MISSOULA — There was a bitter taste left in the mouth of the Griz volleyball program at the end of last season.
A challenging campaign was beginning to find a bright light and turn a corner as UM won four of its final five games. Despite that the Grizzlies just missed out of the Big Sky Conference tournament and finished 10-17.
So this offseason held plenty of fuel for those coming back.
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"We pretty much decided that that's not going to be a thing this year," senior defensive specialist Alexis Batezel said. "And we are not accepting that as even being a thought. It's easy to get sucked into the past or what it could be or what it could have been. And we're wiping the slate clean. We have a whole new group, a whole new mindset. So we're just excited to go run at that."
Despite the challenges of a rocky start to the season, getting hot at the end and finishing strong down the stretch provided a beacon of light to look toward.
"I think especially with our big run that we had at the end of the season last year, it was really tough not going into the conference tournament," sophomore outside hitter Delaney Russell said. "I think we all were really just on the same boat of it is time and this is our time and we have such a new slate of people and we need to use that to our advantage and it's going to be awesome."
With a few key vets, including experienced transfers, the team has more younger players than normal stepping up into larger workloads, giving it a different sort of flair. But the meshing has gone well as practices ramped up.
"Especially their mentality and also mine coming in has been like, why not us? Like, why not this year?" said grad transfer Carley Spachman, who joins UM from East Texas A&M this season. "Why can't we, you know, be the leaders in our conference and things like that?
"So I think coming off last year has just made them work 10 times harder to know that, you know, this year we really could be our year. And so just they're driven, working, working for their goals and whatnot each day. So it's really been great."
The team heads to Orem, Utah, to begin the season on Friday, and will host their first home games next week. They open the season with matches against Utah Valley, Boise State and Navy this weekend.
A fresh start is always exciting, and the Grizzlies look to shock those in the Big Sky this fall.
"There's always this sort of secret ingredient that is the combination of all of their personalities and all of their goals and failures and sort of all the ways they adapt to each other and to what we're going through at the time," ninth-year head coach Allison Lawrence said about her excitement for the season.
"And then at some point there emerges this sort of like secret thing and a unique thing that's just them. And so I think I just love that. I think this group could be really unique. So I'm excited to kind of see that unfold."
Griz 2025 volleyball roster in order by number
No. 1, Olivia Liermann, JR, 5-foot-10, Coeur d'Alene, ID
No. 2, Emma Williams, SO, 6-foot-0, Portland, OR
No. 3, Grace Ryland, R-FR, 5-foot-5, North Platte, NE
No. 4, Josie Blazina, SO, 5-foot-9, Belgrade, MT
No. 5, Alex Stone, R-FR, 5-foot-10, Austin, TX
No. 6, Annika Wright, FR, 5-foot-9, Maple Valley, WA
No. 7, Alexis Batezel, SR, 5-foot-8, Las Vegas, NV
No. 8, Maddie Pyles, SR, 5-foot-10, Fort Worth, TX
No. 9, Gracie Cagle, JR, 5-foot-11, Frisco, TX
No. 10, Delaney Russell, SO, 5-foot-8, Denver, CO
No. 11, Sophia Vella, FR, 6-foot-1, Danville, CA
No. 12, Madeline Sanderson, FR, 5-foot-6, Colorado Springs, CO
No. 13, Sydney Pierce, SO, 6-foot-4, Billings, MT
No. 16, Mylee Blake, FR, 6-foot-1, Albany, OR
No. 18, Olivia LeBeau, GR, 6-foot-1, Billings, MT
No. 20, Carley Spachman, GR, 6-foot-2, Leawood, KS
No. 21, Halle Walker, SO, 5-foot-9, Twin Falls, ID
No. 22, Avery Merritt, FR, 6-foot-1, Kirkland, WA
