Box Score Oct. 26, 2017 Box Score
MONMOUTH, Ore. - The No. 8-ranked Western Washington University volleyball team rolled to its 11th consecutive victory with a three-game sweep over Western Oregon University Thursday evening in Great Northwest Athletic Conference Action in the New P.E. Building. Game scores were 25-12, 25-16, 25-15 in favor of the Vikings.
WWU improved to 18-3 overall and 12-1 in GNAC play to maintain at least a share of the conference lead. During the current 11-match winning streak the Vikings have only dropped three sets, and has a string of five consecutive three-game sweeps. WOU falls to 6-14 overall and 2-11 in league play.
"I thought we did a great job of staying patient tonight and running our game plan," said 18th-year head coach Diane Flick-Williams. "Our defensive effort with our blocking and digging was really good tonight."
Senior opposite Joellee Buckner (Colville, WA) led the way with a 12-kill, 11-dig double-double, her 10th of the season, on a .435 hitting percentage. The reigning GNAC Defensive Player of the Week also added 4.0 blocks for a match-high 14.0 points.
Junior middle blocker Michaela Hall (Centralia, WA) added 11 kills on a .588 hitting percentage (1 error, 17 attacks) and contributed 3 blocks.
"Michaela and Joellee were on fire tonight and really mixed up their shots, which is something we've been working on," added Flick-Williams.
Junior outside hitter Abby Phelps (Manson, WA/Chelan) recorded 8 kills 13 digs and 2 blocks (9.0 points) and junior setter Brette Boesel (Brewster, WA) tallied 33 assists. Junior libero Aubrey Buckner (Colville, WA) recorded a match-high 20 digs and had one service aces.
Sophomore middle blocker Joslyn Bopray (Spokane, WA/Lewis & Clark) continued her blocking binge, recording 7.0 blocks (1 solo, 6 block assists). Bopray entered the match ranked second in NCAA II in blocks per set, and upped her season average to 1.51 blocks per set with tonight's performance.
"As a team, we are in the process of, basically, staying in the process," said Flick-Williams on her program's success. "We still feel like we have a lot to learn, and that is where our focus lies. We are concentrated on the next 10 seconds of play and what we can learn from that to make our team better."
Western Oregon was led by 11 kills from Alisha Bettinson and a 16-assist, 12-dig double-double from setter Leila Holt.
WWU (18-3, 12-1 GNAC) continues on the Oregon Trail for a Saturday afternoon match at Concordia University in Portland (1 pm). WWU's next home match at Carver Gym will be Nov. 2 against rival Alaska Anchorage. All GNAC matches are streamed live on WWUVikings.com/Live and available via the GNAC channel on several streaming devices (Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, AndroidTV).
