Lady Griz open season on Tuesday

The Montana women's basketball team will open the season with a home game against Seattle Pacific on Tuesday at 7 p.m. inside Dahlberg Arena.

The Lady Griz will then play three straight games against NCAA tournament teams from a season ago: at Oregon, at Washington and against South Dakota State in a neutral-site match-up in Rapid City, S.D.

"It starts fast and picks up speed," said first-year head coach Nate Harris, whose team will close out November with home games against BYU and Utah.

"This is all about us being better on January 1 than we are right now. That is our goal. That's our focus. How do we improve? How do we win the Big Sky Conference?"

Montana has lost its last three season openers, though those games came against North Dakota State, Gonzaga and Gonzaga again.

NCAA Division II Seattle Pacific is coming off an 8-23 season and, like Montana, is under a first-year coach who spent last season with the same program in an interim position.

Karen Byers was a two-year assistant coach with the Falcons before taking over the program on an interim basis shortly before the 2024-25 season tipped off.

She was named head coach in May, not long after Harris went from acting head coach to interim head coach to head coach of the Lady Griz between January and March.

"Similar to our situation, an interim now taking over and getting to do everything for the whole year," said Harris.

"That means there is a little bit of unknown how they are going to play stylistically. We have to be ready for just about anything. Nothing better than going live and having to figure it out."

Seattle Pacific finished ninth out of 10 teams last year in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference. The Falcons were picked for a ninth-place finish in this year's preseason coaches' poll.

"We're excited to get going," said Harris. "Whether we are ready for it, our goal on Tuesday is to go out and compete really hard. That's what I want to see.

"How hard are we going to play and how much does it matter to us that we get to put on the Lady Griz uniform and go represent this program and this institution? That's my primary focus."

The teams have played just twice before, Seattle Pacific winning 57-51 in the 1975-76 season, then 70-47 less than a year later, at the start of the 1976-77 season.

A decade after those games, Gordy Presnell took over the SPU program and turned the Falcons into a Division II power. The current Boise State coach was there for 18 seasons, from 1987-88 to 2004-05.

Presnell led Seattle Pacific to 18 winning seasons, 11 20-win seasons. His final three teams went 89-5, his final team, in 2004-05, falling in the national championship game.

He was replaced by Julie (van Beek) Heisey, who led Seattle Pacific to eight more 20-win seasons, part of her time coinciding with Harris's three seasons at GNAC rival MSU Billings.

"We had some great match-ups," said Harris. "It's going to be a lot of fun for me to play a team I used to compete against a lot in the GNAC."

Heisey's final season at SPU came in 2017-18. The Falcons are 39 games under .500 in the seven seasons since, four of those with eight or fewer wins.

Seattle Pacific lost last year's leading scorer, Hunter Beirne, to graduation but returns junior guard Layne Kearns, who was voted to the 15-player Preseason All-GNAC team.

Kearns, a graduate of Hamilton High, started all 31 games for the Falcons last season, averaging 10.6 points and 5.0 rebounds per game.

Kearns was the Southwest A MVP her final three seasons as a Bronc and three times voted first-team all-state.

"We've had her at camps and I've taken my daughters to go watch her play. She was a kid we evaluated," said Harris.

"She's had a great career at Seattle Pacific. It's going to be super cool for her to get back here and play in front of her family. I'm sure she'll have lots of people in the crowd rooting her on."

Oregon, coming off a 113-36 dismantling of Western Oregon on Thursday in an exhibition game, opens its season against West Georgia on Monday before hosting the Lady Griz on Saturday afternoon.

That road trip will continue with a game at Washington on Monday, Nov. 10, the Huskies getting some love from ESPN.com this week as a team with Sweet 16 potential.

South Dakota State was the overwhelming favorite to win the Summit League again in 2025-26.

"We're going to play teams from all over. We have to hone in on us. This is about us and how hard we play," said Harris.

"Each game is a chance to figure out where we're at, then focus on, how do we get better today? We've got to shorten our view."

Preseason notes:

* Montana, which went 14-18 a year ago and tied for fifth in the Big Sky at 8-10, was picked second behind Montana State in this year's preseason coaches' poll.

The Lady Griz and Bobcats both advanced to the Big Sky championship game in Boise in March, Montana State winning 58-57 on a last-second put-back.

* Senior Mack Konig and sophomore Avery Waddington were voted to the Preseason All-Big Sky team after both earned a spot on the Big Sky All-Tournament team in Boise in March.

Konig, second-team All-Big Sky last season, led the Lady Griz in both scoring and assists in 2024-25. Her 165 assists were the most for a Montana point guard since 2006-07, the ninth-most in program history.

Waddington's 319 points last season were the second-most for a true freshman in program history, behind Hollie Tyler's 375 in 2001-02.

* Harris, who joined the program as an assistant coach prior to the 2021-22 season before being promoted to associate head coach, took over as acting head coach in January.

He was named interim head coach in February, the head coach in March, six days after nearly leading Montana to a Big Sky championship in Boise.

* Montana returns two starters in Konig and Waddington, and four other letter-winners: redshirt junior Draya Wacker, juniors Adria Lincoln and Aby Shubert, and redshirt sophomore Macy Donarski.

* The Lady Griz added six newcomers to make up their 14-player roster, five joining the program through the transfer portal, with freshman Rae Ehrman in her first year.

The transfers: Maggie Hutka (Colorado Christian), Kennedy Gillette (College of Southern Idaho), Zoey Washington (St. Thomas), Jocelyn Land (Butler) and Ava Cossette (South Dakota).

* Konig reached 1,000 career points in Boise in March, making her the 36th player in program history to reach that mark. She is 84 assists away from moving into the top 10 in program history.

* Hutka and Gillette could both reach 1,000 collegiate points scored this season. Hutka scored 837 in two-plus seasons at Colorado Christian, Gillette 730 in two seasons at College of Southern Idaho.

* Harris added a pair of new assistant coaches in the offseason in Britt Cooper and Leia Beattie.

Cooper most recently was the head coach at Montana Western, while Beattie concluded her playing career at Northern Arizona in March.

Beattie, who began her playing career at Montana State before transferring to NAU, is the daughter of Grizzly Sports Hall of Famer Kelly (Pilcher) Beattie.

* Montana is just 5-11 in its last 16 season openers, 30-17 in season openers in the modern era (1978-79 to present) of the program.

* Four of Montana's five Division I opponents in November played in the NCAA tournament last season: Oregon, Washington, South Dakota State and Utah.

* After Tuesday, Montana's next home game won't come until the Lady Griz host BYU on Wednesday, Nov. 19. Montana has not faced BYU since 2000.

* Former Lady Griz Jordan (Sullivan) MacIntyre and Jace Henderson are on staff as assistant coaches for Gavin Petersen at Utah.

* Montana will open December with games against North Dakota and St. Thomas as part of the Big Sky Conference-Summit League Challenge.

It will be the fourth time in five seasons Montana will have faced North Dakota. The Lady Griz will be playing St. Thomas for the first time.

* The game against St. Thomas on Saturday, Dec. 6, will be Montana's only home game in December. The Lady Griz won't play again in Missoula until Thursday, Jan. 8, against Idaho.

* Montana will close out its pre-Christmas schedule with a three-game trip to Texas. The Lady Griz will play at Houston, then face Abilene Christian and Tarleton State at ACU's Christmas Classic.

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Players Mentioned

Ava Cossette

Macy Donarski

Rae Ehrman

Kennedy Gillette

Maggie Hutka

Mack Konig

Jocelyn Land

Adria Lincoln

Aby Shubert

Draya Wacker

Avery Waddington

Zoey Washington

University of Montana Athletics