Grace Volleyball

The Lady Grizzlies come into this season after having a very successful season last year.  The 2023 Grace volleyball team finished with a second place finish at the state tournament and only recorded losses against two teams at the 1A level.  Those losses included two losses to Butte County before getting redemption against the Pirates in the district tournament and then losing to the eventual state champion winners Troy.  The Grace volleyball program has seen increased success in recent years but this season comes with a bunch of apprehension.  Gone is the deep class of last year's seniors that included a lot of length with Straatman and Yost, power from Smith and Carpenter, and the setting from the two Andersens.  Also gone is former head coach Heidi Stoddard who had become one of the state's top coaches.  Despite a number of losses new head coach Kaycie Christensen remains optimistic about the upcoming season.  “We’ve got 28 girls which is great.  We've got some good girls so I’m pretty confident about the season.”  Though the numbers are good the team is young with just a few girls having had previous varsity experience.  Coach Christensen will look to those few experienced girls to help lead the team.  “Tess Jorgensen is looking to be our main outside hitter this year and of course Josie Newby is our senior libero where she will help us a ton.”  Coach Christensen also mentioned Evie Olenslager who came to Grace High School late last year from Wyoming as well as Lakeland Zulu and Paisley Barthlome as potential impact players.  “Those five are pretty strong right now but I’m sure more will surface as we go forward.”  Every coach wants to have a winning season but with a small conference the season can come down to just one or two games and for Grace that game will be against Butte County.  As mentioned earlier the Grizzlies and Pirates had some tough instant classic games last season.  Grace is in a full rebuild after losing so much from a season ago while the Pirates lost very little.  The Lady Grizzlies will have to lean on some youth with just a few upperclassman leaders to get them past Butte County and back to the state tournament.  That road begins on August 28th when the Lady Grizzlies will travel to Preston to play in a tri-match against Preston and West Side.