MISSOULA — It’s been a constant rise at the University of Montana for senior Maddie Kremer. She joined the Grizzlies from Red Bluff, Calif., and had a minimal role her freshman year. As a sophomore, Kremer was the Scout Team MVP. Last year, she broke into the starting lineup as a key piece. She’s maintained that in 2024, and is playing the best volleyball of her career during Montana’s current-four match win streak.
It's the type of story that you look for in a sports movie, the determined individual filling whatever role is needed and progressing over the course of years. Kremer played her final match in Dahlberg Arena on Saturday. She wrote a storybook ending, headlining a sweep of Portland State and earning the Big Sky Conference offensive player of the week in the process.
“It’s a thrill. It makes me so proud, and I think that her trajectory has been so consistent,” head coach Allison Lawrence said. “Looking back to her as a freshman and who she was when she showed up to practice and competed on the TMU side and was our number one scout player and basically just ran at and competed in every role that she has earned in her time here, I think that’s what you would have predicted at that time. There was just no way that she wasn’t going to work into not only a starting role, but a role that is recognized by the conference.”
Kremer had a strong argument for the honor last week, leading Montana to a road sweep of Eastern Washington and Idaho. She had 10-plus kills and hit over .300 in both matches as Montana kept its postseason hopes alive.
The encore to that performance delivered her the first player of the week honor of her career. Kremer once again led Montana to a pair of wins, knocking off 9-3 Sacramento State in five and sweeping Portland State on Senior Night.
The senior averaged 3.88 kills per set on .307 hitting for the weekend. She had 16 kills in the Sacramento State win, hitting .310. She backed that up with a 15-kill effort in the sweep of PSU, averaging 5.00 kills per set on .304 hitting while committing just a single error.
“Maddie has had an unbelievable last two weeks. I think everything you see on the court from her is a product of four years of one of the best mindsets I’ve ever seen in a collegiate athlete, or a person period,” Lawrence said. “She’s someone that is just always learning, and I think you’ve seen her growth at the end of seasons is pretty dramatic and you see her playing her best volleyball at the end of the year.”
Her best volleyball of the year has coincided with Montana’s best volleyball of the year. Montana had lost 11 of 12 matches heading into the road match against Eastern Washington. At 1-10 in Big Sky play, the Griz appeared to be out of the postseason hunt.
Then they swept the Eagles on the road, and something changed. Since then, Montana has won the equivalent of four straight playoff games to keep them alive for a bid to the tournament in Sacramento during Thanksgiving week.
Kremer had 11 kills and zero errors in that Eastern Washington win, hitting .379 to lead Montana to the victory.
“I think she’s been such a catalyst to our turning the corner this season and then maintaining that spark once we found it at Eastern Washington,” Lawrence said.
Her play on the floor has been difference making over the previous two weeks. But it’s also something that is a testament to the work ethic that she has shown across four years at Montana.
Kremer and her classmates — Paige Clark, Sierra Dennison and Jackie Howell — are the first group of Grizzlies to win at least 10 matches in four different seasons in over a decade. Kremer and Clark are the only two of that group to have played a match in all four seasons.
The duo did it in different ways, but they are both going to be remembered long after their playing careers in Missoula are done.
“Maddie has been such a good teammate and has really changed the program in the way that she has shown the true definition of what it means to embrace your role, to lead from where you are, to win from where you are,” Lawrence said. “When you do that, your role just increases as you move through a program. She deserves all the praise and recognition for that.”
