Granby native leads MSU Denver volleyball team to first national title

The journey to a national title lasted 10 years for Metropolitan State University of Denver women’s volleyball head coach Jenny Glenn.

When it came down to the final game of the 2025 season, she knew the team had already accomplished a feat far more remarkable than its first NCAA Division 2 championship: They knew themselves not only as players but as people.

“We really pressed into our identity of who we were off the court and who each individual was, and that was just a turning point,” Glenn said. “In the last three weeks of our season, our team played in such freedom, and we didn’t feel the pressure. … When we did that, you saw a team that was kind of unstoppable.”

Coming full circle

In August, the team attended a retreat in Grand County and visited the same courts where Glenn, a graduate of Middle Park High School, found her love of volleyball.

“We taught our team about what identity is and who they’re created to be, and we spent most of the season identifying who or what each athlete is, and who they were created to be,” she said.

The women then traveled to Middle Park High School and West Grand High School to host camps for local students — a full-circle moment for Glenn, she said, and an opportunity to give back to the community that shaped her.

A Granby native, Glenn has been coaching the Roadrunners for the past decade leading up to their first national championship win against nine-time winner Concordia University St. Paul.

She was a three-sport athlete in high school and played volleyball for Middle Park, with her father, Jim Glenn, as head coach. Her father and sisters’ love of volleyball fueled her own, but she also received support from her track coach Paul Quere and her high school PE coaches Cal and Tammy Cherrington, she said.

Her mentors instilled a sense of identity within her — something she wanted her players to cultivate for the 2025 season. At the August retreat, she taught her players about self-discovery and finding their unique role on and off the court.

“This season, each person had a role,” she said. “It really was all of us — all 14 players plus our staff — really operating out of who they were created to be. That was really cool.”

Championship season

In addition to a strong identity, the Roadrunners came out of the season with a strong track record: The team finished with 32 wins, the most in program history. Glenn’s overall winning percentage and conference winning percentage are the best in team history.

“Since I’ve gotten here, we’ve set our sights on the national championship,” Glenn said. “We have always said that our goal is to win a national championship, but we also wanted to do it the right way.”

The team had been working its way up the rankings since Glenn came on as head coach. In 2020, it finished fourth in the final division poll and took the No. 3 spot in 2021 and 2022.

After five years of getting beat out at the Sweet 16 stage, this year was the team’s first time making it to the Elite 8 of the NCAA Championship and Glenn’s first time since she played volleyball for Truman State University.

MSU Denver won three of four sets at the Dec. 13 championship match. The winning point of the final game, in which the Roadrunners defeated their opponent 25-21, was scored by junior Megan Hagar, an outside hitter who stepped in after the team’s sole senior player Annika Helf was sidelined by a knee injury in the quarterfinal.

At a press conference after the win, players applauded Hagar’s willingness to fill in for her injured teammate, adding that Glenn’s leadership and dedication to the team were crucial to securing the title.

“I am so deeply proud of her that she just stayed in throughout the entire season, and she got the fruit of that,” teammate Skyler Michael said about Hagar, who was also named the tournament’s most valuable player.

Helf, an all-American player, stayed supportive on the sidelines, cheering on Hagar and the team as they moved on to the semifinals and, eventually, the championship game. She credited Glenn’s unique coaching style as a key factor in the team’s success.

“Lots of coaches are focused on performance, and to have a coach that is focused on making us good human beings and knowing who we are, it’s just amazing,” Helf said at the press conference.

Looking back on the season, Glenn credited her players’ inner work for their outward success. The ability to tell the team’s story on a large scale has been a blessing, and now that the championship is over and won, she said she looks forward to recharging and regrouping before planning for next season.

“The trophy is awesome, but I’m just so proud of who these women are,” she said. … “We’ve already won in knowing who we are.”