Griz soccer program adds transfer

Chris Citowicki has been coaching soccer for nearly 15 years, and during that decade and a half, with time spent at the club and NCAA Division III and I levels, he's learned this: it's better to have Mimi Eiden on your team than having to go up against her.

He'll get that chance for the second time next fall.

Eiden accepted a scholarship offer recently and will play her final season of collegiate soccer at Montana in the fall after three years at North Dakota, which is where Citowicki and the high-scoring, 5-foot-3 forward spent one season together, in 2017.

But Citowicki became aware of Eiden well before that, when he was coaching at Division III St. Catherine in St. Paul, Minn., and working with a club team on the side. One day his team went up against Eiden, who is from Forest Lake, Minn., and her club teammates.

"They played her up front, and she scored a free kick to go up 1-0. Then we got some momentum, so they put her in the back, and she completely shut us out," recalls Citowicki. "She is so athletic, so fast and exciting to watch."

Eiden, who will be on campus for the spring semester, which will give her months to acclimatize to her new surroundings and teammates ahead of the 2020 season, totaled 12 goals and seven assists in three seasons with the Fighting Hawks.

She was a freshman in 2017, in Citowicki's one year at North Dakota before he was hired by Montana in May 2018. His Grizzlies faced North Dakota in both 2018 and '19.

Eiden scored a team-high eight goals for North Dakota last fall for a team that would finish 10-8-1, including a scoreless draw at home against Montana to open the season. She had a hat trick in UND's home win over Minot State, scoring three times in less than 12 minutes.

"She plays a lot off of intuition. She just feels and sees certain spaces and attacks them," said Citowicki. "A lot of players can be robotic, while Mimi just plays off instinct. It's fun to watch her receive the ball, then just feel the game in that moment and take the spaces she wants to take. It's hard to stop her.

"It was a nightmare to coach against her and fun to have her on my team, so we're excited to have her here."

Eiden scored twice as many goals last season as did Montana's co-leaders, Alexa Coyle and Rita Lang, who both had four. The Grizzlies' forwards accounted for just six goals in 2019 as the team, which scored 15 times in 19 matches, won a Big Sky championship more by defense than by scoring punch.

Eiden will help with the latter.

"She gives us another weapon up front. Last season teams put a major focus on Alexa, that if you stop Alexa, you stop Montana," said Citowicki.

"Now if you want to double and triple Alexa and leave Mimi on her own, that's fine. Good luck. It gives us another weapon, another player people have to keep an eye out for."

Montana, which also signed six prep players to National Letters of Intent in November following a season when the Grizzlies won a Big Sky title without any seniors, will open its 2020 season at home against Gonzaga on Thursday, Aug. 20.

"The beautiful thing is Mimi has had three years playing for a coach (in North Dakota's Chris Logan) who knows what he's doing," said Citowicki. "She's had collegiate experience and has scored goals against programs at a high level. She will be able to step in and do that right away for us."

University of Montana Athletics

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