Griz open season with a bang

Thursday, August 14

Missoula, Mont.

5 PM

Montana

1-0-0

Southern Utah

0-1-0

Southern Utah

Montana

Photo by: Ryan Brennecke

8/14/2025 9:53:00 PM | Soccer

Box Score Photo Gallery

By: Montana Sports Information

The Montana soccer team opened its regular-season schedule with a commanding 3-0 victory over Southern Utah on Thursday evening at South Campus Stadium in Missoula.

The Grizzlies built a 2-0 halftime lead on goals by Maddie Ditta and Chloe Seelhoff, then Seelhoff struck again in the second half as Montana outshot the Thunderbirds 21-6 for the match.

Bayliss Flynn played the opening 45 minutes in goal, Ashlyn Dvorak the final 45 minutes as the Grizzlies made it six consecutive shutouts dating back to last season.

"We talked about how difficult it is on any opening day, because everybody believes this is our start. Every team comes to play, so it's going to be intense, it's going to be all out," said coach Chris Citowicki.

"I told them, you're throwing down today. No matter what, we're competing, and if you score, score again, then score again."

And Montana did just that, taking control of the match after a back-and-forth opening 20 minutes and never giving Southern Utah a chance to regroup.

The evening turned into the Chloe Seelhoff Show, but it was Ditta who opened the scoring in the 26th minute with her ninth career goal, all nine of them game-winners.

Mia Parkhurst took a free kick from in front of the Montana bench and the ball bounced-bounced-bounced right to a waiting Ditta on the quiet side of the top-of-the-box scrum.

She played the ball to her feet and calmly flicked it past Southern Utah goalkeeper Jazmyn Brass, who spent the previous four seasons at Boise State.

The rest of the match belonged to Seelhoff, who scored six goals last season and had an opportunity to nearly match that on Thursday in the opener.

She scored twice but also hit the crossbar on two occasions and missed on a chance to convert a second-half penalty kick, which would have given her the 18th hat trick in program history.

"She was so dangerous today, it was crazy. I've never seen her perform at that kind of a level," Citowicki said. "It was fun to watch. Really, really impressed with Chloe.

"She trusts herself. She believes in herself. She carries herself like a leader on the field. Not only is she taking care of herself, she can feed others now too, which has been a big improvement."

Seelhoff's first goal, in the 33rd minute, was set up by a special play from Reagan Brisendine, who stretched to a loose ball and toe-tapped a lead pass to Seelhoff up the right side.

Seelhoff allowed the ball to bounce once, then volleyed it out of the air past Brass, a veteran play by an experienced senior.

"It comes with confidence," she said. "My first two years of college soccer, I was pretty frantic. I was trying to impress the coaches and other players.

"Last year I got more comfortable. Now I can check my shoulder, take my time on the ball and blow by somebody when I have the space."

Montana led 2-0 at the break after outshooting the Thunderbirds 11-1 in the first half, a solid position for a team that allowed three second-half goals all of last season, two the year before that.

"The halftime message was, you're not done," said Citowicki. "Historically, once we've scored a couple, we stop. I don't want to stop. Fun is finishing the game at high intensity, and I feel like we did that today.

"Right up until the end we were creating chances," with Montana going 22 players deep, 18 of them playing at least 20 minutes. "It was a collective team performance."

Seelhoff made it 3-0 in the 65th minute, taking a nice feed from Ashlyn Sandow and driving toward the right post. She beat the last defender, then casually flipped it past Brass with the outside of her foot.

The Grizzlies' three goals were the most for Montana in a fall season opener since 2011.

"I've been saying it since I got back this summer, this team has a different kind of energy," said Seelhoff. "This team attacked it from Day 1.

"Something we've been talking about is being comfortable up 1-0. This team is like, no, we're going to keep going. Why would you stop? That was our mindset today, and it worked."

Seelhoff took a team-high seven shots and had four of Montana's eight shots on goal. Parkhurst's assist was the third of her career, Sandow's her second, while Brisendine collected her first collegiate point.

Flynn, the goalkeeper when Montana took the lead, earned the win to improve to 10-0-5 as a starter. Makena Smith played all 90 minutes at center back in her Grizzly debut.

Montana will face Seattle and Baylor next week at the Rumble in the Rockies.