The intense nature of Rivier University women's basketball standout Lyric Grumblatt is what sets her apart from the competition. (Photo courtesy of Rivier Athletics)

NASHUA – It was the late fall and early winter of what was supposed to be the Rivier University women’s basketball season of 2020-21.

But a thing called COVID had hit right at the end of the previous year, and Rivier decided that fall and winter sports would not be played. The teams could practice, but no games.

But a freshman (eligibility wise, a sophomore academically) women’s basketball player named Lyric Grumblatt, was able to use that almost to her advantage.

“We had no games, but that’s when I really started focusing on the parts of my game that just hadn’t developed yet,” she said. “Once I started getting the footwork down, started feeling more comfortable (down low), it started opeing up more options on the court than I was able to get before.”

And the rest is history. Grumblatt may go down as the best women’s basketball player in the school’s history, especially if she can break her Raiders coach, Rivier alum Deanna Purcell’s career scoring record. She’s about 300-plus points away as of this writing. Her single game career high is 44 points, which she’s done twice.

“Obvioulsy, shooting the 3 was always my specialty, something of a God-given gift,” Grumblatt said, “as opposed to something I was able to teach myself.

“So getting inside, and knowing how to huge the mid-range, and being almost like a post player, because I am a little bit bigger than the the average guard in my league, I worked really hard with my fiancee now (former Memorial player Brysin Perez, also a Riv student) , he had always been a post player. So that was when I really started to see the difference. I was able to start exploiting some different areas than I had before.”

And the rest will make history.

Purcell was a Raiders assistant coach when she recruited the former Manchester Memorial standout, and she knew exactly what her potential was.

“From the day I recruited her I told her ‘Hey, I want you to come here and beat my record,'” Purcell said, estimating that should happen in mid-January, or halfway through the GNAC schedule. “We’ve talked about it since Day One. If somebody’s going to beat my record, at least it’s a kid I get to coach. I get to watch her do it and watch her shine.”

And shine she has. Grumblatt has a career scoring average of about 23 ppg., but her first full season she made immediate impact, becoming the Great Northeast Athletic Conference Player and Rookie of the Year, averaging 26.2 points, 8.1 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 2.3 steals a game. Her following season she dipped a bit to 17.7 points a game as schools knew who she was. But last season, Grumblatt was once again on top of her game, averaging 25.2 ppg, once again the GNAC Player of the Year, and became the program’s career leader in 3-pointers made (250). She was a D3Hoops.com Region 1 Second Team Selection, an NEWBA Second Team selection, and played in two All-Star games, the prestigious Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) game in Ohio and NEWBA Senior All-Star Classic. And she was also one of several nominees for GNAC Woman of the Year.

And now she’s within range of Purcell’s record. In fact, this past Tuesday she eclipsed the career 2,000 point mark in the Raiders’ first win of the season at Plymouth State, leading Riv with 28 points.

“Oh yeah,” she said. “I mean it wasn’t a goal coming in per se, but obviously it was always in the back of my mind that would be cool so I wanted to. But it was never something I was really focusing on.”

At Memorial, Grumblatt was an All-State 1,000 point scorer – but she wasn’t what she is now.

“Not anywhere near the level I’m at now,” she said. “I think for a lot of people I was a bigger name in high school, but compared to then and now, it’s a really different person.”

But what’s the same is what Purcell had counted on – Grumblatt’s intense drive to be the best.

“Just her work ethic,” Purcell said. “A kid with that much talent, you would think she would take a day off in practice, or not feel she needs to get in the gym to get some extra reps. That’s just not how her brain works.

“She wants to be the best, and wants to earn everything she gets – whether that’s school, or work, or basketball. That kid’s always giving 100 percent. I’ve never had to ask her to work harder.”

This is Grumblatt’s final year of college eligibility, so she wants to make it a memorable one.

“Definitely, going into it knowing this is potentially the last guaranteed season I have, depending on what happens afterwards, to play any further, but for college anyways, it just makes everything more special,” Grumblatt said. “It’s just kind of the last shot to do it. I’m really excited with the team we have this year and I think we’ll do very well.”

Grumblatt said she’s started the process of making contacts to perhaps play in Europe. She’s done a couple of showcases already. “I want to make sure I don’t leave any doors closed,” she said.

But Grumblatt never could have imagined this experience to be the GNAC’s top player.

“Everything that’s happened has been crazy,” she said. “Obviously it’s been a wild ride, starting with COVID. I never would’ve imagined being in the position I’m in now and all the people I’m with too.”

That included Rivier teammate and former high school adversary, Bishop Guertin alum Hannah Muchemore. Now they’re the best of friends.

“We hated each other,” Grumblatt said laughing. “She’s my right-hand man now.”

In fact, when Purcell was trying to entice Muchemore to come out of retirement and play, she told the Raiders coach that she did not want to go to Riv because of Grumblatt, who also voiced her dislike for the former BG standout, whose teams always beat the Crusaders.

“I was like, ‘Can you just try? Please just try.’,” Purcell said with a chuckle. “I said, ‘I think you guys will like playing together.’ And they laugh about that now. They work so well together.”

It was hard to break the ice for them both, but it’s been a puddle now for years; they connected on Muchemore’s first pass to Grumblatt for a layup and haven’t looked back.

“In simple terms, we were full enemies in high school,” Muchemore said. “It’s just natural to hate somebody else you’re in competition with, especially going to a different school. But man do I love having her on my team.

“It’s definitely an experience playing with someone who has so much talent, so many accolades. … I hesitant to play with her, but I’m happy I trusted my gut, let myself come here, and now she’s one of my real close friends.”

What appealed to Grumblatt about Riv?

She was undecided for a lot of her senior year at Memorial, and didn’t commit until February, as Rivier, Emmanuel, and a few others were in the mix. It actually came down to academics as Rivier, in Grumblatt’s opinion, “had the best biology program and they happened to be close by to home, and financially too. It was just looking like the best option for me to go.”

Plus, she liked the challenge of playing for Riv, not a GNAC power but still a winner. “I’ve always been a person who hates joining kind of the best team,” she said. “I’d much rather build something from the ground up.”

One more factor: Her older sister Lexi was playing for Riv while she was being recruited. They played together at Memorial and even in middle school, but COVID hit and there was no 2020-21 season – but they practiced. “We never got a real season together,” Grumblatt said, “but that was a real cool plus.”

Grumblatt learned a ton from then-Memorial coach Greg Cotreau. “He was one of the first coaches who I really think first saw my potential,” she said. “He was always pushing me to be the best version of myself I could as a person and a player, obviously. He really instilled the grind mentally. We started off as an underdog like Riv and we built everything that we had from the ground up.”

After all that work, Grumblatt gained confidence. In high school, she admits she settled for the 3-point shot, but since she “was able to build up the rest of my game.”

In that junior year, there were three transfers in, “and the whole team kind of got flipped upside down because we brought in more talent. It became a game of trying to see if I can make what I do fit in with a group of other girls who also have a lot to bring to the table. It wasn’t just me that had to do all the scoring. I was just trying to figure out how to make the things that I do well fit in with that group.”

And last year? It clicked. She started off slow, but then ironically a season-ending injury to Muchemore put more of a scoring burden on Grumblatt – she saw it as her only choice — and she responded. “I had to get back into high gear somehow,” Grumblatt said. “Hannah going down kind of lit a fire under me somehow. Right then and there, everyone kind of looked past us when we lost our starting point guard. Fair. But I knew what our team could do.”

But Grumblatt has gotten to know the new floor on the Muldoon Center plus other gym floors around New England pretty well as teams are often pushing her around. So she decided to (a) get stronger and (b) elevated the trash talk.

“I think one of the big things, one of the massive changes I made the last two years was getting into the weight room,” she said. “It really changed my game, I got a lot stronger, but the attention, I kind of feed off that pretty well. Coach doesn’t like it when I feed into it, but it’s a lot of fun for me. It adds another fun layer to the game. … There are times when it’s dead silent and you can hear them talking right at me. Coach doesn’t prefer it, but she gets it, she’s been in my position before.”

What Purcell loves is Grumblatt’s daily request to watch film or to get in the gym to just learn more. “For her, at this stage in her career, to want to keep learning, is pretty impressive,” Purcell said.

Purcell has certainly helped her raise her game “in so many ways”.

“After that first year, with all the attention I got, she understood the pressure,” Grumblatt said. “She’s always been the ‘calm’ to talk to me, helping me go through a situation if I’m struggling. It was a big adjustment going into that second year. Everybody has seen who I am, they’re going to make adjustments. Just helping me to play as well as I can under all the pressure.”

“She was getting doubles thrown at her, triples thrown at her,” Purcell said. “It’s incredible to think that a ‘sophomore slump’ is 18 points a game. Once she felt that, she felt she had to add something to her game, and she did that.”

Rivier’s Lyric Grumblatt got her 2,000th point in the Raiders first win of the season at Plymouth State on Tuesday night. (Photo courtesy of Rivier Athletics)

Rivier’s Lyric Grumblatt got her 2,000th point in the Raiders first win of the season at Plymouth State on Tuesday night. (Photo courtesy of Rivier Athletics)

Purcell has also instilled a sense of court vision in Grumblatt. “She knows I could always shoot the ball, but she wants me to get those quick dump passes when I get the double,” Grumblatt said. “She’s really helped me see that other layer too. Not be a floor general but be a better passer. … That’s one thing I feel a lot more comfortable with going into this year, I’m able to see the floor a lot more passing wise.”

The Woman of the Year nomination was “a real cool thing that caught me off-guard, I didn’t know about the award. I didn’t win it but just being nominated was an honor.”

Outside of basketball, Grumblatt will apply to the next level of school to become a physician’s assistant. She is currently a medical assistant in orthopedics in Manchester, in addition to school and basketball. “It’s really fun, and in orthopedics you have a lot of sports going on.”

Grumblatt will finish up her senior year at the end of her current semester, and begin to take on line graduate courses in January. Clearly, she has a successful path ahead.

It’s turned out great for a young woman who has played basketball “ever since I can remember”. She’s played soccer, field hockey, baseball, softball, ran track but once she got to high school, it was all basketball.

Grumblatt’s showcase for overseas teams was just her, they went over her game and told her what she needed to improve.

“And for her, it was a motivating factor,” Purcell said. “I think she’s still on the fence if she does want it or not, but I think for a kid like her, to have the opportunity to go travel and continue playing at a high level, she would excel. … If they told her to get better at something, she’s going to get better at something. I don’t think there’s any limit to what she can do. … She’s a special talent.”

What advice would Grumblatt have for a player who comes out of high school and enters the world of the unknown, college basketball?

“I’d say just kind of take it day-by-day,” she said. “It’s my fifth year now and it’s still gone by fast. Really just take every moment you can, learn from all the people around you, the upperclassmen and all the coaches who are going to be there for you.”

And don’t discount the Division III game.

“I think a lot of people have the impression that just because it’s Division III that it’s not good basketball,” she said. “I’ve met so many amazing female athletes that people probably wouldn’t look at them and think they were Division III athletes.”

Those words from yet an amazing Division III athlete in her own right, here in our own back yard.