BELLINGHAM, Wash. – Led by preseason player of the Year selection Abby Phelps, three Western Washington University seniors have been named to the 2018 Great Northwest Athletic Conference Preseason All-Conference Team, announced Wednesday by the conference office in Portland, Oregon.
Outside hitter Abby Phelps (Manson, WA/Chelan), setter Brette Boesel (Brewster, WA) and middle Michaela Hall (Centralia, WA) were among the 14-member team selected by the conference’s 11 head coaches. All three players were named First Team All-GNAC during the 2017 conference championship season in which the Vikings went 27-4 overall and 19-1 in league play.
Phelps was tabbed as the GNAC Preseason Player of the Year after a record-breaking junior season that earned her 2017 GNAC Player of the Year honors and named an AVCA Division II First Team All-American. In 2017 Phelps set WWU’s single-season record averaging 4.31 kills per set and led the GNAC with 25 double-doubles (kills/digs). She enters her senior season with 1,155 kills and 1,378 digs in her career, just the fourth Viking to join the 1,000-kill, 1,000-dig club.
Boesel is coming off a strong junior season in which she was named AVCA First Team All-West Region and honorable mention All-American. She led the GNAC and the West Region averaging 11.72 assists per set. Boesel enters her senior season 2,929 career assists, 5th-most in WWU history and 18th-best in GNAC history.
Hall joined Phelps as a unanimous selection to the preseason All-GNAC team after a breakthrough junior campaign. During her junior season she averaged 2.70 kills and 1.24 blocks per set, while recording a .310 attach percentage. The middle ranked amongst GNAC leaders in blocks per set (5th), hitting percentage (5th), points per set (3.42) and kills per set (19th).
“Abby, Brette and Michaela are very deserving of this honor,” said 19th-year head coach Diane Flick-Williams. “Their presence on the court speaks for itself, but the biggest impact they have on this program is their leadership and non-stop work ethic. They are performers and they are leaders.”
WWU led all schools with three selections to the Preseason All-GNAC team, with Alaska Anchorage, Central Washington, Simon Fraser and Seattle Pacific featuring two players each on the team. The 2018 GNAC Preseason Coaches Poll will be announced Friday morning at 11 am.
WWU opens the season with four matches against ranked opponents at the two-day West Florida Invitational that runs Aug. 24-25 in Pensacola, Florida. The Vikings will play No. 24 Wheeling Jesuit, No. 2 Southwest Minnesota State, No. 7 Regis and No. 15 West Florida to open the season, beginning a stretch of eight non-conference matches against teams that appear in the preseason poll as either ranked or receiving votes.
The home opener on WECU Court in Carver Gym will be Thursday, Sept. 6 against Seattle Pacific. Single-game and season tickets for the volleyball season are now on sale atWWUVikings.com/Tickets.
Fans can follow WWU Volleyball online at WWUVikings.com/VB, and via social media on Twitter (@WWUVolleyball), Instagram (@WWUVB) and Facebook (@WWUVolleyball).
