Griz soccer program looking to take next step

A first-time visitor to Montana soccer coach Chris Citowicki's office will have their attention immediately drawn to the shiny objects sitting on his desk. That's why he's placed them there, for all to see.

They are silver medallions, each in a small case, three tokens that symbolize the program's three trips to the NCAA tournament in his first four seasons as head coach of the Grizzlies.

It's been a run of success – and we have not even mentioned his program's 29-5-8 record against Big Sky Conference opponents during that time – not seen since the early years of the Betsy Duerksen era.

While he has them front and center to impress you, he has them there for another reason. For him, they serve as a daily reminder that there is still work to be done.

You see, on each one is engraved a single word, a declaration of what Montana has accomplished on those three trips, two to Pullman, one to North Carolina: PARTICIPANT.

It's harsh in its straightforwardness. It means you've played and lost in the opening round of the NCAA tournament. You've been good, congratulations, but you haven't been good enough to advance.

So the NCAA sends you off with a parting gift, a consolation prize. Some coaches would cherish it, the highlight of their career. Citowicki uses it as motivation, for him, for his staff, for his team.

Now, in Year 5 under Citowicki, the Grizzlies are no longer satisfied with merely being participants. They want more, starting with a first-round victory, which would be the first for the program since 2000.

It's the next frontier. "I'm tired of participation trophies," says Citowicki, whose latest team opens practice on Tuesday afternoon. "Now we want to start dreaming a little bit bigger."

Each of Citowicki's first four teams have won something and collected a ring. His first, in 2018: the Big Sky tournament. His second, in 2019: the league's regular-season crown.

His 2020 team swept both titles, and last year's squad defeated Sacramento State and Weber State on its way to tournament championship No. 7 in Greeley, Colo., site of this year's playoffs.

It's the sign of a great coach. He won in 2018 with players he didn't recruit and didn't meet until two months before the season opened. And still he had them peaking in late October and early November.

"2018 was hard. We did it the way we did it because we had to get results," he says.

His last three teams have been a melding of players he's recruited and those he inherited. And the championships and the trophies have continued coming home to Missoula.

It's the mark of a team builder.

His teams have won with Alexa Coyle as the offensive headliner, then Taylor Stoeger, who led Montana last season in goals with seven, the most for a Grizzly since 2014.

Claire Howard, the 2020 Big Sky Goalkeeper of the Year, seemed irreplaceable. Then redshirt freshman Camellia Xu entered the picture last season and posted a program-record 11 shutouts.

She gave Montana back-to-back Goalkeepers of the Year, just the second time in league history a program has claimed that award in consecutive years with different players.

No matter what's been lost to graduation, the cupboard has been full each fall. Each year Citowicki has restocked it, keeping it so.

"If you get tired of that process, that's when you see things fall apart," he says. "You can never just be focused on the present.

"How do I continue building, reinforcing everything we need so this foundation never cracks? Who are the players who can keep this going and turn it over year after year and sustain success over time?"

He doesn't shy away from the pressure that dominating the Big Sky so consistently has brought his program. He acknowledges the target his program has, and he wouldn't want it any other way.

He wants the kind of long-term success Robin Selvig had. He points to the run of championships Bobby Hauck's teams had during his first run with the Grizzlies.

"They've shown it can happen. If I look down the hallway and see the people who have done it here, why can't I do it? There is no excuse," he says.

"The formula is quite simple. Just recruit really good players who happen to be good people, train them well, surround them with good coaches and work hard every day."

And then deal with the expectations, not by pretending they don't exist but by embracing them, acknowledging that everyone is coming for his team, is treating Montana as their in-season title game.

"There is a really healthy internal pressure that comes along with this," he says. "You can no longer just show up and play well on game day. It's training well every single day, because we can't have an off day.

"If we have an off day, that's the glimmer of hope that someone has of catching us, and we don't want that. There is fun and joy in that for us. We enjoy being pushed to that limit."

The big question last year at this time was an urgent one: Who could possibly replace Howard, whose 32 career shutouts set a Big Sky Conference record?

The two contenders, Elizabeth Todd and Camellia Xu, had played a combined total of zero minutes in goal for Montana in their careers.

That was the situation last August when Montana opened its season at Creighton. It would be baptism by fire for both goalkeepers in a challenging environment against a strong team.

Todd started and played the first half. Xu played the second half and overtime.

"I was very nervous. I remember thinking, I hope someone takes a really bad shot they can save so they can get their confidence, because I had no idea what they were going to do," says Citowicki.

Montana would lose a heartbreaker, falling 2-1 in double overtime. The two goalkeepers would split time again three days later, at home against Portland.

That was the end of the time-share arrangement. Xu would play every minute in goal the rest of the season, finishing 13-5-1 with a 0.72 goals-against average and those record-breaking 11 shutouts.

"She just picked up steam and off she went," says Citowicki. "She was tremendous. I feel a lot better this year, knowing her better, knowing what she can do."

She'll have another stout line in front of her, which has been a key to Montana's defensive success over the years, over the decades.

Headlining that group will be seniors Allie Larsen, a center back in a long line of dominant Grizzlies at that position, and McKenzie Kilpatrick, an outside back.

Both were voted team captains in the spring.

Montana's 15 goals allowed last spring were eight fewer than any other Big Sky team gave up, which continued a trend under Citowicki.

The Grizzlies have allowed one goal or posted a shutout in 57 of the 72 matches they've played since the coach arrived in 2018.

"If you look ahead of (Xu), it's extremely talented," says Citowicki. "If we want to defend the whole time and keep it 0-0, we can do that. We can go really defensive and we're not going to get scored on."

That was the attitude Montana had last season, when it took a seven-match shutout streak into its regular-season showdown with Northern Colorado in Greeley.

The Bears broke that streak with a goal late in the first half and exposed a flaw in Montana's game: The Grizzlies had no answer on the other end.

Down a goal, in a match with championship ramifications, they managed just four shots in the second half, only one of which was put on goal. They had no counterpunch.

Final: Northern Colorado 1, Montana 0, a critical result that allowed the Bears to win the regular-season title by two points over the runner-up Grizzlies.

Instead of accepting that those types of results are just going to happen from time to time for a defense-first club, Citowicki and his staff made changes before the bus had arrived in Denver.

"If we were down one (goal), down two, we had no solution to it. That was the lesson we took from that gut punch. We needed to improve," he says.

"If it was 0-0, I was comfortable we'd score or we'd keep it scoreless. But if we were down, there was something off. That was the gaping hole that had to be filled."

Five days later, Montana would fall behind 1-0 at Idaho before the match was even four minutes old. The team's moment of truth had arrived.

The answer: The Grizzlies would outshoot the Vandals 22-5 the rest of the way, generate 15 corner kicks, one off the program record, and score two goals early in the second half to rally for a 2-1 victory.

Montana, which scored more than one goal just twice through its first 13 matches last season, would score multiple goals in four straight games and take that momentum into the postseason.

At the Big Sky tournament in Greeley, Montana posted 1-0 shutout victories over Sacramento State and Weber State to win the title.

"We evolved it even more over the spring. Now I can't wait to apply it in the fall," says Citowicki.

Montana loses Stoeger up front but returns four players who scored multiple goals last season, including senior midfielder Sydney Haustein, who was second-team All-Big Sky.

Haustein entered her junior season without a goal scored in her career. She broke through with five last fall.

Jaden Griggs had four, including a hat trick against MSU Billings, Montana's first since 2011. First-year players Skyleigh Thompson and Bella O'Brien combined for five goals.

Montana may not have anyone match Stoeger's seven goals from last season, and Citowicki is fine with that. Strength in numbers provides its own challenge to an opponent.

"Previously it was Coyle as a focal point, Stoeger as a focal point. The focal point now? You pick which one you want to stop. There is a lot of possibility across the front," he says.

There is depth everywhere, enough that Citowicki was able to move the dangerous Ava Samuelson up the field, from outside back to someone who is crossing the ball with more regularity.

Holding midfielder Molly Massman is back, a position that added Nebraska transfer Kathleen Aitchison. Montana native Maysa Walters arrives after three seasons at New Mexico to join the midfield.

"The depth is insane. I think that's the piece that's different. We can sub anywhere we want now and there is no drop-off. That's a comforting piece going into a season," says Citowicki.

Montana, which plays an exhibition game against Trinity Western on Monday, Aug. 15, will be tested early and often in 2022.

The Grizzlies will face Creighton and then Pittsburgh at the season-opening Rumble in the Rockies at South Campus Stadium this month, then turn around and host Wyoming a few days later.

Montana also has nonconference home matches against MSU Billings, CSU Bakersfield, Fresno State and North Dakota State, and will get Northern Colorado at South Campus Stadium as well in early October.

"I really like this schedule. It's the most home-heavy I've ever seen. Sometimes the stars align and you take it and don't say anything," Citowicki says.

"It's going to be good teams and good quality of soccer. We're going to come out swinging. We're excited to try to pull off some upsets early in the year."

And then, come November, it will be back to Greeley for the postseason and hopefully a return to the NCAA tournament, where Montana will try to be merely participants no longer.

University of Montana Athletics

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Players Mentioned

Kathleen Aitchison

Alexa Coyle

Jaden Griggs

Sydney Haustein

Claire Howard

McKenzie Kilpatrick

Allie Larsen

Molly Massman

Bella O'Brien

Ava Samuelson

Taylor Stoeger

Skyleigh Thompson

Elizabeth Todd

Maysa Walters

Camellia Xu

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