Griz open new era in Phoenix

The Montana softball team, under first-year coach Stef Ewing, will open its season this weekend at the GCU Kickoff Classic in Phoenix, Ariz.

The Grizzlies will get single games against Colgate, Northern Illinois and Wichita State, and two against host Grand Canyon, which received votes in the NFCA preseason top-25 national poll.

All games will be played at GCU Softball Stadium.

Montana, per usual, will be on the road the first six weekends of the season before making its home debut on Wednesday, March 19, with a doubleheader against MSU Billings.

Schedule:
Friday, 9 a.m. – vs. Colgate
Friday, noon – vs. Northern Illinois
Saturday: 2:30 p.m. – vs. Wichita State
Saturday, 5 p.m. – at Grand Canyon (ESPN+)
Sunday: 11:30 a.m. – at Grand Canyon (ESPN+)

Coverage: All five Montana games can be tracked through live stats. The Grizzlies' two games against Grand Canyon will have coverage on ESPN+.

At a glance (Montana): The Grizzlies are under a new coach this year after winning only 19 games against Division I opponents the last two seasons and twice finishing last in the Big Sky, going 5-29 against league opponents in 2023 and '24.

Stef Ewing, previously at Cal State San Marcos, was hired in June to replace Melanie Meuchel.

The Grizzlies return one All-Big Sky player, Presley Jantzi, who batted .393 last season, the eighth-best single-season batting average in program history.

Montana lost the pitchers who threw nearly 70 percent of the team's innings in 2024.

The Grizzlies, picked to finish sixth out of six teams in this year's Big Sky preseason poll, ranked last in the league a season ago in both team batting average (.262) and ERA (5.54).

At a glance (Colgate): The Raiders are coming off a 22-28 season, only their third 20-win season since 2011. Colgate went 8-10 to finish fifth in the Patriot League. The Raiders were picked fifth in this year's preseason poll.

Marissa Lamison-Myers enters her eighth year as coach. She returns senior infielder Jillian Herbst and senior catcher Quinn Livesay, both of whom were named preseason All-Patriot League.

Montana and Colgate will be playing for the first time on Friday morning.

At a glance (Northern Illinois): The Huskies were in Missoula last year for the Montana Softball Classic in what would be the program's final season under then coach Christina Sutcliffe. She was replaced by Kathryn Gleason, formerly at Northern Kentucky, in the offseason.

NIU went 18-34 last season, losing twice to the Grizzlies in the teams' three games in Missoula, and finished ninth out of 11 teams in the Mid-American Conference with a 9-19 league record.

Northern Illinois was picked eighth out of 11 teams in this year's MAC preseason coaches' poll.

Montana and Northern Illinois split their four previous meetings, each team winning twice.

At a glance (Wichita State): The Shockers, who went 28-22 last season, were picked to win the American Athletic Conference in this year's preseason coaches' poll, finishing ahead of Florida Atlantic and North Texas.

Wichita State has seven times in its history made the NCAA tournament, five of those appearances coming in the last decade, including consecutive trips to the postseason in 2021, '22 and '23.

The Shockers, who ended last season with an RPI of 54, placed fourth in the AAC with a league record of 16-11.

Kristi Bredbenner, now entering her 14th season as the program's head coach, has won 392 games at Wichita State.

Montana defeated Wichita State 3-1 in Tulsa, Okla., in the Grizzlies' NCAA tournament season of 2017 in the teams' only other meeting.

At a glance (Grand Canyon): The Lopes, who have won the last three Western Athletic Conference tournament titles, were picked atop the WAC preseason coaches' poll after going 50-13 a year ago, 23-3 in league.

GCU picked up a pair of NCAA tournament victories last May, over San Diego State and Virginia Tech at UCLA's regional.

Sophomore infielder Savannah Kirk, last year's WAC Freshman of the Year, was voted the 2025 WAC Preseason Player of the Year. Senior Meghan Golden, who went 13-4 a year ago with a 2.15 ERA, was voted the 2025 WAC Preseason Pitcher of the Year.

Fourth-year coach Shanon Hays took a team that went 19-30 the season before he arrived, in 2021, and led it to records of 39-16, 47-13 and 50-13 over his first three years at the school.

Grand Canyon plays its first 24 games of the season at home and 28 of its first 31. The GCU roster features sophomore infielder Haley Wolsky, who played at Missoula's Sentinel High School.

Montana is 4-9 all-time against Grand Canyon, with the Lopes winning the teams' last six match-ups, the last four by a combined score of 37-4.

Summary:

The Montana softball team will waste no time putting itself to the test when the Grizzlies open their first season under new coach Stef Ewing at the GCU Kickoff Classic in Phoenix.

After opening on Friday with Colgate and Northern Illinois, Montana will play Wichita State once and Grand Canyon twice. The Shockers have been to the NCAA tournament three times in the last four years, the Lopes to the last three NCAA tournaments.

"It's a tough schedule. Anytime you're playing a team that's receiving votes and you're playing them twice in their park, it's going to be tough," said Ewing. "Wichita State is a program that has consistently produced really good teams, and we'll have some 50-50 games with Colgate and Northern Illinois.

"We just have to go out and play our brand of softball. Let's just do the things we need to do and play quality softball and play our game. Set our game plan, stick to it and go after it. The biggest thing I'm looking for is for us to continue to build, learn from what we're doing and get better."

Junior Grace Haegele, who led Montana in wins and ERA a year ago, was expected to shoulder a big workload early in the season, but the Grizzlies will be without their most experienced pitcher this weekend.

Montana also will be without the services of sophomore Nyeala Herndon. Both are on the injured list.

That will provide plenty of opportunities for junior transfer Siona Halwani, who went 27-6 with a 1.57 ERA in two seasons at College of San Mateo in California, freshman Cameryn Ortega and sophomore Brianna Lachermeier, who threw last season at Otero (Colo.) College.

"We're going to rely on Siona, Cam and Bri. Cam has thrown tremendous the last two weeks and Bri has done a nice job. We'll depend on those three, with Siona getting the ball a lot."

The Grizzlies may also get some innings from some unexpected arms, those belonging to Hannah Jablonski and Grace Hardy. Neither has pitched in college.

"They've been throwing in the bullpen. It's all hands on deck. These kids have embraced that," said Ewing. "We have people on this team who are willing to do whatever it takes, with kids stepping up all over the place to do things.

"There is no panic in this group. We've told both pitchers coming back from injury, get yourself right, get yourself ready. When you're ready, we'll be ready. Until then, we've got a job to do. We've got to find a way to win with the staff that we have."

When asked about how she'll measure success this weekend, Ewing said: "If we have quality at-bats, if we move runners, if we're decreasing our strikeouts on offense and limiting our walks as a pitching staff and playing clean defense. Those are the things I'm looking for.

"Can we make the other team throw a lot of pitches? Can we barrel balls? Are we making good contact and hitting the ball hard? Are we making adjustments in the box? If we get someone on, can we move runners, can we make things happen? With our pitching staff, can we make our opponent earn it?

"No matter what happens this weekend, we're going to come back with a list. We'll be able to come back and say, hey, these things we're good on, these are things we need to get a little better at. We'll take it one weekend at a time."

Upcoming: Montana will play seven games over four days in El Paso, Texas, and Las Cruces, N.M., at the Dr. Diana Natalicio Memorial Tournament and Troy Cox Classic. Two of those games will be against Nebraska, No. 19 in the preseason NFCA national poll.

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Players Mentioned

Grace Haegele

Siona Halwani

Grace Hardy

Nyeala Herndon

Hannah Jablonski

Presley Jantzi

Brianna Lachermeier

Cameryn Ortega

University of Montana Athletics