BILLINGS, Mont. – The No. 2 nationally-ranked Western Washington University volleyball team cruised to its 21st consecutive victory and clinched at least a share of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference title with a 3-0 sweep at Montana State Billings Thursday night in Alterowitz Gymnasium.
Elevating to No. 2 in the national poll and No. 1 in the West Region rankings earlier this week, the Vikings improved to 21-3 overall and remain perfect in GNAC play at 16-0 with the 25-12, 25-12, 25-22 victory over the Yellowjackets. WWU will clinch at least a share of its ninth GNAC title, needing one more victory over the final four matches to clinch the outright title.
The sweep ended a tough run, with the Vikings playing four matches in eight days in three different time zones.
“I am super proud of this team, for playing this stretch of matches so tough, and for preparing each match to be at their best,” said 19th-year head coach Diane Flick-Williams. “It isn’t easy to go from Alaska to Bellingham, then on Montana, but they were mentally focused and I could not be prouder of how they handled the adversity.”
MSUB dropped to 11-14 overall and 5-10 in GNAC play.
Senior middle Michaela Hall (Centralia, WA) led all players with 14 kills on a .522 hitting percentage, and recorded 4 block assists to pass the 400-block mark for her career.
Junior Kayleigh Harper (Oak Harbor, WA) combined with Hall in the middle to add 12 kills on a .579 hitting percentage, also recording 4 blocks to reach the 400-block mark for her career.
Hall and Harper combined for 26 kills and 8 blocks, with the duo becoming the seventh and eighth players in program history, and the 10th and 11th in GNAC history, to reach the 400-block milestone in a career.
“Our middles, well, they were just really, really good tonight,” added Flick-Williams. “Not only were they good on the attack, but also blocking and were solid from start to finish.”
Senior outside hitter Abby Phelps (Manson, WA/Chelan) recorded a 12-kills, 17-dig double-double, her 20th match this season with double-digits in kills and digs.
Redshirt freshman outside hitter Gabby Gunterman (Lake Stevens, WA) contributed 8 kills and sophomore outside Alison Davenport (Auburn, WA/Auburn Mountainview) had 7 kills and 2 blocks.
Senior setter Brette Boesel (Brewster, WA) recorded a match-high 43 assists, also tallying 9 digs and a pair of service aces.
The Yellowjackets were led by 6 kills from Maddi Vigil and 16 digs by Izela Alvarez.
The Vikings (21-3, 16-0 GNAC) are off this weekend after beating Simon Fraser at home on Tuesday in straight sets, and return to action next week with the final two home matches of the season. WWU hosts Western Oregon on Thursday for local heroes night and the annual canned food drive, and then welcome Concordia on Saturday for Senior Night. Both matches feature a 7 pm first serve in Carver Gym on the WWU campus.
“We are excited to get back home, get some rest, and start preparing for our home matches next week,” said Flick-Williams. “We will continue to work on improving all areas of our game and get better with every outing we have, including practices.”
SET 1 (WWU 25, MSUB 12): WWU pulled away from an early 4-3 score, going on a 9-1 run to take an 13-4 lead. MSUB climbed back to within 7 points at 14-7, but Western answered with a 7-0 run to pull ahead 21-7 and ran away with 25-12 first-set victory. Phelps led the Vikings with 5 kills in the opening frame, with Harper and Gunterman contributing 4 kills each.
SET 2 (WWU 25, MSUB 12): The Vikings opened the second set on a 10-1 run, expanded the lead to 19-9 and went up 2-0 in the match with a 25-12 victory. Hall led the Vikings with 7 kills in the set, and as a team WWU hit .483
SET 3 (WWU 25, MSUB 22): MSUB went on an early 7-1 run to go from trailing 5-2 to taking a 3-point lead at 9-6. WWU answered with a 7-2 run out of its timeout to take a 13-11 lead. The ‘Jackets battled back to tie the set at 20-20 and 21-21, before taking a 22-21 lead to force the Vikings to call a timeout. WWU answered with a quick 2-0 run out of the timeout to take a 23-22 lead, with MSUB calling its first timeout, and then won the 24th point forcing the Yellowjackets to burn their final timeout. Phelps sealed the victory with her 12th kill of the match to give the Vikings the 25-22 third-set victory, with WWU ending the match on a 4-0 run.
