Olivia Nicholson joins Griz Volleyball coaching staff

Olivia Nicholson was still in high school when she first met Montana volleyball assistant Dana (Cranston) Hallisey. Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln, Neb. hosted an Olympic Qualification tournament that featured the U.S. Women's National team and the Canadian national team.

Nicholson, who is from North Platte, traveled across the state to watch having signed up to play for Colorado State the next fall. As she walked through her hotel, Nicholson was approached by a group of people.

"Hey, aren't you going to play for Colorado State in the fall?"

Nicholson said yes, and got to meet several members of the family that night. The next day, Nicholson would go to the arena to watch what would end up being the final tournament of Hallisey's Canadian career.

"We get to the arena and there is this rowdy group of people right in the section next to me, and it was Dana's family and friends. That was my first ever meeting with her and her family," Nicholson remembers. "Then she was the volunteer coach my freshman year at Colorado State, so I got to know her and her family. We just kept in contact over the years, so this is a crazy, full circle moment."

Nicholson now joins Hallisey on the Montana volleyball staff, where she will be an assistant coach. Head coach Allison Lawrence has filled her staff with the addition of the Colorado State alum and former professional player.

"It feels really great to have a full staff and have someone with Olivia's playing experience and coaching resume," Lawrence said. "Her presence just really stands out. I met her when she was at Colorado State at a recruiting showcase, and I think when you meet her you are just struck by her maturity and personality.

"She comes across as someone who is very capable, very deliverate, very caring and has very high standards," Lawrence continued. "She just makes a really strong impression and I remember thinking, 'That is someone that I'd love to work with.'

Nicholson's volleyball journey began at a young age as the daughter of two collegiate athletes. She started volleyball in third grade, but growing up said she always had a ball in her hand.

The relationship with volleyball wasn't a love story at first, but Nicholson took to the sport quickly and soon found herself playing in the USA Volleyball pipeline on the youth national team. Her assistant coach at that level worked at Colorado State during the school year, and the connection to the Rams began.

Fort Collins was a short drive away from North Platte, where Nicholson had spent her entire life. She loves her family, but as any 18-year old can attest, wanted some space of her own. Colorado State was the perfect choice, "close enough to home, and yet far enough away, and just so different from home while only being about four hours away. It was everything that I really wanted in a school," Nicholson said.

Her freshman season gave her another run-in with Hallisey, who had married her husband Nic (now Montana's Associate AD for Marketing and communications) and was a volunteer coach with the Rams.

"I got to know her pretty well that year and we've stayed in touch since then here and there," Hallisey said. "I like being involved as an alumni and am always supporting that team from afar, and then just personally I enjoyed her personality when I got to know her and kind of stayed in touch and followed her career."

Nicholson's career path is a wholly unique journey. She was a middle blocker in high school, but was recruited to CSU as a pin. Then she spent the first two seasons as a backup setter. By the end of her career, she had played every position on the court for a three-time Mountain West championship and four-time NCAA Tournament team.

"When I was in high school and at a camp, if there was an extra session for setting, I would go. If there was a defensive one, I'd go. Whatever it was I would just do it," Nicholson said. "The coaches joke that I was the Swiss army knife of the team."

As she battled through injuries – a shoulder surgery after her freshman season - and learned more about each position, she started envisioning a future in the sport. She received feedback from coaches that her knack for playing all around the court and her overall volleyball IQ would lend itself well to coaching one day.

"I think by sophomore or junior year, I felt very passionate about how each position related to each other and felt very confident in what I could do to help the other positions and vice versa," Nicholson said. "I had a few coaches reach out to say that they thought I could be good at this one day that I started to consider it."

When her career at Colorado State came to an end, she decided to continue her playing career in a different venue. She moved to Texas A&M – Kingsville to get her Master's and play beach volleyball.

Nicholson learned how to play on the sand, which is "really a very different sport than indoor, skill-wise it's difficult," she said. The original idea was to play one year of beach and then coach as a student-assistant for indoor volleyball while finishing her degree. When she got a COVID waiver to play another year, she took it.

Injuries limited her action in her second season of beach, but kept her competitive edge going. As she finished her degree and wrapped up her collegiate career, she had a decision to make.

"I thought I was going to go right into coaching but I just had this feeling of, 'Go play. You're going to regret it.' It's scary to put it out there to try to play pro and what if no one picks you up or you fail," Nicholson said. "The fear of failure kind of held me back for a while and I just thought, give it a shot. You have no idea what could be waiting."

She signed on with a club in Germany to play professionally at one of Europe's highest levels, but her first season ended abruptly when the club went bankrupt. It led to some difficult experiences in a foreign country with an unfamiliar language, but Nicholson sees it as a blessing that she was able to play at all after two years off from indoor.

Nicholson returned to Colorado State, where she spent a season as in interim assistant coach with the Rams. Germany was off the table, but she didn't want her playing career to end on a negative note. She decided to move to Denmark to play one more season abroad.

"I had a former college teammate from Denmark and that was a big pull. She's one of my best friends, she was in my class, and just to go see her home and do life with her again," Nicholson said. "It was lower level volleyball, but the schedule was more flexible and I wanted to travel. I went to a few different countries and saw some former coaches and teammates, so it was so fun."

She returned from Europe and got the job at Montana, where she will reunite with Hallisey after their season together in Fort Collins in 2016. Hallisey played a key role in getting Nicholson to commit to a place that she had barely heard of and never visited.

"I think because I respect her so much we had kept in contact over my last couple of years playing in Europe. She spoke so highly of Allison, and I really trust Dana as a human, so when she spoke so highly of Allison, and the city, and the school, I just really trusted that and it has made the transition more comfortable and not as overwhelming as it could be having never been to Montana," Nicholson said.

The Grizzlies went through the 2023 season without a third assistant coach, and adding someone was a priority this offseason. The wide range of skills and experience that Nicholson brings to the table made her a perfect choice.

"I think she's an awesome fit. She's a really talented player in a lot of different areas and I don't think that is necessary to be a great coach but I think is very advantageous," Hallisey said. "She sees the game really well. When you have to learn and play in a lot of different positions you have a very different vision for the game and I think a lot of times that happens to people with age and time around the game."

The on-court resume is certainly there, but it's also the ideals and values that Nicholson shares that make her a great addition to the Grizzly program. She is driven to win, and has done so at every level that she has played it, but there is also so much more than just winning.

Nicholson had plenty of coaches in her own life that impacted not her not just in terms of playing ability, but also at a fundamental human level.

"Beyond volleyball, which is great and I love coaching it, but being a mentor and developing young women and helping them figure out what they want to do and how to navigate life, that was so impactful for me, so it's a big draw of coaching," Nicholson said. "Volleyball is great, but at the end of the day people are worth so much more than how you perform."

It's a shared tenet of the Montana coaching staff. The Grizzlies have been much improved over the previous two seasons, winning more games in 2022-23 in any two-year span in nearly two decades.

As the Grizzlies continue to progress towards the top of the Big Sky Conference, there will be more and more opportunities for players to continue their playing careers professionally. Nicholson provides a perfect bridge for those players as a mentor who has been there and done that.

"In terms of role modeling and mentoring, that is a powerful thing and I'm excited for our team to have a visible example who has done the things that they want to do," Lawrence said. "Whether they want to play pro or not, it's someone who has reached the highest levels and become a master of her craft in a lot of different areas in her life."

While Nicholson can play the role model to the Griz athletes, she is also excited to be joining an all-female staff at Montana that consists of two very positive role models for her own life.

"For me, having my first actual job in coaching to come with two women who have done it for a long time, they've done it together, and they do it well, but also that they've done it in every season of life," Nicholson said. "Single or dating, married with no kids, married and raising kids, and I think that's so cool as a young woman to have people ahead of me who have done that."

Nicholson is excited to get started with the Grizzlies. She knows of the recent success, and can even walk you through some of the close matches from last year as a reminder that there could have been even a few more wins.

She's adjusting to life in Missoula. Her favorite part of traveling, which she has done quite often in her life, is getting to know the food of the area. She also enjoys fishing – "rod-and-reel, I haven't done fly fishing yet but would love to try."

There may be some time to read or play cards over the summer, which are two of her favorite activities. As for the season, she can't wait to get to know the team better and see where this group might be in six months time.

"I think starting fall camp and, for me, seeing the girls in person with fresh eyes, I'm excited for that," Nicholson said. "But also for November and December to see the progress in terms of team and program, on the court and as human beings."

University of Montana Athletics

Olivia Nicholson joins Griz Volleyball coaching staff

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