Lawrence leads Griz back to her alma mater

It's been more than 20 years since Allison Lawrence last stepped foot inside Gill Coliseum, the 9,000-seat arena where she once wore the orange and black as a member of the Oregon State women's volleyball team.

The building has been remodeled- new windows, updated paint jobs, new flooring, etc. - but the structure remains the same one that Lawrence dazzled crowds inside of on her way to over 1,200 career kills, 900 digs, and nearly 100 service aces. She still ranks in the top 20 in Oregon State history in all three categories.

She returns to the building she once starred in as head coach of a Montana volleyball program on the rise. It will be her first time coaching at Oregon State since serving as a volunteer assistant for the Beavers in 2005.

"There will be some personal moments for me that are cool to be back there as a coach," Lawrence said. "But I think what I ultimately want this to feel like for the team is that this is a road trip that is in an area where a lot of our athletes and recruits are from, so it's a great location for our program to play. This is a really important tournament for our group. There will be some me time, but I think this needs to be all about them."

The weekend will be an important one for a Montana team that sits at 1-1 after the first week of action. The Grizzlies swept Central Michigan, never trailing the Chippewas in any of the three sets. They then fell in four sets to host Washington State in a match that saw Montana come from nine points behind to win the opening set.

From a coaching standpoint, the weekend told Lawrence a lot about her team.

"I loved the weekend," Lawrence said. "I thought that we were put in a variety of scenarios in both matches and were able to check responses. In our first match, we had some significant leads in all three sets and I loved the opportunity to play from ahead and see what that did to our standard and focus. Our toughness to be ahead and finish sets is right where we want it to be."

The scenario flipped against Washington State when the Grizzlies trailed in all three sets against a long and athletic Cougar team. They were able to respond, coming back from down 11-2 to win the first set. They scored 17 of 19 possible points to completely flip the momentum in Pullman.

They dropped the next three sets, but there were plenty of positives that Lawrence took away from the loss.

"Against Washington State, we were not playing from ahead but we were still able to exhibit a toughness that had talked about and defined in our locker room all of fall camp," Lawrence said. "I don't think the score indicated how many long rallies we had and how many little things we took from that."

Montana has an experienced squad this season with 13 overall players back from last year's team that went 8-3 in the non-conference. The early season success has a lot to do with that veteran presence.

Their ability to bring in newcomers like freshman Isa Taylor, who started both matches in her first weekend of collegiate volleyball, led to a fluid start to the season for Montana.

"I think a lot of it has to do with the makeup of the roster. We do have a lot of returners, but I think the new players have also integrated well with the returners," Lawrence said. "We feel very unified and consistent across the board with what we get when we put them on the floor. I think there was a high amount of professionalism from our older players in setting a standard for how we want to compete."

The Grizzlies will have three matches in three days this weekend, playing against Seattle U and Cal Baptist in neutral site matches with a true road game against Oregon State on Friday night.

Seattle U started the year 2-1 and Cal Baptist is 1-1 entering the ASICS Invitational. Both teams finished 2025 more than 10 games below .500.

Oregon State went 19-9 last season but started the year 1-2 at the UVU/Utah Tournament with losses to Utah and new Big Sky member Utah Tech in straight sets.

It will be a homecoming for Lawrence, but the Montana head coach is focused on her team taking the next step in its season as they progress through the non-conference towards Big Sky play at the end of the month.

WHERE TO WATCH
The Montana-Oregon State match on Friday night will be streamed on the Pac-12 YouTube Channel. The neutral site matches will not be streamed.

LAWRENCE RETURNS TO CORVALLIS
Montana head coach Allison Lawrence was a star for Oregon State in the Pac-10 days, playing for the Beavers from 2001-04. She was a member of the All-Pac-10 Freshman Team in 2001 and was honorable mention All-Pac-10 in both 2003 and 2004.

Lawrence ranks 9^th in kills (1,255), 13^th in total points (1,390.5), 18^th in digs (965), 18^th in service aces (89) in Oregon State program history.

MONTANA NOTES

The Grizzlies opened the season with a win for the first time since 2022 last weekend. Under Lawrence, they have been above .500 through five matches just three times, most recently in 2024.
Montana averaged 2.00 aces per set in the opening weekend to rank 55^th in the country in the category.
The Grizzlies averaged 14.14 digs per set, ranking 108^th in the NCAA through one week.
Sophomore outside hitter Mylee Blake is the only Grizzly who will be returning to her home state this weekend. Blake played at West Albany HS in Albany, Ore. prior to coming to Montana. She was out for the first week of the season with an injury.

SCOUTING SEATTLE U (2-1, 0-0 WCC)

This will be the first of two meetings this season between Montana and Seattle U. The two sides will also play in Spokane at Gonzaga's tournament on the final week of the non-conference schedule.
The Redhawks started the season at 2-0 with wins over Chicago St. and North Dakota. They dropped their final match of the opening week in four sets against Eastern Washington. All three matches were played at home.
Hailey McEllrath ranks 74^th in the NCAA with six service aces this season.
Seattle U is hitting .190 on the season while allowing opponents to hit .206. They average 1.5 blocks per set, 10.25 digs per set, and 1.75 aces per set.
Teagan Melton leads the Redhawks with 2.67 kills/set on .243 hitting.
Bella Jones and Grace Jones split time at the setter with Bella leading the team with 4.83 aces/set and Grace right behind at 3.25.
Lexi Jones averages 0.83 blocks per set with three solo blocks.

SERIES HISTORY VS. THE REDHAWKS
This is the fifth all-time meeting between Montana and Seattle U with the series even at 2-2. Montana has won the last two meetings, sweeping the Redhawks last season and winning in five sets in 2021. The teams are 1-1 at neutral sites.

SCOUTING OREGON STATE (1-2, 0-0 PAC-12)

The Beavers started the season in the state of Utah, playing true road matches at Utah Valley and Utah with a neutral site against Utah Tech mixed in. They are 1-2 following the weekend.
Utah Tech, a new addition to the Big Sky this year, swept Oregon State in the season opener in Orem. The Trailblazers hit .365 in the match.
The Beavers rank in the top 25 in the country in kills per set (14.3, 24^th) and assists per set (13.8, 11^th).
Head coach Lindsey Behonick is in her 4^th season with the Beavers. She has a 41-48 overall record.
AC Froehlich averages 4.4 kills per set, which leads the Pac-12 and ranks 31^st in the entire NCAA through the first week of play. Froehlich averages 10.7 attacks per set.
Setter Jackie Matias ranks 18^th in the country with 11.00 assists per set.
Alana Marrs is averaging 1.44 blocks per set through the first three matches to rank 67^th in the NCAA.

SERIES HISTORY VS. THE BEAVERS
This is the 18^th all-time meeting between Montana and Oregon State, but just the second since the turn of the century. Oregon State leads 13-3-1 all-time.

Montana won the only meeting in the last 28 years 3-1 in 2024 at the Grand Canyon Invitational in Phoenix. It was the first time that Lawrence had ever coached against her alma mater.

Oregon State is a perfect 5-0 against Montana in Corvallis.

SCOUTING CAL BAPTIST (1-1)

The Lancers are 1-1 with both matches coming on the road to start the season. They defeated New Mexico 3-1 in Albuquerque and lost in straight sets to New Mexico State in Las Cruces.
Head coach Trevor Johnson is in his 2^nd season at Cal Baptist. He has an 8-19 overall record with the Lancers. He has 10 seasons of experience as a head coach with stops at Liberty and CUI, holding a 158-101 (.610) overall record.
Cal Baptist went 7-18 last season in Johnson's first year at the helm.
The Lancers held their opponents to just .131 hitting over the first two matches to rank 36^th in the NCAA. They hit just .138.
The defense was good at the net with 2.71 blocks per set, ranking 53^rd in the country. They have three players averaging over 1.00 block per set.
Nalanie Neal averaged 3.86 kills per set to rank inside the top 100 in the country through one week of play.

SERIES HISTORY VS. THE LANCERS
This is the second-ever meeting between Montana and Cal Baptist. The Lancers won the previous meeting 3-0 at the SDSU Invite in Brookings, S.D. in 2021.

PRESEASON ALL-BIG SKY
Delaney Russell and Gracie Cagle were both named to the Big Sky Preseason All-Conference team, as voted on by the league's head coaches. Russell led Montana and ranked 4th in the Big Sky in kills at 3.56 per set. Cagle led the league in assists and service aces.

They are the first Grizzlies to receive the preseason accolade, which is in its second year.

GRIZ PICKED THIRD
Montana was picked to finish 3rd in the Big Sky Preseason Coaches' poll. They were tied with Idaho State in the poll but received two first-place votes to ISU's zero. It's the highest preseason placement for Montana since 2011.

The Grizzlies also had not received a first-place vote in the poll since 2010. They finished tied for third in the league that season.

LAWRENCE CLOSES IN ON 100 WINS
Head coach Allison Lawrence is in her 10th season leading Montana and is closing in on a career milestone. Lawrence has 94 wins with Montana. She would become just the third coach in program history to reach 100 wins, joining Dick Scott (403) and Jerry Wagner (102).

Lawrence could move into second in program history for career wins this year with another 10-win season. Her teams have won at least 10 matches in each of the previous five seasons.

ROAD WARRIORS
Montana will play the entirety of its non-conference schedule on the road this season. It's the first time since 2017, Lawrence's first year as head coach, that Montana does not have a home non-conference game.

The first home game of the regular season for Montana will be on September 22 in the Big Sky opener against Montana State. It's the latest home opener since 2017 when the Griz made their home debut on September 28.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Mylee Blake

Gracie Cagle

Gracie Cagle

Delaney Russell

Isa Taylor

University of Montana Athletics