MISSOULA — On Monday, Montana soccer coach Chris Citowicki took to his program’s social media platforms to celebrate his outgoing senior class with a post of gratitude and a listing of what that group accomplished over its time as Grizzlies.
A four-year record of 45-18-15, with only five losses the last two seasons, a regular-season Big Sky record of 23-5-5, a program that has been elevated to regional relevance in the soccer world.
He then grabbed his phone and sent a group text to his incoming freshman class, letting them know that, essentially, they’re next in line, inheritors of something special, a program that has won 10 Big Sky Conference championships and been to six NCAA tournaments.
“For every group that comes in here, you stand on the shoulders of giants and walk in the footsteps of legends. When you wear that jersey, you do it with pride. We’re not here to just win soccer games. We’re here to win titles and uphold something that is absolutely amazing right now,” Citowicki said.
“People accomplished things before we got here and we’re going to carry this thing on. This is a group that can absolutely do that. Our seniors took this program to another level. This class can take it to even another level. The amount of talent in the incoming class is ridiculous.”
Those nine prep players, including Missoula’s Liv Thorne-Thomsen, all signed University of Montana scholarship contracts this week and will join the Grizzlies over the next year-plus.
Maycen Slater (Coquitlam, B.C.), Addison Stendera (Renton, Wash.) and Thorne-Thomsen will enroll in January and get a one-semester head start on their collegiate careers.
Layla Adams (Tallai, Australia), Mia Draper-Kunz (Bellevue, Wash.), Kiera Grant (Tigard, Ore.), Kendel Johnson (Canby, Ore.) and Jillian Miliffe (Coral Springs, Fla.) will join the program next summer, before the Grizzlies open their eighth season under Citowicki.
Grace Morton (San Jose, Calif.) will enroll in January 2026.
Notable about the class is the addition of two goalkeepers into a program that has become synonymous with high-level play at the position. Montana has had the Big Sky’s first-team goalkeeper four of the last five years: Claire Howard, Camellia Xu, Ashlyn Dvorak and Bayliss Flynn.
Dvorak was all-region a year ago and started this past season’s opening five matches before an injury sidelined her and opened the door for Flynn, who went 9-0-5 in her 14 starts with 11 shutouts and set new program records with a 0.35 goals-against average and .925 save percentage.
They were the only two goalkeepers on the roster when the season began. Adams and Miliffe will double that number in 2025.
“We got into a sticky situation with only two this year,” said Citowicki. “Ashlyn getting hurt put us at one. Bayliss was remarkable, but you want to have a training pool. Our comfort level is four.”
Miliffe is a senior at American Heritage High and plays club for Florida Krush ECNL.
“Jill is a very high-level ECNL goalkeeper,” said Citowicki. “Her voice and presence are everything you’ve seen from Claire to Cam to Ashlyn to Bayliss. She’s had Griz tattooed on her soul forever, she just didn’t know she was one. As soon as I saw her, I thought, that’s exactly our kind of goalkeeper.”
Adams attends St. Andrew’s Lutheran College and plays for Gold Coast United FC.
“I’ve always wanted to add some international flavor to this program,” said Citowicki. “Where else can we look for someone who can assimilate into this culture quite well?
“We had someone recommend her and took a look at her video. She’s got immensely high-level club playing experience on top of being a U17 national team representative. She’s going to be pretty special.”
The foundation of Montana’s success over the last two years, when the Grizzlies went 25-5-8 and won back-to-back Big Sky championships without dropping a regular-season league match, has been its defense. Holding down the center back position both years were Charley Boone and Reeve Borseth.
Over 38 matches the last two seasons, Montana allowed only 19 goals. The Grizzlies had 11 shutouts last season, a program-record 14 this year.
Boone has graduated out of the program after consecutive first-team All-Big Sky seasons. Borseth has one more to go. One day their names will be replaced with Grant and Stendera.
“When we’re looking at center backs, they have to be very good ball-playing defenders who can do what Charley and Reeve do,” said Citowicki. “Keep composure, start our attack, stop the other team’s attack. We build everything around players who can do that.”
Grant is a senior at Tigard High, Stendera a senior at Kentridge High.
“Those two are the future of our program,” added Citowicki. “Addison is going to sit back and do what Charley does. Kiera is a carbon copy of Reeve, step forward, tackle and win balls. Charley and Reeve is going to turn into Sten and Kiera.”
When Citowicki, whose program has won seven Big Sky regular-season or tournament championships in his seven seasons with the Grizzlies, says an incoming player is something his program has not had before, you know she is going to be a difference-maker.
Welcome, Maycen Slater. “She’s the kind of player we haven’t had since I’ve been here in the forward position, with the way she runs in behind and the way she finishes chances,” Citowicki says. “She’s been trained by her dad, who was a very high-level professional.
“Her in-the-box predatory ability is not something I’ve seen here in my time. Once she catches up to the physical nature of this level, I think she can be an absolute superstar.”
Johnson, also a forward, is a senior at Canby High. “She is a dynamic forward who has just incredible footwork and the ability to unlock the game in the final third,” said Citowicki.
Draper-Kunz, Morton and Thorne-Thomsen are all midfielders.
Draper-Kunz is a senior at Bellevue High. “Mia is peaking. When I went to ECNL nationals, her team is made up of commits to Stanford, BYU, Cal, and who is the most consistent, on-fire player at that tournament? Mia,” said Citowicki.
“She made state ODP, regional ODP, she got selected for USA ODP and went to Costa Rica. She is unbelievable. I can’t wait to coach her.”
There have been a number of players on Citowicki’s teams over the years who were unknown to the coach and his staff before they showed up at a Griz ID camp and not only made themselves known but proved themselves to be the type of players Citowicki wanted in his program.
Add Morton to that list. “I always save spots for camp because you never know who is going to show up,” Citowicki said.
“She is the second coming of Chloe Seelhoff, a carbon copy, the competitiveness, the running ability, her skill on the ball. If you bottle what Chloe has, that competitive drive you hope to find, Grace clearly found the bottle and drank all of it. She’s a special player.”
The Grizzlies have had 13 players from Missoula take the field in Montana’s 31-season history as a program. Thorne-Thomsen will make it 14.
“I’ve said this before. When you recruit Montana kids, they better be some of the stars of the team,” said Citowicki, who has recently coached Ashlyn Dvorak (Billings) and Skyleigh Thompson (Kalispell) to all-region honors, while Eliza Bentler (Billings) has scored seven career goals.
“We’re very particular about who comes in here.”
Thorne-Thomsen is a senior at Hellgate High, where she was coached by the former Natalie Hiller, who was the starting goalkeeper on Montana’s 2000 NCAA tournament team that defeated Washington State in a first-round game.
“When you look at Liv, she’s skinny as a stick and you wonder, can she even play? The kid can play,” said Citowicki. “What this community and Strikers have done to develop her to get her to this point is pretty amazing. She is light years ahead of where players should be technically. She can do amazing things.
“Combine her hockey background and her technique and she has a game sense that is very unusual for someone coming out of Missoula.”
Montana went 12-2-5 this fall, the fewest losses in a full season in program history, and hosted last week’s Big Sky Conference tournament at South Campus Stadium.
The Grizzlies won this year’s regular-season Big Sky title and will host next November’s tournament as well.
