The Grizzlies are coming for the brass ring

When the Montana soccer team puts boots to grass on Tuesday for its first practice of the 2024 season, the Grizzlies will look largely as they did last fall.

The four United Soccer Coaches All-West Region sections? All back. The five players who earned first-team All-Big Sky Conference honors? All back. The coaching and support staff? Nearly the exact same.

In all, eight starters return, 13 letter-winners, and the more familiar the pieces in place to attempt to replicate what the Grizzlies pulled off in 2023, the better.

Because the only thing more exciting than what Montana accomplished last fall is the thought that the Grizzlies could not only do it again but could even be improved.

"It's rebuilt itself very nicely," said seventh-year coach Chris Citowicki, last year's Big Sky Coach of the Year who is 10 wins shy of becoming the second-winningest coach in program history.

"You'd think with this senior class and the leadership we have in place, the standards will be high and we should be all right."

Montana memorably went 13-3-3 last year and unbeaten through league at 7-0-1 to win its third Big Sky regular-season championship under Citowicki, its ninth overall.

The Grizzlies drew a program-record 1,973 fans for its home draw with Ohio State, then seven days later faced Oklahoma on Gonzaga's home field in Spokane and defeated the Sooners 1-0.

Montana would later play Oregon State to a 0-0 draw on the road to finish unbeaten against Power 5 opponents, then outscore its eight Big Sky opponents in league games 14-3.

It started in Grand Forks, a 1-0 road win at North Dakota on a Delaney Lou Schorr goal 58 minutes into the season, the party finally climaxing on Oct. 19 after a 2-0 home win over Sacramento State.

The Grizzlies collected the Big Sky trophy on their home field, celebrated with their fans, then took the festivities to the more intimate environment of their locker room. The best kind of chaos ensued.

Three days later Montana finished off the regular season with a 1-0 home win over Portland State on Senior Day. The unbeaten streak had reached 10 matches. The Grizzlies were a ridiculous 13-2-3.

It felt like nothing would be able to derail this runaway freight train that had done the hard-to-achieve: grab its own slice of attention during an autumn shared with an equally memorable football team.

The Ohio State match, when the grandstands were packed, forcing fans to stand and sit along the sidelines and end lines in an unforgettable scene, proved it. These Grizzlies were must-see.

They rolled down to the Big Sky tournament in Flagstaff, Ariz., with their supporters – and themselves – expecting another trophy, the program's seventh trip to the NCAA tournament.

But soccer can be the most fickle of sports and thus the most heartbreaking.

Facing the No. 4 seed and host Northern Arizona in the semifinals, Montana conceded a goal in the 22nd minute, only the ninth allowed all season, and the Grizzlies could not find the equalizer.

The loss came on Nov. 3. Montana hadn't tasted defeat since Sept. 10, a 54-day run of riding high. That's what made it all the more jarring, the ending so cruel.

The Grizzlies built their early success under Citowicki, in his first years leading the program, on the strength of their defense. The 2023 season was everything coming together.

The nine goals allowed in 19 matches set a new Big Sky record, with Montana allowing multiple goals only one time, in a 2-2 draw with Ohio State.

The Grizzlies led the nation in save percentage (.903), and Ashlyn Dvorak, as a redshirt freshman, tied for fifth nationally in goals-against average (0.47) and tied for eighth in shutouts (11).

The back line in front of Dvorak allowed only 93 shots on goal, an average of fewer than five per match.

They are all back, too, first-team All-Big Sky center back Charley Boone, her center-back partner Reeve Borseth, those players bookended at outside back by first-teamer Ava Samuelson and Mia Parkhurst.

Northern Arizona needed about a dozen things to go perfectly in the teams' Big Sky semifinal in order to break through and score on Montana. They all did.

A fun game to play with Citowicki is to remind him of each of the nine goals allowed last season, go through them with him one by one. He has an if this had happened defense for each of them.

A visitor walks away wondering if the coach believes Montana should have allowed even a single goal last year. He doesn't.

"Teams had to be nearly perfect," he said. "I don't think we should have given up any goals. We were pretty good defensively and we will be again, which is always the goal."

Montana outscored its opponents 33-9 last season, its most goals scored since 2000, and had six wins by multiple goals, which does a coach's health a lot of good.

Remarkably, the Grizzlies outscored their opponents 17-2 in the second half last year – that's two goals allowed over 855 minutes – a nod to both their fitness and their depth.

"The conditioning piece matters. We're smart about how we condition the team," said Citowicki. "But mostly it's depth," wave after wave of Grizzlies playing at a high level, giving teams no reprieve.

Lacking the same quality depth, opponents become less dangerous through starter fatigue or drop-off in play off the bench and less and less are able to hold off Montana's attack.

Added Citowicki, "We're able to be pretty structurally sound throughout the whole thing."

Montana does not have any red flags entering the season but there are some questions, particularly in the midfield, where the Grizzlies were hit hard by graduation.

Kathleen Aitchison, master of how-did-she-do-that? moves, was second-team All-Big Sky last season. The great Sydney Haustein also is gone after concluding her five-year playing career.

Maddie Ditta, second-team All-Big Sky, returns, and Montana brought in midfielder Chloe Seelhoff, who played two seasons at Washington, and adds former defender Ally Henrikson to the position group.

Up front, Montana returns both the Big Sky Offensive MVP in Skyleigh Thompson and Schorr, the Big Sky Golden Boot winner. The destructive duo combined for 11 goals and eight assists last fall.

Eliza Bentler scored four goals, Ditta added three from the midfield, and Samuelson, from her outside back position, led the team with six assists.

Jen Estes, a graduate transfer from Princeton, totaled six goals and six assists in three seasons as a Tiger. She played in two NCAA tournaments, winning a first-round match in each.

Fans of the program – and the team is still taking more, no experience required, just a voice and an ability to get to South Campus Stadium – won't have to wait long to see Griz Soccer, Team 31.

Montana hosts the Rumble in the Rockies, with matches against Colorado College and Oregon State, in a little more than two weeks, then plays at Washington State in a true measuring-stick match in Pullman.

In all, Montana will play seven nonconference matches at home, then get four more league games at South Campus Stadium before hosting the Big Sky tournament in early November.

Montana has gone 24-7-8 (.718) at home the last five seasons, though last year felt different, seeds of the heavily attended Ohio State match bearing fruit as the season went along.

People went, maybe for the first time, loved what they saw and kept returning.

The Grizzlies averaged nearly 800 fans per home match, 784 to be exact, to rank 57th nationally. The next four teams in the NCAA's attendance rankings: Gonzaga, Wisconsin, Maryland and Florida.

Montana has, indeed, created a faithful following, a two-way love affair.

"That's the expectation, that we'll play good soccer that is attractive and fun to watch and people will show up and keep coming back," said Citowicki.

Citowicki's program is giving off early-stage Lady Griz vibes, Montana's women's basketball program that was almost always the team to beat in the Big Sky under former coach Robin Selvig.

Beat Selvig and one of his teams, and you'd accomplished something. Citowicki's teams have gone 33-8-10 in league matches, 40-11-10 against the Big Sky overall, including the postseason.

Selvig's teams entered every season with that pressure, Montana as everyone's target. "I 100 percent want that," said Citowicki. "That's exactly what we want, to be good all the time."

At times during the 2021 season, Citowicki told people that that team's freshman class, this year's seniors, would be the group that would take Montana to the next level before they were done.

As upperclassmen last season, they accomplished a good deal of that climb, though the Northern Arizona loss left a bit of unfinished business that carries into this season.

There will be plenty of opportunities to do something special during the nonconference, then the Grizzlies should be heavy favorites to repeat last year's regular-season title.

Their legacy will come to a head at South Campus Stadium in November, when Montana hosts its first Big Sky tournament since 2014.

The pressure will be immense, to get it done at home, but playing at South Campus Stadium was one of the carry-over perks from the success of last season, and a good chunk of that team is back.

"Hosting is what we wanted. This senior class wanted to have playoffs at home. That was their dream, playoffs at home their senior year," said Citowicki.

The Ohio State match had plenty going for it. A delightful Sunday summer evening, the night before fall classes began, the Ohio State brand. The people kept coming and coming, nearly 2,000 of them.

The weather won't be as ideal come Sunday, Nov. 10, date of this year's Big Sky championship match, but the stakes will be higher, which means the post-match party could run just as hot.

Montana has to get to the title match first, but that's the expectation, just as it is that Missoula would show up and show out to give the Grizzlies an overwhelming home-field advantage.

"It's an expectation not only of our program but of this community to show up in force to make sure we have the backing of Missoula to get through the tournament," said Citowicki.

"I don't want to get through it just for the team. I want the whole thing like it was ignited for Ohio State. I want that whole thing through playoffs. Let's have that same energy."

University of Montana Athletics

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Players Mentioned

Kathleen Aitchison

Eliza Bentler

Charley Boone

Reeve Borseth

Maddie Ditta

Ashlyn Dvorak

Jen Estes

Sydney Haustein

Ally Henrikson

Mia Parkhurst

Ava Samuelson

Delaney Lou Schorr

Chloe Seelhoff

Skyleigh Thompson

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