Kilpatrick named Big Sky Defensive Player of the Week

Montana sophomore outside back McKenzie Kilpatrick, who not only helped limit Cal Poly and Wyoming to a single goal over the weekend but scored her first collegiate goal as well, was named the Big Sky Conference Defensive Player of the Week on Tuesday.

It was a well-earned honor for a mostly self-made, or reinvented, player, according to coach Chris Citowicki, who used Kilpatrick sparingly last fall, both his and her first year in the program.

Kilpatrick played in 20 of 22 games last year, during Montana's Big Sky championship season, but just 26 minutes per match as Citowicki moved her around the field.

The minutes didn't look to be there this season either, not with returning outside backs Taylor Hansen and Avery Adams, who helped Montana record 10 shutouts last year.

But instead of accepting her future as a little-used substitute off the bench, she went about changing the course of her career.

"It's been so much fun to watch her grow over the past year in the face of adversity. I'm not getting time, so how do I figure this out?" Citowicki said.

"The amount of work she did in the spring, the amount of thinking and reflection she did in the summer to come back and change the way she approaches the game, to take that pressure off herself and play more relaxed, that's all led to her being better."

And Montana a better and deeper team because of it.

Kilpatrick's emergence has allowed Citowicki to move Hansen up in the attack from time to time, without losing anything in his back line.

And when holding midfielder Ali Monroe suffered an injury at Cal two weekends ago, the coach had the flexibility to move Adams up the field against Cal Poly and Wyoming, knowing he had an outside back who was more than ready for her moment.

Playing all 90 minutes on Friday against the Mustangs, Kilpatrick spent most of the game helping to keep Cal Poly off the scoreboard.

She would win it for the Grizzlies in the 80th minute.

With Montana given a free kick in Cal Poly's end of the field, Kilpatrick did as she's been drilled, to move up to the 18-yard box and not let the ball out.

After pin-balling around the box off the free kick, the ball came to Kilpatrick just outside the 18. Instead of just playing it back in, she collected the ball and herself and netted it upper right corner for her first collegiate goal in Montana's 1-0 win.

She played 96 of a possible 110 minutes on Sunday in a match that should have been over in 90.

Montana held a 1-0 lead over Wyoming, a team whose only loss this season has come against Baylor, entering the final seconds of regulation, but a foul called with two seconds left led to the match-tying penalty kick.

She becomes just the fifth Montana non-goalkeeper to win Big Sky Defensive Player of the Week honors since 2006. Three of the other four -- Lauren Costa, Brooke Moody, Taryn Miller -- were players who would be voted Big Sky Defensive MVPs.

"It's all credit to McKenzie," said Citowicki. "Now she is who she is, which is an incredible outside back for us."

Montana (1-3-3) will close out its nonconference schedule this week with road matches at San Francisco on Friday and Saint Mary's on Sunday.

University of Montana Athletics

Kilpatrick named Big Sky Defensive Player of the Week

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Avery Adams

Taylor Hansen

McKenzie Kilpatrick

Taryn Miller

Ali Monroe

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