MISSOULA — The Montana volleyball program is beginning to enter rarefied air. In the matter of about five hours on Friday morning and early afternoon, the Grizzlies swept both Indiana State and Butler on the opening day of the Pepsi Sycamores Invite in Terre Haute, Ind.
The Grizzlies have now won five straight matches, a feat that has happened just once previously (2022) under head coach Allison Lawrence. But it’s not just the five straight wins, it’s the manner by which Montana has been winning that is impressive.
Montana has swept four of its previous five opponents, dropping just a single set during the current winning streak. The last time a Montana team won five straight matches in 16 or fewer sets came back in 1992 when the Grizzlies were Big Sky Conference regular-season champions.
In fact, the Grizzlies have only been on a five-match stretch this impressive four times in program history, including this current run.
The offense carried the momentum from last weekend into this one with back-to-back matches hitting over .300. The Grizzlies have now reached that mark four times in the first eight matches of the season, already eclipsing the total of matches from last year.
Montana’s .416 hitting percentage in the win over Butler is a new program record in the 25-point rally scoring era and the best by the Grizzlies since hitting .500 against Canisius in 2007.
“To be as low error as we are but also as terminal, I think that’s where our confidence in tight moments is coming from because we know when we can control the ball and get it to one of our many arms that it’s going to be terminal,” Lawrence said. “There is not a lot of stress when we’re not making wild errors. We’re doing such a good job of managing that part of the game.”
The conductor of Montana’s historic offensive performance was setter Gracie Cagle. The junior averaged 10.33 assists per set over the two matches, added six kills on .400 hitting, and spread the ball around with four different players finishing with at least 14 combined kills.
“Gracie is distributing well, she’s finding the hot hand and then when that goes cold or that changes or the opponent adjusts, she gets somebody else going,” Lawrence said. “I think she’s been setting really smart matches and it’s been big time.”
Cagle’s most reliable arm belonged to Sydney Pierce. The sophomore from Billings had 17 kills on 23 swings across the two matches. She did not commit a single error while hitting .739 on the day. She was over .700 in both matches.
“Sydney was unstoppable today,” Lawrence said. “She ended the Butler match with a series of stuff blocks where she had about three in a row. I think that’s what allowed us to add to our confidence and belief because we weren’t in rhythm with (Olivia LaBeau) and they were keyed in on her, but it was just open season for Sydney.”
The balance for the Griz is what allowed them to record 83 total kills while committing just 15 errors in the two matches. When the defense would lock in on one arm, Cagle could flip the court and find kills with someone else.
The work of Montana’s two outsides, Delaney Russell and Mylee Blake, was key to the success on the day. Blake hit .400 with 17 kills and Russell led Montana with 20 kills on .246 hitting. They made smart plays to extend rallies all day long.
“How much your left sides have to do to set up the low error percentage often gets overlooked,” Lawrence said. “For them not only were they terminal in out of system bad ball situations, but they were terminal in good ball situations when we needed them to score. I think Mylee and Delaney didn’t allow for any inconsistencies or breakdowns in our offense.”
There is still a lot of season left, but Montana has passed the test so far in 2025.
“I think these are teams that the team has been focused on being in position to do since January,” Lawrence said. “We still have a lot of work to do and there are so many pieces to our game in these matches that we need to improve on, but I think the knowledge for them that we can put this kind of stress on our opponent consistently is really such a huge confidence builder.”
Montana 3, Indiana State 0 (25-23, 25-23, 25-19)
The Grizzlies swept the tournament opener against the hosts in impressive fashion to keep the hot streak rolling. The Grizzlies hit .308 in the match and pulled out two close sets in clutch fashion in the win.
Russell led the Grizzlies on the match with 14 kills and they went to her early and often as she helped Montana build a 4-1 lead with a pair of kills. The Grizzlies also got fellow left side Blake involved as they combined for six of Montana’s first eight kills as they built up a 14-13 lead.
There were 12 ties and seven lead changes in a back-and-forth opening set as both teams looked to find their footing with the early start time. The lead for either side was never greater than three, which led to a tight finish down the stretch.
Indiana State went up 22-21, but a setter’s dump for a kill by Cagle started off a fantastic finish for Montana. Indiana State scored again to go back up 23-22, but the Griz got a kill from Carley Spachman and then a block from her and LaBeau to retake the lead.
An error from Indiana State sealed the first set at 25-23 with Montana once again pulling through in the clutch. It’s been a trend all season for Montana and it continued in the second set when they once again pulled out a 25-23 victory.
In sets decided by the minimum two points this year, Montana is 6-1. They have consistently made the winning plays late in tight sets to pull out victories.
“I think it shows our toughness. It’s a big identity piece for us and this team is not one that plays tight,” Lawrence said of the close set wins. “We are loose and the team is so supportive of each other. I think any one of them can look to someone on either side of them that is ready to make a play or support them in making a play. I feel like those moments are just very calm for us.”
The second set had the same final score but played out very differently to the first. Montana took four of the first five points with multiple kills from Pierce getting them out of the gates hot.
The lead would grow to as many as five on multiple occasions in a set that was never even tied with Montana leading wire-to-wire. But a late 4-0 run from Indiana State to make it 21-20 made things interesting.
Blake had a kill to make it 23-21 and Russell gave Montana set point at 24-22 with a rip up the line. The final point came on a service error from the Sycamores as the Grizzlies once again closed out a 25-23 set.
Montana left no doubt in the third set. After trailing 1-0, the Griz rattled off three straight and never looked back. Indiana State stayed within two points at 11-9, but the Grizzlies followed that up with eight of the next nine points to establish a 19-10 lead.
Maddie Pyles, making her season debut as a serving specialist in a return from injury, had an ace during the run. Pierce and Russell combined for a block and each had kills during the stretch as Montana pulled away.
They closed it out 25-19 to sweep the Sycamores.
Russell led Montana with 14 kills on .275 hitting. She had a double-double with 10 digs. It’s the third double-double of the season for the sophomore.
Pierce had 10 kills on .769 hitting, committing zero errors in her 13 swings. She also had two service aces and two blocks. Blake narrowly missed out on extending her streak of four straight matches with 10+ kills, finishing with nine on .409 hitting.
Cagle kept up her torrid pace from the setter position with 34 assists and 13 digs for her fourth double-double.
Montana 3, Butler 0 (25-19, 25-17, 25-12)
The Grizzlies were dominant in the first match of the day. They somehow got better in the second match, routing Butler in all three sets and trailing for just five total points all match in their fifth straight win.
The offense hit .416 in the match, the best percentage since hitting .500 against Canisius back in 2007 when sets were still played to 30 points.
After LaBeau struggled in the first match, Montana made it a point to get her going early on in the second match. She had three kills on three swings as part of a 6-3 start for the Grizzlies.
Montana’s balance was on greatest display at this moment and in this match as LaBeau bounced back. She hit in the negatives against Indiana State with just two kills after dominating all of last weekend. The Griz were able to find other arms to get the win in the opener.
In the second match, LaBeau would lead Montana in kills with a dozen as they found new ways to get her the ball.
“No doubt (Indiana State) scouted her like crazy," Lawrence said. "I remember the first time they dug her the whole team went wild and you could tell they prepared that if they could slow her down, then we’re going to have a chance. And then we responded with Sydney.”
Montana led the whole way in the first set, but Butler went on a 4-0 run to force the first tie of the match at 17-all. Pierce recorded a kill to give Montana the lead and followed it up with an ace as part of a 3-0 Griz run. The would finish the set with five of the final six points for a 25-19 win.
It was another big win in the second set as the Griz jumped out to a 5-2 lead and only allowed Butler within a point once the rest of the set. They led the entire way while hitting .355, typically a very good number that would prove to be Montana’s worst set of the match.
Butler took its first lead of the match at 2-1 in the third, but it would be short-lived. Montana, with Pyles at the service line, would score nine straight points to complete flip the set in Montana’s favor. Pyles had an ace during that, but Pierce came up huge for the Grizzlies defensively with three terminal blocks during the run.
It set Montana up for a smooth sail to the finish line as they closed out the set 25-12.
LaBeau led Montana in the second match with 12 kills on .588 hitting and Blake had eight on .389.
Pierce controlled the net on both sides, finishing with seven kills on .700 hitting and six blocks. She also had two more service aces in an all-around performance from the middle blocker.
“When our middles and our right side are swinging in system, we feel very confident and loose and we can be very physical to end points,” Lawrence said. “We have a sense of control in a lot of phases of the rally which is really nice.”
Not to be forgotten in the offensive outburst is the serve-receive team, which set Montana up with good attacking options all day long. Alexis Batezel, last week’s Big Sky defensive player of the week, had 14 digs in match one and another 11 in the second.
Madeline Sanderson, Cagle, and many others also passed well from the back row.
“I think our passing, our serve-receive unit was so strong today. Butler is a very good serving team and we’re in a way different region with humidity, different elevation, and it seems like those things wouldn’t matter but they do,” Lawrence said. “They change how the ball moves and I just think our resiliency in serve-receive allowed us to be using all of our weapons.”
Montana will now have the rest of the day to rest before another early morning match on Saturday. The Grizzlies will face off with Eastern Illinois. The Panthers are undefeated on the year heading into a Friday night match against Indiana State.
There are plenty of reasons to be excited right now as a Grizzly, but for Lawrence the focus is still on growth as they look to extend the streak to six straight wins tomorrow.
“I’m so pumped and I feel really hungry and know that our team does, too, to evolve even more and make sure we’re not relaxing in any way,” Lawrence said. “We want to keep pursuing deeper levels of our game because we will have to add those pieces before conference.”
