MISSOULA, Mont. – With a roster that includes a long list of key returnees and incoming freshmen, Oregon State will face the Montana Grizzlies in a road game in Missoula.

After the team’s game against Iowa on Thursday was ruled void after 46 minutes of play, Sunday’s game against the Grizzlies will be OSU’s first official game of the 2024 season.

Oregon State Beavers at Montana Grizzlies

Time: 1:00 p.m. PT / 2:00 p.m. MT
Location: Missoula, Montana.
Watch: ESPN+
Live Stats: Stat Broadcast

Scouting the Grizzlies:

The hosts of this multi-team season opener were in action Friday afternoon, defeating Colorado College 1-0. Delaney Lou Schorr outscored her opponents (6-4 on goal) with 12 shots on goal and opened Montana’s 2024 record with a goal in the 49th minute, while Ashlyn Dvorak stopped four shots in the clean sheet victory.

On the pitch

With a total of 12 seniors and graduate students, the 2024 Beaver team is full of experienced talent. McKenna Martinez led the team last season with 15 points thanks to six goals and three assists in 1,525 minutes played, while Amaya Bautistathe team’s leading player with 1,676 minutes of playing time, is back for another season on Oregon State’s defense. Paola Figueroa begins her junior season as one of only five field players to play over 1,000 minutes last season. Valerie Tobias (PhD student – 927), Mia Erba (Second year student – 920), Megin Turin (Juniors – 903), Katie Godden (Senior – 898) and Carly Carraher (Senior – 842) also played a big role for the Beavers last season.

Fresh faces
Oregon State welcomed four new faces this offseason, all of whom will be true freshmen in 2024.


Ari Hill comes to the Beavers after playing for Sumner High School (Sumner, Washington) and Crossfire 06 ECNL. She was the 2022 4A South Puget Sound League Offensive Player of the Year after leading the league in goals scored. Hill was named to the All-State first team and was named the News Tribune Player of the Year.



Zoe House comes to the Beavers from Highlands Ranch, Colorado, where she attended Valor Christian High School. She was selected to the Colorado 5A All-State second team and played soccer for her club Real Colorado 06 ECNL National.



Hailey Martinez was selected to the All-District VHSL first team and All-Region VHSL second team at Patriot High School in Gainesville, Virginia. She was a finalist in the GA Champions Cup with her club team and was twice part of teams that placed third at the Girls Academy Championship.



Hayden Wilson comes to the Beavers from Rancho Cucamonga High School and played club ball for Rebels IE. In her junior season, she was selected to the First Team All-Baseline League and was also named Defensive MVP. Wilson’s club was a 2023 US Club Soccer National finalist and a 2023 Surf Cup finalist.



Points
Much of the Beavers’ point total from last season will be repeated in 2024. Led by Martinez’s 15 points, Tobias (six) will be joined by Turi (five), Carraher (four), Godden (three), Lindsey Antonson (three), Bautista (one), Erba (one) and Rin Choi (one).


In total, that’s 39 of the team’s 50 points, or 78%.



Opportunity
After seeing Hailey Coll After completing their training and moving to the professional league, there is a chance between the posts for the team’s two goalkeepers, TaylorHannah And Mya Sanchez.


Hannah is in her second season as a Beaver and did not play as a freshman. The 5’7″ goalie was a three-year starter at Chandler High School (Chandler, Arizona), stopping 73 shots in approximately 2,000 minutes of play and serving as captain of both her high school and club teams.


Sanchez has played 245 minutes in eight appearances over two seasons as a Beaver. Sanchez, a 5-foot-10 goaltender from Turlock, Calif., made a career-high five saves against top-ranked UCLA in her freshman season and played a career-high 76 minutes on the road at California toward the end of the 2023 season.

A new beginning

Caroline Kelly was promoted to interim head coach of Oregon State on July 9, 2024, bringing nearly a decade of coaching experience, including three seasons as a Beaver.


She previously served as an assistant coach, working with the Beavers’ goalies and defense while also serving as the team’s recruiting coordinator. During her time with the team, four Oregon State student-athletes made the jump to the professional leagues, while the defense performed outstandingly and the team kept seven clean sheets in 2023 – a number that has only been surpassed once in the last 10 seasons.


Coach Kelly has also coached at Cincinnati (2020), Army (2018-19), Dartmouth (2017) and South Carolina (2016), all after a stellar college career where she played goalie for both Virginia Tech and South Carolina.



Role models
With the change of coaches came three new assistant coaches, all of whom bring a wealth of experience that will benefit the program.



Liv Seddon was most recently at Iowa State, where she worked on individual student-athlete development and statistical analysis with a focus on midfield and attacking play. She came to Ames by way of Kansas State after a five-year playing career at Northern Colorado.



Zandy Soree joins the program after working in the Portland Thorns’ academy, where she served in a variety of roles, including head coach. She previously spent two years at Lenoir Rhyne and played professionally in the NWSL and in Iceland, where she appeared in six UEFA Women’s Champions League matches. A Belgian international, Soree has been called up four times for the senior national team.



Leah Pruitt was selected fifth overall in the 2019 NWSL Draft after an incredible college career that included 32 goals and 30 appearances in four seasons with San Diego State and USC. She then played four seasons in the NWSL, making 50 appearances for North Carolina Courage, OL Reign and Orlando Pride, scoring five goals and providing three assists.



What’s next:
The Beavers return to action next Friday for an exhibition game against Canadian team Trinity Western at Paul Lorenz Field; OSU’s next regular season game is scheduled for Aug. 28 at Idaho State.



OUR MISSION
Oregon State Athletics strives to BBuilding Eexcellent Aauthentic Visionary SStudentAAthletes (Go BEAVS).