Montana

Despite numerous injuries, Montana soccer blazing into Big Sky Conference play

Published

1 year ago

September 24, 2024

Despite numerous injuries, Montana soccer blazing into Big Sky Conference play

MISSOULA — Expectations were through the roof for the Montana Grizzlies soccer team thanks to their success a year ago.

Safe to say, with nonconference now ending, they’re living up to it so far as Montana is 6-2-2 to end the non-league slate, and now the Griz turn their attention to Big Sky Conference play.

The preseason favorites to win the Big Sky, Montana has had its ebbs and flows this season, but has weathered a number of adversities.

Namely, the injury bug.

“It’s a testament to everybody that’s on this team,” UM head coach Chris Citowicki said. “I remember at Air Force telling them that a lot of people think, because we’re losing key players, that we’re not going to be good, but they’ve forgotten what makes us special, and what makes us special is the depth.

“Every time one steps out and another one steps in, and that’s what we’re seeing right now, just brilliant performances from young players, from people who haven’t seen the field for a while.”

A few weeks back at Wyoming, the Grizzlies lost last year’s Big Sky Golden Boot winner Delaney Lou Schorr for the rest of the year, plus goalkeeper and last year’s conference freshman of the year Ashlyn Dvorak has also been out indefinitely after only playing in five games, among many others who have been lost or missed time, which includes seniors Mia Parkhurst and Bella O’Brien.

Still, the Grizzlies, have adapted.

“I think in the beginning of season for all teams, there’s a lot of building and learning from each other,” senior defender Ava Samuelson said. “And I think we did a really beautiful job at kind of taking on other people’s skills and bringing them into our team, and having other players or new players learn our culture. And I think we kind of all just did it really beautifully and with kind of like a flow. And I think it ended really well.”

The plethora of injuries was an early and unseen blow, and after being thrown those difficult challenges, the team altered its style of play because of the injuries, and has thrived from it.

At keeper, Bayliss Flynn has shined.

Transfers Jen Estes and Chloe Seelhoff have stepped up as experienced leaders, while other young talents have been called upon to fill roles, alongside program staples like Skyleigh Thompson, Charley Boone, Maddie Ditta, Reeve Borseth and Samuelson.

“It really showed us our strengths and also where, like, our weaknesses lied,” Boone said. “I mean, we had to go through a formation change due to injuries, and we were able to adapt. But this nonconference schedule definitely tested us more than any past ones, but I think it prepared us in the best way possible.”

With wins over Oregon State, North Dakota and Boise State, the Grizzlies have been everything as advertised in 2024. The Griz are 6-0 at home and haven’t allowed a single goal in Missoula. They’ve out-scored opponents 17-8, and hold ties with Air Force and Wyoming and their lone two losses came to Washington State and Fresno State, all of which came before their new formation strategy that has completely blitzed teams the past few weeks.

Now its on to Big Sky play starting Sunday against Northern Arizona, as they gear up for a run toward November’s conference tournament in Missoula.

“Early on, we got hit with Wazzu, 3-0, and that really shook us up a bit,” Ditta said. “So we were able to fix our mentality with confidence, and I think we’re way more confident now going into conference, which is honestly great. It means everything to have a high, confident head going in.”

“We come out, we train hard. We’ve been really focusing on keeping the training environment super high and not being too hard on each other, but just keeping each other to a standard where that’s not gonna fly in a game, so don’t do it at practice,” added Seelhoff, who was recently named the Big Sky player of the week. “Kind of that, and we just build each other up.

“We’re so excited. So bringing that energy all week to lead into our first conference game will be huge.”

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Montana

Your guide to local sports events, plus what’s on TV

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2 hours ago

March 2, 2026

Press Room

Your guide to local sports events, plus what’s on TV

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Montana

Montana Department of Agriculture focusing on innovation in 2026

Published

14 hours ago

March 1, 2026

Press Room

Montana Department of Agriculture focusing on innovation in 2026

HELENA — You probably have goals and plans for 2026—the Montana Department of Agriculture does too.

“We’re really focusing on innovative agricultural practices,” Montana Department of Agriculture director Jillien Streit said.

It’s no secret that agriculture—farming and ranching—is not easy. There are long days, planning, monitoring crops and livestock, and other challenges beyond farmers’ and ranchers’ control.

(WATCH: Montana Department of Agriculture focusing on innovation in 2026)

Montana Department of Agriculture focusing on innovation in 2026

“We have very low commodity prices across the board,” Streit said. “We still have very high input prices across the board, and we have really high prices when it comes to our equipment, and so, it’s a really tough year.”

But innovation, including new practices, partnerships and technology use, can help navigate some of those challenges.

“We can’t make more time and we can’t make more land, so we need to start putting together innovative practices that help us maximize what our time and land can do,” Streit said.

Practices range from using technology like autonomous tractors and virtual fencing—allowing rangers to contain and move cattle right from their phones—to regenerative farming and ranching.

“It is bringing cattle back into farming operations to be able to work with cover cropping practices to invigorate the soil for new soil health benefits,” Streit said.

The Montana Department of Agriculture is working to help producers learn, share, and collaborate on new ideas to work in their operations.

The department will share stories of practices that work from farms and ranches across the state. Also, within the next year or so, Streit said the department is hoping to roll out technology to help producers collaborate.

“(It’s) providing a communication platform where people can get together and really help each other out by utilizing each other’s assets,” she said.

While not easy, agriculture is still one of Montana’s largest industries, and Streit said innovating and sharing ideas across the state can keep it going long into the future.

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Montana

Frontier Conference women: MSU-Northern, Montana Western pull upsets to advance to semifinal round

Published

1 day ago

March 1, 2026

Press Room

Frontier Conference women: MSU-Northern, Montana Western pull upsets to advance to semifinal round

BUTTE — MSU-Northern and Montana Western pulled a pair of upsets Saturday at the Butte Civic Center to wrap up the quarterfinal round of the Frontier Conference women’s basketball postseason tournament.

The fifth-seeded Skylights started the day with a red-hot shooting performance to down No. 4 Rocky Mountain College 82-74. Western, the sixth seed, used a third-quarter surge to defeat No. 3 Carroll College 65-56.

MSU-Northern (17-11) and Western (14-13) now advance to Sunday’s semifinal round, where the Skylights will play No. 1 seed Dakota State at noon and the Bulldogs will face No. 2 Montana Tech at 2:30 p.m.

MSU-Northern 82, Rocky Mountain College 74

MSU-Northern sizzled in the first quarter, making seven 3-pointers to take a double-digit lead, and put together a crucial third-quarter run to get past Rocky and advance to the semifinal round.

Becky Melcher splashed four 3s in the first 10 minutes, and Taya Trottier, Canzas HisBadHorse and Shania Moananu added one apiece as the Skylights built a 29-13 lead. Melcher scored 14 first-quarter points and finished with a game-high 30 on 10-of-19 shooting (7 of 15 from 3-point range). She added 11 rebounds, a blocked shot and three steals to her stat line.

Rocky battled back to tie the game at 36-36 in the second quarter on a Brenna Linse basket, but MSUN responded with consecutive triples from Trottier and Melcher and took a 44-38 lead into halftime. The Bears eventually stole the lead back in the third quarter following a 9-0 run capped be an Isabelle Heggem bucket.

But the Skylights again answered — this time with a 13-2 run to take a 60-51 lead. MSUN led 66-59 going to the fourth and wouldn’t trail the rest of the way. The Skylights trailed for less than two total minutes of the game.

As a team, MSUN made 14 of 26 3s in the game. Ciera Agasiva was 3 for 3 from behind the arc, and Trottier was 2 for 3. Trottier had 18 points, eight rebounds and six assists, while Agasiva had 13 points.

Paige Wasson led Rocky (20-9) with 29 points but was 0 for 10 on 3-point attempts. Heggem had a double-double of 21 points and 12 rebounds.

Montana Western 65, Carroll 56

After neither team led by more than five points in the first half, Western broke open a 25-25 tie game by outscoring Carroll 20-9 in the third quarter.

Bailee Sayler scored 10 points in the quarter, including making two 3-pointers, to help the Bulldogs take control. They led 45-34 going to the fourth, and Carroll wouldn’t get closer than six points the rest of the way.

The Fighting Saints were just 18-of-65 shooting (27.7%) for the game.

Sayler scored an efficient 22 points on 7-of-8 shooting. She was 2 for 3 from 3-point range and 6 for 7 at the free throw line. The Missoula native also had nine rebounds.

Isabella Lund added 16 points for the Bulldogs, and Keke Davis had 11 points and 11 rebounds.

Carroll (19-10) was led by Kenzie Allen with 12 points. Willa Albrecht and Meagan Karstetter scored 11 points apiece for the Saints.

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