DILLON, Mont. – In a continued effort to showcase Montana Western current and former student-athletes as more than just a number on a jersey, UMW Athletics continues on with its regular web series titled "Off the Leash". You can view the collections of stories as they are released by clicking here.

The History of Montana Western Volleyball - by UMW alumni Wally Feldt
This past Saturday, the Montana Western women's volleyball team added a bit of hardware to the Bulldog trophy case after winning the 2023 Frontier Conference Volleyball Tournament championship! It's only fitting that the theme of this week's Throwback Thursday is our alma mater's volleyball history.

Before we look at our volleyball history let's serve up a brief history of the sport. Volleyball was created in 1895 by William G. Morgan in Holyoke, Mass. Morgan, an instructor at the local YMCA, was looking for a game that created less contact than basketball.

He combined the elements of basketball, baseball, tennis and handball together for the game of Minonette, that's right, originally not called volleyball. That name change came a year later when someone commented that the players seemed to be volleying the ball back and forth over the net and perhaps volleyball would be a better title. The rest they say, "is history!"

Volleyball was a popular sport at the Montana State Normal College (MSNC) almost from the time the doors first opened. Popular as a sport played among the classes but not played as a varsity sport until 1969.
Through those first 50+ years, volleyball, or volley ball (sometimes spelled as two words) was strictly a sport played between teams of classes or dorm floors. The 1942 Chinook yearbook reported that about 50 girls participated in an Intra-Dorm tourney. Second floor east took first followed by first floor second and second floor west in third place.

In the 1950's and 60's, volleyball was a popular intramural sport at Western Montana College (WMC) for both men and women. When plans for the new physical education complex were revealed in 1968, it was noted that new features would include "a volleyball setup" on both the main court and the upstairs gymnasium. At this time, there were no women's varsity athletics WMC. There were women competing in rodeo under the umbrella of the Western rodeo club, but that was as close as it got for women competing for Western Montana College athletically.

That changed in 1969 with a very quiet announcement on page four of the December 4, 1969 edition of the Wescolite. The headline simply said "WMC Acquires New Volleyball Team." In the article the new sport was 'power' volleyball' not just volleyball.

The Bulldogs, although the article didn't identify them as Bulldogs, but as "this team" or "same team," competed in two tournaments against teams from the Montana State University, University of Montana, Rocky Mountain College and University of Idaho.

You could tell by the article, that the reporter didn't have a clue to the sport of volleyball. He or she were given facts that needed to be turned into a story and that's all it was, just a story. Not surprising though, women's competitive collegiate volleyball was brand new to everyone in the sports world. The first AIAW (Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women) volleyball championship would be played that year. 
 
Dona Wallace, long-time physical education instructor at WMC, was the program's first head coach. The team played in tournaments in Billings, Bozeman and Billings and finished with a record of four wins and five losses. 
Interesting WMC volleyball fun fact, for several of the program's early years, the team was delegated to the upstairs gymnasium for practice and matches. I'm guessing that the athletic administration at the time wasn't really sure what to do or prepared to do much. Women's intercollegiate athletics was new to everyone! 

Here's another volleyball fun-fact for your morning coffee break. In those early years of having volleyball as a varsity sport, the intramural volleyball program usually receives more press in the Wescolite than the varsity program.

As the years rallied by, the volleyball program at Western Montana College enjoyed good and bad years, but no championship years. The Bulldogs coached by Gary Cooper came close in 1987 and 1988 by finishing 20-9 and runner-up to Montana Tech both years.

Cooper retired in 1993 and handed the coaching reins over to one of his former players, Jenny Reynolds Peterson. During her Bulldog playing career, Peterson was named Frontier Conference Player of the Year, earned all-conference, all-district and All-American honors. She was the first female student-athlete in WMC history to earn All-American honors. Not a bad player resume!

It didn't take long for Peterson's winning DNA to take hold with the Bulldogs. In 1996, she coached Western to their first ever Frontier Conference volleyball championship. Western finished in a first place tie with Carroll and overall record of 22-7.

Two years later, the Bulldogs took all the hardware by winning both the conference regular season and playoff championships. The Peterson coached Bulldogs stayed competitive for the next four years, winning, but just short of winning a championship.

That changed in 2002. The Bulldogs shared the conference championship trophy with a familiar adversary, Carroll College. Four years later, Peterson resigned to devote more time to family. After her 13-year tenure as head WMC volleyball coach, Peterson become the all-time winningest coach in program history.

For the next decade, the Bulldog program, like successful programs everywhere, went into a slump. Winning seasons were only memories. The program produced great players but never the right championship mojo.
In 2018, Katie Lovett took over as the 10th coach in program history. Under Lovett's direction, Bulldog volleyball slowly began the rise to championship form. At the 2022 conference tournament, a championship was not just a long-range goal, but was now a definite possibility. 

The sixth-seeded Bulldogs upset third-seeded Carroll College followed by a win over top-seeded Montana Tech in the semifinals. The Bulldogs lost to second-seeded Rocky Mountain College in the championship match.
 
Fast-forward to the 2023 conference tournament.  The Bulldogs entered as the fourth-seed. After a first-round win over MSU-Northern, history repeated itself, the Bulldogs met and defeated top-seeded Montana Tech in the semis. 

Once again, their opponent for the championship was Rocky Mountain College. A different ending this time, there would be no repeat of history.  Bulldogs 3 Rocky 2 and the first Bulldog volleyball championship since 2002!

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