Montana opens NCAA Championship at Washington

Friday, November 14

Seattle, Wash.

8 PM (MT)

Montana

Washington

Tickets

Montana defeats Weber State in the shootout after a 0-0 tie through the second overtime to claim the Big Sky Conference Championship at South Campus Stadium in Missoula, Montana, on November 9th, 2025.

Photo by: John Sieber via UM Athletics

11/12/2025 9:12:00 AM | Soccer

PDF Game Notes

By: Montana Sports Information

The Montana soccer team will open play in the NCAA Division I Women's Soccer Championship with a first-round match at Washington on Friday night in Seattle.

The Grizzlies (11-3-5) and No. 4-seeded Huskies (13-2-6) will kick off at 8 p.m. (MT) at Washington's Husky Soccer Stadium, where the home team went 6-1-2 this season.

The game will be streamed on ESPN+.

The winner will advance to face either No. 5 seed Arkansas or Dartmouth in the second round on Thursday, Nov. 20. Those teams meet in Fayetteville, also on Friday night.

Montana swept the Big Sky Conference regular-season and tournament titles to advance to the NCAA Tournament for the seventh time, the fourth time under eighth-year head coach Chris Citowicki.

Washington swept the Big Ten Conference championships, going 8-1-2 in league, then winning the Big Ten tournament title on Sunday in St. Louis.

The Huskies, hosting an NCAA Tournament match for the first time since 2019, are playing in their 18th NCAA Women's Soccer Championship.

Montana Big Sky Conference Championship notes:

* The Grizzlies, playing at home, advanced to their first NCAA Tournament since 2021 with a pair of shootout victories over the weekend.

Montana played to a 2-2 draw with Idaho in Friday's semifinals, getting past the Vandals 3-1 in a shootout.

In Sunday's championship match in front of a stadium-record crowd of 2,227, Montana and Weber State played to a 0-0 draw. The Grizzlies won the shootout 4-2.

Montana went 7 for 8 in penalty kicks in the two shootouts, making their last seven.

* Redshirt junior goalkeeper Ashlyn Dvorak allowed two goals over 220 minutes of game action, then saved four penalty kicks over two shootouts to earn Big Sky Conference Championship MVP honors.

Joining Dvorak on the All-Tournament team were Eliza Bentler, Reagan Brisendine, Riley Carolan, Maddie Ditta, Maycen Slater and Makena Smith.

Bentler and Brisendine both had a goal and an assist in Friday's semifinal against Idaho, while Slater converted the championship-winning penalty kick against Weber State.

Ditta played all 220 minutes in the midfield over two matches, Smith played all 220 minutes at center back.

After Big Sky Conference Defensive MVP Ally Henrikson was injured against Idaho and had to sit out against Weber State, Carolan got the start at center back and played all 110 minutes, helping shut out the Big Sky's highest-scoring team.

* Sunday was the fourth time Montana was able to celebrate a Big Sky tournament title on its home field, the first time getting to do it since 2000. The Grizzlies previously won postseason championships at home in 1997, 1999 and 2000.

* Chloe Seelhoff, a first-team All-Big Sky selection who continues to lead Montana in goals (7) and assists (6), suffered a broken collarbone against Idaho State on Oct. 12. With her left arm bandaged against her body, she converted Montana's second penalty kick of the championship match.

Seelhoff began her career at Washington, playing for the Huskies in 2022 and '23 before transferring to Montana, where her older sister, Maddie, was playing, for her final two seasons. She was second-team All-Big Sky as a junior, first-team this season.

* Montana has now gone 7-3-3 in Big Sky tournament matches under coach Chris Citowicki.

Montana season notes:

* Dvorak was named the Big Sky Goalkeeper of the Year last week and first-team all-league. Montana has had the Big Sky Goalkeeper of the Year four of the last six years, with four different players being recognized.

Dvorak was voted first-team All-Big Sky in 2023 before missing a bulk of last season with a broken hand.

Dvorak ranks 10th nationally in goals-against average (0.53), 12th in save percentage (.862) and is tied for 19th with nine shutouts.

Dvorak's 23 career shutouts rank third in program history behind Claire Howard (32) and Kailey Norman (24).

* Henrikson was voted the Big Sky Defensive MVP after Montana allowed nine goals through 17 regular-season matches. She also was voted first-team All-Big Sky.

It marked the eighth time Montana has won the Defensive MVP, the first for the Grizzlies since Caitlin Rogers won it in 2019.

* Also earning first-team All-Big Sky honors were Ditta and Seelhoff.

Ditta was voted second-team All-Big Sky as a sophomore, first-team as a junior and senior. She has played in every match (77) the last four seasons, making 55 starts. She has 14 goals, 10 of which have been game-winners, and four assists. Her 10 game-winning goals rank fourth in program history.

Seelhoff had six goals and an assist in 2024, in her first season at Montana after transferring from Washington. She had seven goals and six assists before getting injured last month.

* Makena Smith, a first-year Grizzly after playing at Purdue and Miami (Ohio), was voted second-team All-Big Sky. Reagan Brisendine also was voted second-team all-league.

* Montana won the Big Sky regular-season championship with a 5-1-2 league record, going unbeaten over its final seven matches after dropping its Big Sky opener at Northern Arizona 2-1. The Grizzlies outscored those seven opponents 10-1.

* Montana became the first program in Big Sky history to win three consecutive outright regular-season league titles, going 18-1-5 in the Big Sky over the 2023, '24 and '25 seasons.

* Montana enters the NCAA Tournament on a nine-match (5-0-4) unbeaten streak, allowing three goals over those nine matches while scoring 12.

* Montana has had unbeaten streaks of at least seven matches in each of the last seven seasons under coach Chris Citowicki.

* Montana has won nine Big Sky titles in eight seasons under Citowicki, five regular season and four tournament.

* Montana enters the NCAA Tournament with an RPI of 95. Washington is 27.

* Montana has won 13, 12 and 11 matches the last three seasons, the first time the program has had three straight 10-win seasons since 1998-2000.

* With last weekend's two draws at the Big Sky tournament, Montana is 23-1-5 in its last 29 matches at South Campus Stadium.

* Montana is tied for seventh nationally in shutout percentage (.632) and ranks ninth in save percentage (.859), 10th in goals-against average (0.57).

* Montana has 12 shutouts this season after posting 11 in 2023 and a program-record 14 in 2024. It's the first time in program history with three consecutive seasons with 10 or more shutouts.

* Montana has 81 shutouts in 149 matches under Citowicki.

* Montana outscored opponents 12-9 during the first half this season. In the second half, the Grizzlies outscored their opponents 19-2.

* Over the last three seasons, Montana has gone 36-11-13. Over those 60 matches, the Grizzlies have allowed seven second-half goals.

* Reagan Brisendine went from no goals and no assists last season as a freshman to five goals and five assists this year.

* Brisendine and Seelhoff (7 goals, 6 assists) are the first players of the 5-5 Club since Erin Craig (7 goals, 5 assists) in 2012. Those are the only three players to reach 5 and 5 since the 2000 season. Seelhoff and Brisendine are the first teammates to do it in the same season since 1998.

* Washington was ranked No. 13 in the final United Soccer Coaches national poll prior to conference tournaments. Montana is 3-19 all-time against ranked opponents, all three wins coming in 2000 or earlier.

* The Grizzlies' last match against a ranked opponent was its first-round NCAA Tournament game at No. 15 Washington State in 2021, a 3-0 loss.

Montana NCAA Tournament history:

* Montana is playing in its seventh NCAA Tournament, four of those appearances now belonging to coach Chris Citowicki.

The Grizzlies played in the NCAA Tournament in 1999 and 2000 under program founder Betsy Duerksen and in 2011 under Mark Plakorus. Citowicki's teams advanced previously in 2018, in his first season, in the 2021 spring season and in the 2021 fall season.

Montana lost at Washington State 5-1 in 2018, lost 1-0 to South Carolina in Wilson, N.C., in the COVID-impacted spring season of 2021 and lost 3-0 at Washington State in 2021, a match that was 1-0 going into the 79th minute before the Cougars scored two late goals.

* Montana went one-and-done in five of its previous six NCAA Tournament appearances, losing in the first round at Texas A&M (1999), at Stanford (2011), at Washington State (2018), against South Carolina (2021 spring) and at Washington State (2021 fall).

In 2000, in one of three play-in matches in that year's tournament, Montana won against Northwestern State 6-0 in Missoula, sending the Grizzlies into the official round of 48.

Montana traveled to Washington State and won 1-0 in the first round, still the only non-shootout NCAA Tournament victory in Big Sky history.

Montana lost at Washington in the second round 5-0, with goalkeeper Hope Solo earning the shutout. That Husky team fell in the round of 16 to Portland 1-0.

* The last Big Sky team to advance out of the first round was Weber State in 2005. The Wildcats played to a 1-1 draw against BYU and advanced to face Arizona in the second round 4-3 in penalty kicks. Weber State lost to the Wildcats 1-0.

At a glance (Washington):

* The Huskies were picked ninth in the Big Ten preseason poll but won the outright title with an 8-1-2 record to finish two points ahead of Michigan State.

* Nicole Van Dyke was the unanimous choice for Big Ten Coach of the Year after leading the Huskies to their second-ever conference championship, their first in 25 years.

* Like Montana, Washington's success in 2025 has been centered around its defense. The Huskies have allowed 13 goals in 21 matches, with 10 shutouts.

* Senior center back Kolo Suliafu was voted the Big Ten Defender of the Year.

* Washington held its Big Ten opponents to one or zero goals in nine of its 11 league matches, with only Minnesota and Oregon scoring twice.

* Washington opened its season with a 1-1 home draw against Oregon State, a team that would go 2-12-5. That same Husky team would go on to finish 5-0-1 against ranked opponents this fall, four of those coming in 1-0 shutouts.

* After wrapping up the regular season with its only Big Ten loss, 2-1 at Oregon, Washington went on to win the Big Ten tournament title, knocking off Illinois and Wisconsin and getting by Michigan State in penalty kicks in the championship.

* Washington and Montana played three common opponents this season. The Huskies defeated Idaho 4-0, played Seattle to a 1-1 draw and won 1-0 at Gonzaga.

The Grizzlies played to a pair of draws against Idaho, 0-0 in Moscow and 2-2 in Missoula on Friday, also played Seattle to a 1-1 draw and defeated Gonzaga 4-0 in Missoula.

* Washington's only two losses this season came at home against Utah, 1-0, in early September and 2-1 at Oregon to close out the regular season.

* Junior midfielder Jadyn Holdenried leads Washington's offensive attack with seven goals and five assists.

* Sophomore goalkeeper Tanner Ijams has played all but 14 minutes in goal this season. She is 13-2-6 with a 0.62 goals-against average and a .806 save percentage. She has nine shutouts.

* Unlike Montana, Washington's best half has been the first, when the Huskies have outscored their opponents 20-4. The margin is only 11-9 in the second half.

Series history:

* Washington leads the all-time series 7-1-0. The teams have not met since playing a home-and-home series in 2008 and '09.

* Montana's lone win in the series was a 3-2 victory in Seattle in 1997, with Shannon Forslund scoring the game-winner in the 83rd minute.

* That was the Grizzlies' lone win in five previous matches on Washington's home field.

* Montana has lost its last four matches to the Huskies since that lone win, dropping both ends of home-and-home series in 2000 and '01, and 2008 and '09. Washington won those four matches by a combined score of 10-0.