There is no shortage of trophies around the Montana soccer offices in Missoula.
In the previous seven seasons under Chris Citowicki – the entirety of his tenure with the Grizzlies – Montana has won the Big Sky regular season title four times and the tournament a further three.
But the circumstances of this year’s Big Sky regular season title – their third in a row – makes Griz soccer’s newest trophy just a little bit more special for Citowicki.
And despite losing their first regular-season conference game in three years, their 2025 run may have been even more impressive than their previous two dominant seasons, when they swept through the league undefeated.
“I don’t know how we accomplished what we accomplished, considering all the injuries that we went through,” Citowicki said. “Yet somehow we’ve managed to sustain a level of play, a level of organization behind the scenes, and just continue moving this thing, despite not just players being hurt and you miss them on the field, but the pain that causes to a team behind the scenes. There are numerous times that we came to a crossroads in the locker room, that it was either we got to deal with this thing or it’s done. They made the right choice every single time, and that’s put us in a spot that they get rewarded with such an amazing accomplishment.”
Thanks to Maddie Ditta’s second-half penalty kick against Portland State that clinched the title, the Griz enter this week’s conference tournament in Missoula as the No. 1 seed for the third season in a row. When they kick off against either Portland State or Idaho on Friday afternoon, they’ll be trying to snap a streak that’s seen them lose from that elevated position each of the past two years.
But to even be in that spot, they’ve weathered a storm of injuries that shredded Citowicki’s preseason plans and forced Montana to increasingly rely on a new generation of underclassmen prematurely pushed into the spotlight.
The total list of wounded is gruesome reading, appropriate for a post-Halloween weekend.
Senior winger Kayla Rendon Bushmaker didn’t even make it through the exhibition schedule, tearing her ACL against Calgary.
Sophomore Carly Whalen, who started the season as the attacking midfielder after a promising freshman campaign, went down a game before non-conference play ended.
All-conference-level center back Reeve Borseth, who was expected to step into the lineup midseason after recovering from an injury suffered late last year, instead ran into setbacks in her rehab and didn’t play at all in 2025.
Rotational fullback Taylie Nowels and reserve forward Georgia Boone also tore their ACLs, and two crucial starters in center back Makena Smith and midfielder Emma Widmor have missed time during the season, although they’re both back for the tournament.
Finally – and most painfully – forward Chloe Seelhoff broke her collarbone on October 12 against Idaho State, 15 games into a season that had already put her among the Grizzlies’ greats.
A year after transferring into the program from Washington, Seelhoff put up seven goals and six assists in those 15 games. That included two goals in the season opener against Southern Utah, an incredible solo effort goal to get the Griz a draw against Eastern Washington, and two assists in the 4-0 rout of Weber State that stamped the Griz as the favorites in the Big Sky. With one more of each, Seelhoff would have had the most in a season by a Griz since Erin Craig had 10 goals and India Watne had eight assists in 2011.
Instead, she finished the year in a sling on the sideline as Montana faced must-win games against Sacramento State and Portland State, winning both 1-0 to retain the conference title by one point over Weber.
“It’s been the worst part of the season for me, like by far the hardest, because my role in this is to move the team forwards, and that means I have to be able to emotionally detach from a Chloe Seelhoff,” Citowicki said. “She has to come into the office to meet with me, and I have to say, ‘Listen, I’ll always be there for you. … But when it comes to the training sessions, I can’t talk to you. I have to move forward with other players. So it’ll seem like I’m almost not there for you in those settings.’”
Coupled with a slow start to conference play – Montana lost its Big Sky opener to Northern Arizona and had just one win through its first four conference games – it was a list of injuries that threatened to end the Grizzlies’ Big Sky dominance.
Trying to plug the holes, Citowicki had no choice but to flip the calendar forward for a number of underclassmen – players who were undoubtedly talented, but who were considered a year away from truly contributing.
Instead, youngster after youngster rose to the occasion. Kalispell native Reagan Brisendine, who played 203 minutes across 14 games last year as a freshman, has started 13 games, played 955 minutes and announced herself as a star with four goals and four assists, the latter second on the team behind Seelhoff.
Another sophomore, Lydia Robertson, has made 11 starts and played 903 minutes a year after playing just 101.
It was her assist to Caylee Kerr, a redshirt freshman who didn’t play at all last year, that gave the Grizzlies a 1-0 home win against Sacramento State and sent them to Portland in charge of their own destiny in the regular season finale.
Freshman striker Maycen Slater is tied with Brisendine for third on the team with four goals, including a brace against Weber State and the game winner against Idaho State in the game Seelhoff got injured.
And another freshman, Missoula’s own 5-foot-2 midfield dynamo Liv Thorne-Thomsen, has started three of the last four games as Ditta’s partner in Montana’s double pivot, a crucial role that requires athleticism, tenacity, technical skill and smarts in equal measure.
“I don’t think anybody expected them to be the ones that make it all happen,” Citowicki said. “Lydia, for example, you could see over the spring when we played some games, you’re like, she’s gonna be a clutch player in about two years. And now it’s like, well, we have to force her into playing now. So hopefully she can figure this out, the sooner the better.”
It’s safe to say that Robertson and the rest of that cohort have figured things out just fine – and that, even more than their third trophy in a row, demonstrates the difference between the Griz and the rest of the Big Sky.
The injury list Montana has faced would have resulted in a lost season for plenty of teams in the conference – and around the country, for that matter. Instead, the Grizzlies’ track record of recruiting, development and depth has put them in a familiar place heading into the Big Sky tournament – Number 1.
Now, if the Grizzlies are to snap their streak of disappointments at the conference tournament, it’ll be with big contributions from players who weren’t even in the picture three months ago.
And that is the ultimate validation for the program that Citowicki and his staff have constructed.
“The program’s been built, in a way, behind the scenes,” Citowicki said. “The kids know why they’re coming here. They come in here to compete for titles. They know there’s a pressure there, but it’s a pressure they all want. They come here with the expectation that we’re going to win a title every year. That’s what we want. That’s what we have to do.”
