Montana finalizes fall schedule

It will be an exciting start to the season for the Montana soccer team and an advantageous way to finish. In between? A long journey that will take the Grizzlies from East Coast to West.

Considering the makeup of coach Chris Citowicki's third team -- Montana did, after all, win a Big Sky Conference championship last fall without a senior on the roster -- it's one his team will be ready for.

The Grizzlies will open at home with two matches, then play seven of eight on the road, including trips to Vermont and Michigan, before enjoying the payoff, five of seven at South Campus Stadium in October.

"It's an exciting schedule. It's a nice schedule to have considering we're bringing everybody back," said Citowicki, who will have six seniors on his team in the fall, four of whom were All-Big Sky last season.

"There will be more pressure, of this is my last shot for those seniors, but that can be powerful as well. When everything is on the line, you'll do whatever it takes to get there. That's what really excites me about it."

Montana will open its season by hosting Gonzaga, a 12-win team last season that took Washington State, which would go on to play in the national semifinals, to overtime before losing 1-0.

The Grizzlies and Bulldogs will meet on Thursday evening, Aug. 20, on a field where Montana has not lost in its last 10 matches.

"I'm really excited about that one. It will be a heathy measuring stick for us. Gonzaga is a wonderful team to go up against to see how far we've come along. It's a great matchup for both programs," said Citowicki, whose team lost 1-0 to Gonzaga last fall in Spokane.

Montana will bookend opening weekend with a home match against UC Riverside on Sunday, Aug. 23.

The Grizzlies will then play their next five matches on the road over three weekends, starting with a trip east to play in Vermont's tournament, against the Catamounts and Quinnipiac.

After a single-match road trip to Boise State, Montana will head east again, this time for games at Central Michigan and Michigan State.

"That's going to be extreme, but the team is really looking forward to getting outside of the region and testing ourselves on the other side of the country," said Citowicki.

The match at Boise State on Sunday, Sept. 6, will put Montana up against a team that went 18-5 last fall and advanced to the NCAA tournament.

"Our vision on everything is we want to dominate locally, which is the Big Sky, then regionally how do we look against the Gonzaga's, the Boise's?" said Citowicki. "Boise is another great game for us to have on the schedule.

"Then you have the Power 5 and teams at the national level, and how do we compare to that? Let's see how we do against someone like Michigan State on the road."

Montana will host South Dakota on Friday, Sept. 18, before closing the month at Portland State and Sacramento State as the Grizzlies' Big Sky schedule opens.

If Montana does what it hopes to do, which is make people take notice in August and September, those fans will have plenty of opportunities to watch the Grizzlies in Missoula in October.

The team will play five of its seven matches in the month at home, with only a trip to Idaho State and Weber State breaking up the home stand.

"I love our October schedule. We're playing five games at home and two away, and that's a bus trip," said Citowicki. "The month of October is going to be outstanding."

Montana will open October by hosting Northern Colorado, the team that knocked the Grizzlies out of the Big Sky tournament in November, then Eastern Washington and Idaho.

The Grizzlies won the Big Sky regular-season title last season, their seventh in program history, by winning 1-0 over the Eagles in Cheney on the final day of the season.

The regular season will conclude with home matches against Southern Utah and Northern Arizona.

The latter will serve as Senior Day for the decorated group of Avery Adams, Alexa Coyle, Taylor Hansen, Claire Howard and Taylor Stoeger, plus North Dakota transfer Mimi Eiden.

The Big Sky tournament will open in Ogden, Utah, on Wednesday, Nov. 4, with the semifinals being played on Nov. 6, the championship match on Sunday, Nov. 8.

University of Montana Athletics

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