Griz make a little more history

Sunday, September 21

Missoula, Mont.

11 AM

Montana

6-2-1

Washington State

2-3-3

Washington State

Montana

Photo by: Marley Barboeisel/University of

9/21/2025 3:53:00 PM | Soccer

Box Score

By: Montana Sports Information

Turns out Thursday was just a warm-up act.

Three days after roughing up Gonzaga in a 4-0 shutout, the Grizzlies' first win over the Bulldogs since 2014 and first home win over the Zags since 2002, the Montana soccer team faced Washington State, a team the Grizzlies had not defeated in any location since 2004.

Get the history book back off the shelf. It needs a bit more updating.

An Eliza Bentler goal early in the second half gave Montana a 1-0 lead, and a dominant performance by goalkeeper Ashlyn Dvorak made that stand as the game-winner as the Grizzlies knocked off the Cougars on Sunday at South Campus Stadium.

"We spoke a lot about momentum over the last six days, knowing this was going to be an emotional game," said coach Chris Citowicki. "At all times when we ask, does this look like Montana soccer?, the response has to be yes."

The answer was yes for most of the match and has been that way for a while now. Montana (6-2-1) won its fifth straight match, the last four coming by shutout, and has scored 12 unanswered goals after allowing six in five matches to open the season.

Citowicki's eighth team is evolving in real time, becoming a better and better version of itself after losing 2-0 to Baylor, then going on the road and falling behind 2-0 at Boise State in less than nine minutes. The Grizzlies haven't allowed a goal in the run of play since the first half of that match, back on Aug. 28.

"I don't think you can force an identity on a team or force lessons on them," said Citowicki. "You play hard teams and get exposed, and if you have a team that's willing to be educated, we'll learn. That's exactly what's happened. We learned what we had to do."

Sunday was another example of this team's attack-early, attack-often approach, Montana out-shooting Washington State 7-1 through the first 20-some minutes with three corner kicks thrown in. Bentler had some golden chances, and Chloe Seelhoff put a shot off the left post in the sixth minute.

"The first 25 minutes were glorious. We're coming out flying, we're trying to find ways to score goals. I love that about us," said Citowicki, whose team is up to 18 goals scored through nine matches.

Washington State had its own golden chance to score the opening goal when Abigail Siddall got free on the left side and dribbled a shot that evaded Dvorak across the goal face. Before it could find its way inside the far post, Makena Smith arrived and cleared the ball off the line.

The match was scoreless at the half.

Montana didn't wait long to open the scoring in the second half, going up 1-0 in the 47th minute, Montana's first lead over Washington State since 2016.

Seelhoff took a free kick from just outside the 18-yard box on the right side. She played it to Lydia Robertson, who sent a redirect toward goal. Washington State goalkeeper Zora Standifer made a diving stop to her right, but she left the rebound sitting two feet in front of goal. Bentler pounced on it.

"I was happy that it finally came because I did have a few looks in the first half," said Bentler. "At half we talked about following every ball that comes through and trying to read that right. Lydia had great placement and the keeper tipped it off. It was an easy touch."

It was Bentler's second goal of the season, the ninth of her career. It came on her fifth shot of the match, after twice being saved by Standifer in the first half.

"It's a game of moments, it's not a game of perfection," said Citowicki. "Don't panic, just wait for the one chance we get, and if we find the back of the net, we're going to win the game. That's exactly what that was."

Despite being down a goal, Washington State could only generate two shots in the final 30 minutes, though that didn't mean Dvorak didn't need to come up big time and time again. Without a go-to playmaker, the Cougars sent high ball after high ball into the box. Nothing doing.

The highlight of the match, outside of Bentler's game-winning goal, was one on repeat, Dvorak owning the space in front of goal, reading the game like a true boss, going airborne for cross after cross, not a bobble to be seen, her hands like vice grips.

It was last Sunday, after Montana's 1-0 win at UC Davis, that Dvorak told her coaches, "I'm back." After breaking her hand early last season, it took a full calendar year before she could finally say that.

"The confidence piece comes with time," she said. "I slowly built that up over the spring and into my summer training. (Goalkeeper coach J. Landham) has been a huge piece in that. He has so much belief in me that it makes me believe in my abilities even more."

Dvorak had three saves in the match, her statistics becoming victim of her own excellence. It's just that she'd rather play defense by going on the offensive.

"Anything that comes in the box is mine, and I'm going to take that with confidence every single time," she said. "I'm very aggressive in the air. That's one of my strongest suits as a goalkeeper. Anything I can collect with my hands from crosses, I'm going to get to before the headers come in.

"Those crosses coming in can turn into shots, so I try to get them before they can even get to the frame."

Sunday, then, completed the best week of regular-season matches for the program since … well, that's up for debate, but it certainly predates Citowicki and the two coaches who came before him, given the things that were exorcised and the manner in which it was done against Gonzaga and Washington State.

The most remarkable part of it was that Montana simply played like Montana, which these days is at a high level. Neither match needed Al Michaels on the broadcast. These weren't Miracles on Grass. It was a really good team taking care of business, like it expected these results all along and played like it.

"Our mindset going into these games was, this is who we are. We're not going to change no matter who we play," said Ally Henrikson, the best player to never have a statistic to show for it, except her team winning.

"It's just us being ourselves. When you know who you are and have a strong identity, confidence follows. I think that showed today and against Gonzaga as well."

Sunday's win kept Montana's fall sports of soccer, volleyball and football on a combined 16-game winning streak and perfect in September. They all see it and they all know it.

"A shout-out to all the Griz teams," Henrikson added. "Everyone is on fire right now. It's a testament to the athletic community as a whole, the desire and grit that runs through this place. It's so fun."

With all that said and done, Montana now does a reset, back to 0-0-0 as league play opens on Thursday night at Northern Arizona. The preseason favorite will be in its usual place, holding a sizeable target.

"What a way to go into league, but everything starts anew," said Citowicki. "We haven't made playoffs, we haven't won the league."