MISSOULA — Montana sophomore JoJo Christiaens, whose bat sparked the Grizzlies to a road sweep of Weber State over the weekend, was named the Big Sky Conference softball player of the week on Monday by the league office.
Including the team’s midweek doubleheader at Utah, Christiaens went 8 for 15 on the five-game road trip, pounding out seven extra-base hits, including two home runs, one of which set off a hitting frenzy on Friday afternoon in Ogden.
After Montana won the opener against the Wildcats 4-2, the Grizzlies fell behind 6-0 in Game 2 before slowly starting to chip away at their deficit.
It was a 6-5 game in the top of the seventh when Christiaens walked up to the plate with two on and one out. Her home run to left field started a six-run scoring spree as Montana roared back for an 11-6 win.
Montana used the momentum of Friday’s doubleheader sweep to jump on Weber State early in Saturday’s finale, going up 8-0 in the top of the fourth on its way to an 11-3 win to complete its first-ever sweep of the Wildcats.
Christiaens, like so many of her fellow sophomores, played a limited role on last year’s team before breaking out in 2026.
She batted .185 as a freshman in 54 at-bats in 30 games played. An every-game starter in 2026 – the first part of the season at first base, now in left field – she is batting .309 and leads the team with 24 extra-base hits and a .588 slugging percentage.
“JoJo is a kid who shows up every single day and empties the tank and gives you everything she has,” said second-year coach Stef Ewing. “She has put the time in, so to see the success she’s having, I’m not surprised.
“She has really come into her own. She is a fun-personality kid who has really become comfortable here. When kids become comfortable, they are capable of doing amazing things because the game slows down for them and they just play. JoJo is just another example.”
Christiaens went 2 for 5 against Utah on Wednesday, then went hitless against Weber State in the opener.
Over the final two games against the Wildcats, she went 6 for 8 with six extra-base hits. Over a stretch of seven at-bats between the final two games of the series, Christiaens went: double, triple, home run, double, groundout, home run, double. Seventeen total bases in seven swings.
“She gets in the box and just competes,” said Ewing. “She can hit the inside pitch, she can hit the outside pitch, she loves the up pitch and this weekend was the first time you couldn’t throw her down in the zone. She hit a ball off of her shoes.
“She’s just not missing the ball. When she swings, she is barreling the ball. There is no magic potion, no magic drill. You just have to put the work in. She’s been really steady for us, especially the second half of the season.”
Montana will host Idaho State this weekend as the regular-season schedule comes to an end. The teams are tied for first in the Big Sky, with the series winner claiming the Big Sky championship, which would be a first for the Grizzlies.
