose ability to score would have covered up for a lot of lapses in the early going.

With 11 matches played entering the month of October, the team had one win and just five goals scored. No one had championship aspirations, at least realistic ones, at that time.

"Last year was just weird. We created opportunities, but the ball wasn't going in," Citowicki says. "It definitely fed on itself.

"It was a cultural issue as well. We didn't know each other very well, but it's hard to instill a process when you don't know the people you have.

"But I knew we were playing well. It was just a matter of time and we were going to be fine."

Oddly enough, it was a 0-0 draw with Northern Arizona on a Sunday afternoon in mid-October in Missoula that seemed to provide the spark that got the Grizzlies firing as a complete unit.

Citowicki hinted as much after the match against the Lumberjacks, but with his team sitting 2-7-6, there weren't a lot of buyers. Except for his players, and it changed the trajectory of a program.

Montana went on the road and won at Portland State, then two days later blitzed the Hornets at Sacramento State, going up 2-0 in the opening 15 minutes and generally looking like a juggernaut.

At the Big Sky tournament in Ogden, three wins, all over higher-seeded teams, all by shutout: 1-0 over Northern Arizona, 2-0 over top-seeded Weber State, 1-0 over Northern Colorado for the trophy.

A team that didn't look the part just weeks earlier was the group most deserving to be the last one standing, all challengers vanquished. It proved the power of patience and perseverance.

It was just the opposite of 2014, when Montana went unbeaten in 10 Big Sky matches but got knocked off in the tournament semifinals on its home field. It's the end result people tend to remember.

"Imagine if we had done really well, made it to playoffs and lost in the first round," says Citowicki. "That would have been such a sour feeling.

"The feeling we had through the winter and spring was from the conference tournament. We came out better because of everything we went through, but I don't want to go through that ever again."

He won't, at least at Montana, and it's why he'll sleep so soundly tonight. For that he can thank what followed, just days after the Grizzlies waltzed off the field at Ogden clutching the Big Sky hardware.

Montana got outshot 33-6 at Washington State five days later in the first round of the NCAA tournament and lost 5-1. The better team not only won, it dominated.

All the good that came from playing so well in Ogden wasn't forgotten, but it was put in perspective. On that night under the lights, Montana was out of its league. The truth oftentimes hurts.

"The NCAA tournament game was the kick in the butt I think we needed to really turn the page and make the changes we made," Citowicki says.

"We took a huge step in the spring, which is going to allow us to be so much better this year. The buy-in we had was unbelievable."

Which leads into the 2019 season and Citowicki's relative calm as his second year as a Division I head coach is about to commence.

He's feeling good about the state of his program, but remember that his is a five-year plan. Last year was a step toward his ultimate goal. This season will be as well, just a less taxing one.

"This feels so different compared to what it was last year," he says. "The buy-in is there. Everybody is here for this culture and what we're trying to do.

"The new players, with the way they've interacted with the current group and what they are creating together in terms of the culture, is exactly what I've wanted.

"For now in the process, it's exactly where I want it to be. You'd have to travel four years down the road to see where I want to go, but for right now, in Year 2, it couldn't be any better."

Here is likely an overlooked fact from last season: Montana played 12 matches against Big Sky opponents. And the Grizzlies were beaten just twice.

There was the disheartening 2-1 double-overtime home loss to Northern Colorado, when the Bears scored in the 88th minute to tie it and send it to extra time.

Then there was the 2-1 road loss at Weber State, which would go on to win the regular-season title. Both losses were sweetly avenged in the league tournament.

And yet Montana needed a big final weekend of its league schedule just to claim a postseason spot.

There were a lot of low-scoring draws, when the offense struggled to put the ball in the net. But the defense was always there, always resolute.

Once the goals started arriving, league teams had no chance. Over its final six matches against Big Sky opponents, including the tournament, Montana went 5-0-1, with a single goal allowed, in the final minutes of what would be a 3-1 road win at Sacramento State.

With junior Claire Howard in goal, the defense, even with some new pieces to work in, should be just as solid.

"Claire is very special, in the way she organizes and leads and understands what we want to do and how we want to play," says Citowicki.

"She is able to transmit my messages on the field extremely well. And, by the way, she can make amazing saves. To have her back there, it just relaxes everybody. It allows them to be themselves."

If the close to last season -- Montana was shut out just once in its final 12 matches -- is any indication, that end of the field will give the Grizzlies more and more chances to outscore opponents this season instead of always having to hold them down.

Junior Alexa Coyle returns after leading Montana with 13 points last fall, with six goals and one assist. Four of her goals came in the season's final seven matches, an indication of what's to come this fall.

Junior Kennedy Yost, so good in the midfield, scored five goals last season, and the team added a big-time scorer in junior Taylor Stoeger, who netted 31 goals in two seasons at Laramie County Community
College.

"Alexa has been working really hard, and Kennedy is amazing. She's the fittest she's ever been. She's on fire right now. I'm looking forward to seeing what she can do this season," said Citowicki.

"And then add in Taylor, who was a proven goal-scorer at the junior college level. Can she add something too? I definitely think she can."

There are freshmen who could play themselves into minutes and goals. There is sophomore Rita Lang, who is returning from injury, and there are position reassignments.

The most notable of those will be junior Taylor Hansen, who made a name for herself the last two years at outside back but who has the go-go-go quality of someone who could be lethal farther up the field.

Pity the team that doesn't have a defensive substitute or two to mark Hansen, because she's not slowing down as the match moves into the second half. Her first and 90th minutes look the same.

And if Citowicki needs Hansen's experience on the back line as Montana works in a new center back to replace Taryn Miller, she's versatile and willing.

"Taylor is going to start farther up the field. She could be very dangerous. She also knows what she does (at outside back) by heart. She wouldn't skip a beat at all," says Citowicki.

"We just have more depth. That's a big piece this year. We can rotate pretty heavily into the bench and bring in fresh legs of players I trust can do it just as well. Last year with our injuries, it became tricky."

With 12 newcomers -- Stoeger plus 11 true freshmen -- joining 15 returners, Montana will take full advantage of a pair of home exhibition matches as it prepares for the season.

As Citowicki has learned from Montana coaches of other sports, who have offices close to his, working on assimilating the new faces needs to be priority No. 1. Soccer becomes almost secondary.

That process was fast-forwarded when most of the newcomers were in town by early July, giving them a full month to begin the relationship-building process with the returners, to learn the ways of the program without the coaches present.

"If we go right into soccer and forget about the bonding piece and creating our team culture and pushing our values, that would be a mistake," Citowicki says.

"Make this group a team first and foremost, because we don't want to go through what we did last year. Let's not forget, we don't have any seniors. We're a young team in that respect."

It's an early-season schedule that will challenge Montana. A trip east to take on North Dakota and North Dakota State.

Then a return to Pullman for the third time in two seasons for a Friday-night match against Washington State, followed by a Sunday match at Gonzaga.

"The first four games will be a battle, so it will be a tricky start to the season," said Citowicki.

Montana will have nonconference home matches against UC Santa Barbara, Cal Poly and Wyoming. The league schedule opens in delightful fashion: at Idaho and Eastern Washington.

"That's almost a dream start. It's exactly the way I'd want it to be. Let's go slug it out with a couple of big-timers right away and see where it goes from there," said Citowicki.

"But in the end, the prize is playoffs. That's what we're trying to get ready for. Learn as much as you can during the season, get into playoffs, win playoffs and go to the (NCAA) tournament. That's it in the end."

In other words, the same result as last season. It's just that Citowicki expects a smoother route to that end goal this fall. It's why he'll rest so easily tonight. If anything keeps him up, it will be anticipation.

University of Montana Athletics

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Players Mentioned

Alexa Coyle

Taylor Hansen

Claire Howard

Rita Lang

Taryn Miller

Taylor Stoeger

Hallie Widner

Kennedy Yost

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