Thursday, August 13
Missoula, Mont.
5 PM
Montana
vs
Bucknell
Montana opens season hosting Bucknell
8/12/2026 3:45:00 PM | Soccer
The Montana soccer team will open its regular-season schedule on Thursday when it hosts Bucknell at South Campus Stadium in Missoula. The Grizzlies and Bison will kick off at 5 p.m.
It will be the first-ever meeting between two historically successful programs who have both advanced to the NCAA tournament seven times in their histories.
Four of the Grizzlies' NCAA appearances have come since 2018. Five of Bucknell's seven appearances have come since coach Kelly Cook was hired prior to the 2015 season.
Coverage: Thursday's match will stream on ESPN+ with Ace Sauerwein on the broadcast.
Match notes:
* The Grizzlies open their season at home for the third consecutive year and at a venue where Montana has been tough to beat over the last few seasons.
Montana went 18-1-5 at home the previous two years, one of 19 programs nationally to lose one or fewer home matches in 2024 and '25.
Of those teams, the Grizzlies are one of only seven to record 18 home wins during the last two seasons. Only Duke (25), Fairfield (21), Western Michigan (20) and Michigan State (19) had more.
Over the last seven seasons, Montana has gone 42-8-13 (.770) at home. The Grizzlies are 154-68-36 (.667) in Missoula all-time, 147-65-36 (.665) at South Campus Stadium.
* Montana is under new leadership in 2026 as Stuart Gore, previously the head coach at Troy, was hired in February to replace Chris Citowicki, who is now at Washington State.
Citowicki led the Grizzlies to an eight-year record of 79-39-32, to nine Big Sky Conference regular-season and tournament titles and to four NCAA tournaments.
He departed as the program's second-winningest coach behind Betsy Duerksen.
Gore is the fifth coach in program history. He led Northwestern Ohio to an NAIA national championship in 2016, to a runner-up finish in 2014 and to national semifinal appearances in 2015 and '17.
A four-time conference coach of the year, Gore led Northwestern State to the NCAA tournament in 2021 in his first year at the school. He has a 140-53-19 record as a college head coach.
* After a disruptive offseason, Montana opens the season with only one returning starter, senior Lucie Rokos, who was named to the Preseason All-Big Sky Conference team last week.
Only four other letter-winners from last season are back: junior Caylee Dowler and sophomores Mia Draper, Malli Rude and Liv Thorne-Thomsen.
Junior Hayley Bass played in all 19 matches in 2024 as a freshman, getting 14 starts. She sat out the 2025 season with an injury.
On its 25-player roster, Montana has 17 newcomers. Four of those players were with the Grizzlies during the spring semester. Seven of the newcomers are transfers, 10 are freshmen.
* Montana lost the players who scored 29 of the team's 31 goals last season. Rokos scored one goal in 2025, Dowler one as well.
Rokos scored the game-winner in the 88th minute in Montana's 2-1 home win over Nevada, Dowler the game-winner in Montana's 1-0 home win over Sacramento State.
* Montana has had the Big Sky Conference Goalkeeper of the Year four of the last six seasons – Dvorak, Flynn, Xu, Howard – and will have a new face in goal this season.
None of the three has played a minute in goal in a Grizzly uniform.
Junior transfer Avery Heeb played 128 minutes over two matches as a freshman at West Georgia in 2024. She played 168 minutes over three matches last season at USC Upstate.
Montana also has sophomore Jill Miliffe, who did not see any action last season behind Ashlyn Dvorak and Bayliss Flynn, and freshman Lorelei Rustay.
Over the last three seasons, Montana's defense allowed 32 goals in 58 matches while posting 37 shutouts.
* Montana went 11-4-5 last season, its third straight year with 11 or more wins, its fourth in five years with 11 or more wins.
The Grizzlies went 18-1-5 in league play in 2023, '24 and '25 to become the first program in Big Sky history to win three consecutive outright regular-season championships.
Montana hosted the Big Sky tournament in November and advanced past Idaho in the semifinals and Weber State in the title match in shootouts.
The championship match against the Wildcats drew a record crowd of 2,227.
The Grizzlies played at Washington in the first round of the NCAA tournament and fell 2-0. Alex Buck scored in the 11th minute, then added an insurance goal in the 90th.
* The largest crowd Montana has brought in for a season opener was 742 for the team's 2-0 home win over Colorado State in 2014. That season opener did not come until Sept. 19, after seven road matches.
Montana has eight times opened in front of crowds of 500 or more, the first coming in 1997 when a crowd of 599 watched the Grizzlies roll Oregon State 10-0.
Last season, Montana opened with a 3-0 home win over Southern Utah with a crowd of 572.
The next two largest home-opening crowds were 653 against MSU Billings in 2006 and 625 against San Diego State in 2001.
* Montana is unbeaten in its last four home openers, drawing with Creighton in 2022, then defeating MSU Billings in 2023, Colorado College in 2024 and Southern Utah last August.
The Grizzlies are 17-11-4 all-time in home openers and have lost only twice over the last 14 years, going 8-2-4.
* Montana's four previous coaches went 3-1 in their Grizzly coaching debuts.
Betsy Duerksen (1994-03) won 4-0 at home over Gonzaga, Neil Sedgwick (2004-10) won 2-1 at home over Idaho and Mark Plakorus (2011-17) won 4-3 in double overtime at Boise State.
Chris Citowicki (2018-25) is the only Montana coach to lose in their debut. His Grizzlies opened the 2018 season with a 1-0 home loss to Fresno State.
* Montana was picked seventh out of 10 teams in the Big Sky preseason coaches' poll, matching the Grizzlies' lowest-ever projection. Montana was picked seventh (out of then eight teams) in 2008 and '10.
The teams Montana defeated in shootouts in last year's Big Sky tournament, Weber State and Idaho, were picked first and second and collected nine of the 10 first-place votes.
League newcomer Utah Tech received the other first-place vote and was third in the poll. Northern Arizona and Eastern Washington rounded out the top five.
Weber State put four on the 13-player preseason All-Big Sky team, Idaho three. Northern Arizona forward Micala Boex was voted the preseason MVP.
Senior defender Lucie Rokos was Montana's lone selection to the team.
* Montana will host Lethbridge on Thursday, Aug. 27, MSU Billings on Sunday, Aug. 30.
The Grizzlies will have only one home match in September, against Wyoming on the 11th, and won't be at home again until hosting Idaho State on Oct. 15.
It will be a busy close to the season at South Campus Stadium. Montana ends the regular season with three home matches, then hosts the six-team Big Sky tournament on Nov. 11, 13 and 15.
* Montana is two wins from reaching 300 as a program. The Grizzlies enter the season with an all-time record of 298-241-76.
* Bucknell tied for seventh in the 10-team Patriot League preseason poll, with junior forward Katie Connell earning preseason all-league honors.
Connell ranked second on the team in points last season, totaling five goals and two assists.
* Twelfth-year head coach Kelly Cook (98-72-33) is the program's all-time leader in wins and has led the Bison to five NCAA tournaments, in 2016, '17, '21, '22 and '23.
In six of her first 11 years at the school, Bucknell finished no lower than tied for second in the regular-season standings.
* Bucknell went 3-9-6 last season. The Bison went winless after Sept. 20, scoring five goals over their final eight matches.
Bucknell returns six of the eight players who scored goals last season, plus junior goalkeeper Reese Dolan, who started 15 of the team's 18 matches in 2026.
Upcoming: Montana will head to Seattle next week for matches against Seattle U and Washington.
It will be the first-ever meeting between two historically successful programs who have both advanced to the NCAA tournament seven times in their histories.
Four of the Grizzlies' NCAA appearances have come since 2018. Five of Bucknell's seven appearances have come since coach Kelly Cook was hired prior to the 2015 season.
Coverage: Thursday's match will stream on ESPN+ with Ace Sauerwein on the broadcast.
Match notes:
* The Grizzlies open their season at home for the third consecutive year and at a venue where Montana has been tough to beat over the last few seasons.
Montana went 18-1-5 at home the previous two years, one of 19 programs nationally to lose one or fewer home matches in 2024 and '25.
Of those teams, the Grizzlies are one of only seven to record 18 home wins during the last two seasons. Only Duke (25), Fairfield (21), Western Michigan (20) and Michigan State (19) had more.
Over the last seven seasons, Montana has gone 42-8-13 (.770) at home. The Grizzlies are 154-68-36 (.667) in Missoula all-time, 147-65-36 (.665) at South Campus Stadium.
* Montana is under new leadership in 2026 as Stuart Gore, previously the head coach at Troy, was hired in February to replace Chris Citowicki, who is now at Washington State.
Citowicki led the Grizzlies to an eight-year record of 79-39-32, to nine Big Sky Conference regular-season and tournament titles and to four NCAA tournaments.
He departed as the program's second-winningest coach behind Betsy Duerksen.
Gore is the fifth coach in program history. He led Northwestern Ohio to an NAIA national championship in 2016, to a runner-up finish in 2014 and to national semifinal appearances in 2015 and '17.
A four-time conference coach of the year, Gore led Northwestern State to the NCAA tournament in 2021 in his first year at the school. He has a 140-53-19 record as a college head coach.
* After a disruptive offseason, Montana opens the season with only one returning starter, senior Lucie Rokos, who was named to the Preseason All-Big Sky Conference team last week.
Only four other letter-winners from last season are back: junior Caylee Dowler and sophomores Mia Draper, Malli Rude and Liv Thorne-Thomsen.
Junior Hayley Bass played in all 19 matches in 2024 as a freshman, getting 14 starts. She sat out the 2025 season with an injury.
On its 25-player roster, Montana has 17 newcomers. Four of those players were with the Grizzlies during the spring semester. Seven of the newcomers are transfers, 10 are freshmen.
* Montana lost the players who scored 29 of the team's 31 goals last season. Rokos scored one goal in 2025, Dowler one as well.
Rokos scored the game-winner in the 88th minute in Montana's 2-1 home win over Nevada, Dowler the game-winner in Montana's 1-0 home win over Sacramento State.
* Montana has had the Big Sky Conference Goalkeeper of the Year four of the last six seasons – Dvorak, Flynn, Xu, Howard – and will have a new face in goal this season.
None of the three has played a minute in goal in a Grizzly uniform.
Junior transfer Avery Heeb played 128 minutes over two matches as a freshman at West Georgia in 2024. She played 168 minutes over three matches last season at USC Upstate.
Montana also has sophomore Jill Miliffe, who did not see any action last season behind Ashlyn Dvorak and Bayliss Flynn, and freshman Lorelei Rustay.
Over the last three seasons, Montana's defense allowed 32 goals in 58 matches while posting 37 shutouts.
* Montana went 11-4-5 last season, its third straight year with 11 or more wins, its fourth in five years with 11 or more wins.
The Grizzlies went 18-1-5 in league play in 2023, '24 and '25 to become the first program in Big Sky history to win three consecutive outright regular-season championships.
Montana hosted the Big Sky tournament in November and advanced past Idaho in the semifinals and Weber State in the title match in shootouts.
The championship match against the Wildcats drew a record crowd of 2,227.
The Grizzlies played at Washington in the first round of the NCAA tournament and fell 2-0. Alex Buck scored in the 11th minute, then added an insurance goal in the 90th.
* The largest crowd Montana has brought in for a season opener was 742 for the team's 2-0 home win over Colorado State in 2014. That season opener did not come until Sept. 19, after seven road matches.
Montana has eight times opened in front of crowds of 500 or more, the first coming in 1997 when a crowd of 599 watched the Grizzlies roll Oregon State 10-0.
Last season, Montana opened with a 3-0 home win over Southern Utah with a crowd of 572.
The next two largest home-opening crowds were 653 against MSU Billings in 2006 and 625 against San Diego State in 2001.
* Montana is unbeaten in its last four home openers, drawing with Creighton in 2022, then defeating MSU Billings in 2023, Colorado College in 2024 and Southern Utah last August.
The Grizzlies are 17-11-4 all-time in home openers and have lost only twice over the last 14 years, going 8-2-4.
* Montana's four previous coaches went 3-1 in their Grizzly coaching debuts.
Betsy Duerksen (1994-03) won 4-0 at home over Gonzaga, Neil Sedgwick (2004-10) won 2-1 at home over Idaho and Mark Plakorus (2011-17) won 4-3 in double overtime at Boise State.
Chris Citowicki (2018-25) is the only Montana coach to lose in their debut. His Grizzlies opened the 2018 season with a 1-0 home loss to Fresno State.
* Montana was picked seventh out of 10 teams in the Big Sky preseason coaches' poll, matching the Grizzlies' lowest-ever projection. Montana was picked seventh (out of then eight teams) in 2008 and '10.
The teams Montana defeated in shootouts in last year's Big Sky tournament, Weber State and Idaho, were picked first and second and collected nine of the 10 first-place votes.
League newcomer Utah Tech received the other first-place vote and was third in the poll. Northern Arizona and Eastern Washington rounded out the top five.
Weber State put four on the 13-player preseason All-Big Sky team, Idaho three. Northern Arizona forward Micala Boex was voted the preseason MVP.
Senior defender Lucie Rokos was Montana's lone selection to the team.
* Montana will host Lethbridge on Thursday, Aug. 27, MSU Billings on Sunday, Aug. 30.
The Grizzlies will have only one home match in September, against Wyoming on the 11th, and won't be at home again until hosting Idaho State on Oct. 15.
It will be a busy close to the season at South Campus Stadium. Montana ends the regular season with three home matches, then hosts the six-team Big Sky tournament on Nov. 11, 13 and 15.
* Montana is two wins from reaching 300 as a program. The Grizzlies enter the season with an all-time record of 298-241-76.
* Bucknell tied for seventh in the 10-team Patriot League preseason poll, with junior forward Katie Connell earning preseason all-league honors.
Connell ranked second on the team in points last season, totaling five goals and two assists.
* Twelfth-year head coach Kelly Cook (98-72-33) is the program's all-time leader in wins and has led the Bison to five NCAA tournaments, in 2016, '17, '21, '22 and '23.
In six of her first 11 years at the school, Bucknell finished no lower than tied for second in the regular-season standings.
* Bucknell went 3-9-6 last season. The Bison went winless after Sept. 20, scoring five goals over their final eight matches.
Bucknell returns six of the eight players who scored goals last season, plus junior goalkeeper Reese Dolan, who started 15 of the team's 18 matches in 2026.
Upcoming: Montana will head to Seattle next week for matches against Seattle U and Washington.
Players Mentioned
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