Griz host Ellesyn Invitational for 4th straight year

MONTANA vs. OAKLAND
Friday, Sept. 5 / 12:00 PM / Watch / Live Stats / Tickets

NORTH DAKOTA ST. vs. OAKLAND
Friday, Sept. 5 / 5:00 PM / Watch / Live Stats

MONTANA vs. NORTH DAKOTA ST.
Saturday, Sept. 6 / 9:00 AM / Watch / Live Stats / Tickets

MONTANA vs. OAKLAND
Saturday, Sept. 6 / 12:00 PM / Watch / Live Stats / Tickets

PARKING
Fans are asked to park only in lots P and P1 in front of Dahlberg Arena. There will be limited availability with classes in session on Friday and football on Saturday night. Fans are also asked to move their vehicles immediately following the conclusion of Saturday's matches.

PREVIEW
Montana hit the jackpot with its recruiting class in 2021. They not only brought in Maddie Pyles and Alexis Batezel – two key seniors on this year's team – but they also added 8-year old Elle Farmer to the program.

Originally joining the team through a partnership with Team IMPACT, Farmer is going on four years now with Griz volleyball. Her timeline matches up with Batezel, who will be playing in her fourth straight Ellesyn Invitational Sponsored by Homewood Suites & Erck Hotels this weekend.

"Elle and I came in at the same time, so it's pretty cool to be on the same timeline and I've just got to see her first-hand growth through this," Batezel said. "She's so loved and supported by this team and she brightens our days when she comes to practice. Everyone sprints to give her hugs, she picks our songs at practice, she leads all of our Griz cheers, she just really incorporates that family aspect into this team."

This year the Grizzlies will welcome North Dakota State and Oakland to Missoula for the tournament. There will be four matches in two days with the Grizzlies and Golden Grizzlies playing each other twice and North Dakota State getting one game against each.

The Bison come to town having swept through their opening weekend of play at home in Fargo, taking nine of 11 possible sets against Bowling Green, Temple, and Saint Mary's. Oakland played at Western Michigan over the weekend and comes to Missoula with an 0-3 record.

"I'm really excited. I think it's a great tournament and I think the field is great and will test us in specific ways," head coach Allison Lawrence said. :"We played NDSU last year and it was close but we lost both, and I feel like there are some pieces that we can add to our game this year to respond."

The Grizzlies return home from the Utah Valley Invitational with an 0-3 record. They fell in a five-set reverse sweep against the host Wolverines before losing in three to Boise State and four to Navy.

Utah Valley was a chaotic schedule with back-to-back matches played with only enough time for a sandwich in between. The Grizzlies will once again be playing on short rest as they have three matches in a 24-hour window.

While the record returning home is not where Lawrence and company would want it, there were plenty of lessons learned at Utah Valley that will help the program through the rest of the season.

They started the year with matches against the two non-conference teams with the best 2024 records, and Navy proved to be a much-improved team in 2025 with a 2-1 weekend.

The challenge should provide lessons that help the Grizzlies the rest of the way. Montana hit just .078 as a team over the three matches, but were strong defensively in limiting opponents to a .168 mark.

Batezel played a key role in that as she led Montana with 42 digs on the weekend.

"I think this being our first time out against real opponents it was going to be a learning experience whether we won all three or if we split or whatever the record was going to be," Batezel said. "We came off an intense and powerful fall camp and we really fine-tuned some things and also learned some things last weekend. We know what we need to improve on going forward."

One area that Montana wanted to improve upon from 2024 was in the middle, where sudden unexpected roster changes left them undermanned last season. They added transfers Carley Spachman and Olivia LaBeau in the offseason. Both players tied for 2^nd on the team with 23 kills, and sophomore middle blocker Sydney Pierce recorded 20 to rank 4^th on the team.

"I think offseason we really wanted to be able to incorporate a middle presence in our offense. We had pieces of that last year but knew it needed to take big steps," Lawrence said. "Part of that was getting two transfers in Carley and Olivia LaBeau. It was one component of this last weekend that was really a checked box for us."

It will be a weekend full of excitement not only for volleyball at Montana, but for the greater athletic department at large. The women's soccer team will also be home for a match on Sunday while football opens its season with a night game inside Washington-Grizzly Stadium.

Combine the three sports at home with the start of classes for all UM students, and there is certainly a buzz around campus.

"It's always fun to be home with everyone else. It will be a fun tournament atmosphere," Lawrence said. "Griz Nation will be all around so it will be a fun time to be at home. There is no better place to be than Missoula on game weekend. It's electric on campus and there is an extra buzz and I think we feel it too."

SCOUTING OAKLAND (0-3)

The Golden Grizzlies started nearly identically to Montana in the opening weekend. They are 0-3 with a loss in three sets, four sets, and five sets.
There are only two programs at the NCAA D1 level with Grizzly in their nickname and they will meet twice this weekend.
It could be a long, physical match when the two Grizzlies meet. Oakland ranks 3^rd in the NCAA in digs per set (19.5) and also in team attacks per set (42.42), while Montana also ranks highly in both.
Last season, Oakland went 8-22 overall and 4-14 in Horizon play to finish in 8^th place in the league standings.
This is the first time Oakland is playing a Big Sky opponent since 2019 when they defeated Northern Arizona 3-1 at home.
Oakland has eight newcomers and seven returning players on the roster in 2025.
Molly Reck leads them with 2.55 kills per set on .152 hitting. Libby Smith and Anika Priby also average over 2.00 kills per set.
They run a 5-2 with Delaney Stern and Mya Kattula both setting for the offense. Stern averaged 4.75 assists/set in the first week while Kattula averaged 4.25.
These are the first meetings all-time between Montana and Oakland.

SCOUTING NORTH DAKOTA STATE (3-0)

The Bison got off to an impressive start to the 2025 season while playing at home last weekend. They won the first seven sets of the season in a 3-0 weekend that included sweeps of Bowling Green and Temple. They outlasted Saint Mary's in a five-set match to close out the weekend.
Last year, the Bison went 12-14 overall with an 8-8 record in Summit League play. They were the No. 4 seed at the conference tournament but fell in the first round to Denver.
This year the Bison were picked to finish 6^th in the Summit League Preseason Coaches' Poll.
The Bison return seven starters from 2024. Senior middle blocker Ally Barth and junior outside hitter Lauren Jansen were named to the Summit League Players to Watch list for 2025.
Jansen averaged 3.27 kills/set in the first week of play while hitting .233. She also had five service aces and 1.45 digs per set.
Barth averaged 0.73 blocks/set in the opening week of play and added 15 kills. She was second on the team in blocks behind Arianna Blohm at 0.82 per set.
NDSU is hitting .247 through one week of play to rank 88^th in the NCAA. They are also holding opponents to just .148 hitting, which is the 69^th best defense this season.
Last season, Montana traveled to North Dakota State for a pair of matches against the Bison. NDSU won those matches 3-0 and 3-1.
North Dakota State leads the all-time series 4-1. They have won the previous four meetings by a combined score of 12-1. The teams have split the two meetings in Missoula with Montana winning in 2005 and NDSU winning the last matchup in Missoula in 2008.

BATEZEL NAMED TO THE UTAH VALLEY INVITATIONAL ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM
Senior libero Alexis Batezel was named to the All-Tournament team following her performance leading a strong overall defensive effort for the Grizzlies. Batezel averaged 3.50 digs per set in Orem with 43 total for the weekend.

It brought her career total to 1,043 digs. Batezel currently ranks 16^th in program history and could move up three spots this weekend.

GRIZ NOTES

The Grizzlies went 2-1 at the Ellesyn Invitational last season with wins over Utah Valley and Southern Miss. They were 2-4 in the first two years of the home tournament with a pair of ranked losses to BYU and Pitt.
This is the third time under Lawrence that Montana has opened a season 0-3. The last time they did it, in 2023, they would win their fourth match.
Montana extended rallies on the opening weekend, ranking 48^th in the NCAA with 16.2 digs/set and 34^th in the country with 37.2 team attacks per set.
The Grizzlies were also great at the net statistically speaking. They averaged 2.75 blocks/set through the first three matches which ranks 36^th nationally and 2^nd in the Big Sky.
The offense will need to get going for the Grizzlies to get some wins at home. They hit just .078 last week, which ranks 318^th in the NCAA.
Three Grizzlies currently average over 1.00 block per set, led by Sydney Pierce at 1.58. Pierce ranks 36^th nationally in blocks through one week of play.
Delaney Russell led Montana with 2.33 kills per set, but did it on .000 hitting.
Gracie Cagle had 98 assists in the first weekend of play, averaging 8.17 per set. She set a new career high against Boise State and then broke it again against Navy with 39 assists.
The Grizzlies have won at least five matches at home in each of the previous three seasons. They did so just once in the eight years prior to the current streak.
Josie Blazina had her first career multi-kill match in the season opener against Utah Valley. She had three kills in both of her first two appearances of the season.
Delaney Russell had her second career match with 10+ kills in the season opener against Utah Valley. Russell finished with 14 kills in the five-set loss.
Sydney Pierce set new career highs in both kills (9) and blocks (9) in Montana's loss to Utah Valley. She also set a career high in aces last weekend by recording three vs. Navy.
Montana had six players make their Grizzly debuts over the weekend. There were four true freshmen that saw action in Annika Wright, Sophia Vella, Madeline Sanderson, and Mylee Blake along with two transfers in Olivia LaBeau and Carley Spachman.

UP NEXT
Montana will travel to Terre Haute, Ind. to play against Indiana State, Butler, and Eastern Illinois. They will once again have three matches in a 24-hour time period beginning at 9:00 a.m. (MT) on Sept.12. They will play again on that Friday before wrapping up play with a Saturday morning match.

Griz host Ellesyn Invitational for 4th straight year

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Alexis Batezel

Mylee Blake

Josie Blazina

Gracie Cagle

Olivia LaBeau

Sydney Pierce

Maddie Pyles

Delaney Russell

Madeline Sanderson

Carley Spachman

Sophia Vella

Annika Wright

University of Montana Athletics

Griz host Ellesyn Invitational for 4th straight year

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Alexis Batezel

Mylee Blake

Josie Blazina

Gracie Cagle

Olivia LaBeau

Sydney Pierce

Maddie Pyles

Delaney Russell

Madeline Sanderson

Carley Spachman

Sophia Vella

Annika Wright

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