Montana wins seventh Big Sky championship

Sunday, November 7

Greeley, Colo.

Noon

Montana

13-5-1

Weber State

11-9-0

Weber State

Montana

Photos: UNC Athletics

11/7/2021 5:50:00 PM | Soccer

Box Score Photo Gallery

By: Montana Sports Information

This is why Taylor Hansen came back. For another summer of offseason workouts, for another preseason, for even more minutes played on a meter that now reads a remarkable 7,454.

She came back for an afternoon like Sunday, when the Montana soccer team defeated No. 4 Weber State 1-0 in Greeley, Colo., for the program's seventh Big Sky Conference tournament championship.

"This is just like the cherry on top, maybe some sprinkles," said Hansen, who took advantage of the NCAA's COVID allowance and played a fifth season this fall.

"I'm just happy I took my fifth year, bonded with the girls, met the new freshmen and continued to be a Griz. So this is just surreal."

Less than seven months after winning a Big Sky title in the spring, the Grizzlies did it again.

Jaden Griggs scored in the 36th minute, tournament MVP Camellia Xu made it stand up with six saves, five coming in the second half when the Wildcats took 11 shots, and Montana is heading back to the NCAA tournament for the third time under fourth-year coach Chris Citowicki.

"This was a tough one. They all feel good, but this one has been so hard, with consecutive seasons and losing so much leadership and trying to put something together," he said. "This is maybe the best one yet."

The win was No. 13 of the season for Montana (13-5-1), the most for the Grizzlies since 2000, during the peak of Betsy Duerksen's coaching tenure.

When he was hired, Citowicki said he wanted to return the program to the level of dominance in the Big Sky that Duerksen's teams enjoyed.

Few thought that would be possible, not with as much parity as there had been in the league over the previous two decades, but Citowicki's teams are now 29-5-8 against Big Sky opponents.

That's 42 matches and just five losses, three of which have come in overtime, the other two by a goal on the road. It's the Duerksen Era all over again.

Of Montana's now six trips to the NCAA tournament, Duerksen's and Citowicki's teams have accounted for five of them. Her teams set the standard. His have carried it forward and then some.

That Sunday's win came by shutout shouldn't have been a surprise. It was Montana's 11th clean sheet of the season, one off the program record.

But the Grizzlies were facing the Big Sky's most explosive offense, a team that hadn't been blanked since Sept. 19 at Oklahoma State, that had scored 16 goals in its previous six matches, including three in its semifinal victory over top-seed Northern Colorado on Friday.

Yet there Montana was, not only leading at halftime but having limited the Wildcats to just a single shot over the first 45 minutes. It was as one-sided as a 1-0 halftime score could be.

Turns out that in championship environments, experience trumps all, and Montana had more of it than any other team in the field.

The Grizzlies have now played seven tournament matches under Citowicki. They are 6-1-0 in those tests. They've been there before and know what it takes to get it done. And it starts with leaving any nerves behind.

"(McKenzie Kilpatrick) said it on the bus. 'I have a good feeling. I woke up feeling good.' We were all super excited. You could tell at breakfast everyone was kind of buzzing," said Hansen, one of six Grizzlies named to the all-tournament team.

"We came out in the first half and it was just a special feeling. We were winning 50-50 balls, we were moving the ball, we were just playing super well as a team and the bench mafia just brought the energy.

"Experience helps a lot. It calms the nerves and turns it into excitement."

Montana took five shots in the opening 19 minutes, putting three on goal that Weber State goalkeeper Kaytlin Bradley had to save.

The breakthrough came in the 36th minute, when Sydney Haustein got the game-winning attack started by playing a ball ahead to senior Zoe Transtrum, who had checked into the match just six minutes earlier, three minutes after Griggs came off the bench.

Transtrum tracked the ball down near the top of the 18-yard box on the left side and tapped it front of goal, where Griggs jumped on it and blasted in her fourth of the season.

Griggs has done it before, three times in fact, when she scored a hat trick in Montana's win earlier this season at home against MSU Billings.

For Transtrum, it was the first point of her collegiate career. "For Zoe to get her first collegiate point in the championship game her senior year is just amazing," said Citowicki.

"Such composure, for her to take that touch, relax for a second, wait for Jaden to be in the right spot, then Jaden's finish was just clutch. What better moment for her to do it."

The halftime talk, after the excitement of Griggs' goal died down, was to focus on the second half. Everyone knew what was coming. Weber State wasn't going to go down without trying everything to even the score. Potential season-ending games are like that.

Citowicki stressed that it wouldn't be just about tactics now. Some guts and desire would be needed as well.

"They were going to start sending players forward that they normally don't, so I felt like our conversation at halftime of how bad do you want it fit that perfectly," he said. "And we got it done."

The stats show the Wildcats outshot the Grizzlies 11-2 in the second half and that Xu had to make five saves, but those numbers are deceptive. There were no edge-of-your-seat, heart-in-your-throat moments, just routine plays that Montana has been making all season.

"You knew it was going to get messy when it came down to the final couple of minutes and you're losing and you want to win a title and you throw everything at it because you have nothing to lose," said Citowicki.

"It was just doing a good job of getting in the box and clearing the ball out, win as many 50-50s as you can and hope that's enough to win the game, and it was."

Xu finished with six saves, giving her nine for the tournament, which led to her being voted MVP. Of the seven Grizzlies now owning Big Sky tournament MVP honors in program history, she is the first goalkeeper.

"She made the saves she was supposed to make and made them look simple, which is what great goalkeepers do. It was just classic Cam, doing her business, getting it done," said Citowicki.

"Everything else coming our way, the back line dealt with quite well. We've got good people back there who work really hard."

Fittingly, Montana's all-tournament selections were almost all from the back line: Xu, Hansen, Caitlin Rogers, Allie Larsen, Charley Boone and Taylor Stoeger.

Montana, which has lost just once since Sept. 5, will learn its first-round NCAA tournament opponent on Monday afternoon. The game will be played Friday, Saturday or Sunday.

The Grizzlies lost 5-1 at Washington State in the first round in 2018 in Citowicki's first season, 1-0 to South Carolina in North Carolina in April.

Montana is seeking its first NCAA tournament win since Duerksen's 2000 team.

"I feel like this is the team that could do it," said Hansen. "I think we can accomplish anything together. We knew we had to win the tournament this weekend, and we did that. Now our eyes are set on the first round."