When she picked a college roommate, it was the daughter of her mother's college roommate.
 
On the day she was getting ready to move into her dorm at Western Washington University, she met up with a great aunt whom, until recently, she didn't even know she had.
 
After presenting a speech as part of a Title IX 50th anniversary celebration, she was introduced to the woman who coached her mom back in high school.
 
Call it a coincidence. Or good fortune. Or maybe even fate or karma.
 
Or maybe, just call it connecting …
 
… and it seems as if no one does that quite like Adele Holland does.
 
"I have loved my experience at Western, and I think it's mostly about all these great connections," the 21-year-old Holland said. "I love people – you'll maybe find that's the best theme of mine. I'm very social.
   
"If there is some kind of social aspect where you get to talk and connect with people," she added, "you'll find me there."
 
Holland's social skills – and her athletic skills – also can be found on the volleyball court as she gets ready for her senior season with the always-contending Vikings.
 
"I'm super-excited, and we have a great group," Holland said. "I think we're going to put up a good fight in the GNAC."
 
ALL KINDS OF WAYS TO CONNECT
 
Connections.
 
Some start with a handshake. Others with a hug. Many with a smile or a simple-but-sincere 'Hello.'
 
In an appropriate nod to 21st-century communication, the connection that ultimately played a part in getting Adelle Holland to Western started with a text.
 
But this text had nothing to do with volleyball.
 
It was January 2018. Adele had just resumed her freshman year at Puyallup High School following the holiday break.
 
Sometime before that, her father Jim had gotten word that he possibly had an aunt, of whom no one previously had been aware. Up until then, he thought he had just two aunts on his father Walt's side of the family: Arlene and Margaret.
 
That all changed on Jan. 5 of that year.
 
"My dad texted Arlene and said, 'Do you know anything about this? Does my dad have (another) sister; do I have (another) aunt who is kind of a new development?'
 
Arlene confirmed it all. The aunt was Dorothy (Dotti) Goldsmith, now living in Bellingham and a long-time Athletics Department employee at Western before she retired in 2014.
 
"My dad reached out to Dotti on the same day and said, 'I think I have a message that maybe I can share with you: Dorothy, I am your nephew. My father is Walt, my grandmother Ruth's first-born child in 1941. I'm not sure how much of it you've heard or if you've heard anything about my father. I'm glad you reached out to Margaret and Arlene, Love, Jim.'
 
"That was the first text. That's how they initially connected, which is really cool," Adele said. "Social media is amazing. Somehow, they were able to track each other down and look at each other's profiles and look at their whole life through pictures."
 
Dotti also had heard from Walt, a brother who was eight years older.
 
"Jim and Walt wrote me, and Walt said he really wanted to meet me," she said. "It was a really sweet letter."
 
FINDING FAMILY
 
That the connection wound up being made was inspired partly out of curiosity, partly out of necessity.
 
Born in February 1949 in Bremerton, just a ferry ride across Puget Sound from Seattle, Dotti was adopted at birth, with a family having already been arranged. But while making the drive from Eastern Washington to meet her and take her home, the would-be adoptive parents were killed in an automobile accident.
 
Five days later, Dotti was adopted by Ted and Phyllis Johnson of Silverdale, just up the street from Bremerton.
 
"They were the best parents I could have asked for," she said. "My dad was an electrician and my mom was a stay-at-home mom. My mom always told me, and I knew that I was adopted. She said, 'If you want to find who your real parents are, I will support that.'"
 
In 2015, she started that pursuit. A bill passed by the Washington state legislature allowed those born prior to 1956 to apply for their original birth certificates for a nominal fee. Dotti took advantage of that opportunity.
 
"I wasn't going to go to court – it was too expensive to get an attorney," she said. "So I sent in the application and (the fee of) 20 dollars, and I got the original birth certificate in five days."
 
She did some digging on an ancestry Website and quickly found the entire history of her birth mother, including a photo of her.
 
"It was amazing how she looked so much like my daughter Heidi," Dotti said. (She also has a son, Jeff; both he and Heidi are now in their 40s.)
 
Her other compelling reason for finding her family history is that Dotti is a two-time breast cancer survivor. She was first diagnosed at age 24, and then at age 45. (She is now 76.) While most cases are not hereditary, a small percentage can be classified as such.
 
"I thought about my daughter and wanted to know my medical history more than anything," she said, adding that the only incidence she found was her birth mother had a sister who died of it at age 50.
 
It was during that search that she made the connection to sister Margaret (a year younger), sister Arlene (two years younger), and brother Walt (eight years older and Adele Holland's grandpa).
 
That ultimately led to the initial connection between Dotti and Jim.
 
"We communicated through texting. His texts were always very friendly," she said.
 
A VIKING IN HIGH SCHOOL, A VIKING IN COLLEGE
 
At the time in January 2018 when Jim Holland and Dotti initially got in touch, Adele was still a high school freshman and volleyball player at Puyallup. (Like Western, that high school's mascot is Vikings). The recruiting process was still a ways off, although she knew even then that she wanted to play college volleyball.
 
Dotti had worked for 27 years at Western, with 25 of those in the athletic department. Much of that time was as the administrative assistant to Lynda Goodrich, the legendary women's basketball coach for the Vikings who later became the athletic director. Dotti also worked in the school's NCAA compliance office with Dr. Butch Kamena.
 
Although she was then retired (since 2014), she heard from Jim during one of their subsequent conversations that Adele was a volleyball player and would be looking for a college at some point in the future. She already had attended some volleyball camps at Western, and mom Darcy graduated from there with a degree in education.
 
In the spring of 2020 during her junior year (the time when recruiting starts to get serious), the Covid pandemic hit. Nearly all aspects of everyday life were severely altered; many were completely shut down, including athletics at every level.
 
"My recruiting was different because it was Covid. I think I might have talked to a few (other) schools, but not very seriously," Holland said. "Covid hit, and I'm not doing any recruiting because I'm not playing – there was nothing to come watch. All you could do was send e-mails."
 
By January 2021, with high school graduation just a few months away, Holland still had not committed anywhere. That's when things took a turn. A setter who was already with the Vikings decided to step away and not play anymore.
 
"When the opportunity at Western came up, it sounded like they needed a setter. It was perfect because I had been to Western," Holland said. "My mom was alumni, I had toured it before and had gone to camps with Diane and James (Suh, former WWU assistant coach) So it definitely felt like home to me."
 
Holland, who committed in late January of that year, certainly brought some impressive credentials to Bellingham.
 
During her 2019 junior season at Puyallup (her last full season because of the pandemic shutdowns in the fall of 2020), she set a team single-season record with 1,110 assists, plus 237 digs and 24 blocks. Her total of 2,750 career assists ranks No. 2 in program history. She was first-team All-South Puget Sound League, first- team All-Area as selected by the Tacoma News-Tribune newspaper, and honorable mention All-State.
 
There was no state tournament in the fall of 2020 (what would have been her senior season) because of the shutdowns. But Puyallup still got to play 15 matches and won all 15. Holland was selected as the SPSL co-MVP and was the TNT's All-Area Player of the Year.
 
"Adele is kind of an old soul and wise beyond her years," longtime WWU coach Diane Flick-Williams said. "She has always had a real good solid core and a good head on her shoulders. Besides her obvious ability to set the ball, she has a great personality to her. You're kind of drawn to her. She just has this great presence about her – she's pretty magnetic."
 
While Dotti and Jim Holland stayed in touch during the recruiting process, she kept that to herself, letting the coaches handle that crucial part of their jobs as they saw fit. But one day, she happened to see Flick-Williams and Goodrich having lunch. Adele's name came up in conversation.
 
"I went up and said hi, and I said, 'I know a gal who is going to Western and she wants to play volleyball, but I can't say any names.'" Dotti recalled. "Diane said, 'Oh, just give me the first name.' So I said, 'Adele,' and Diane knew her from camps."
 
Later, Dotti received a text from Jim that Adele had committed to the Vikings. Now, she has a season ticket, thanks to Adele's parents, never misses a home match, and "this year, I'm going to the one in Oregon (at Western Oregon University in Monmouth). One of my best friends moved to La Center (in southwest Washington), and I got them hooked on volleyball."
 
NICE TO MEET YOU … AT LAST
 
As the summer of 2021 melded into August, Adele got ready to make the move from Puyallup to Bellingham for the start of volleyball practice at WWU.
 
Although they had communicated, neither Adele nor her family had met Dotti yet.
 
That first face-to-face encounter finally came on Aug. 14.
 
"I was about to move into the dorms, and we met over coffee in Bellingham with Dotti and her husband Chris," Holland said. (Chris was Western's Director of Public Information and Director of Alumni Relations; he passed in June 2023 at the age of 76.) "Her son and his oldest daughter (who live in Germany) were in town at the time, so it was kind of a coincidence that they were and I got to meet them.
 
"It was crazy; it was cool, a lot of the stories that Dotti and my dad shared," Adele continued. "We had missed out on years of each other's lives so it was very cool that we were able to connect. They're Bellingham residents, so they were able to show me around, which was awesome."
 
Dotti was just as elated as the Hollands who were finally connecting in person.
 
"It was kind of an out-of-body experience," she said with a laugh. "The minute I met Adele and her family, I felt loved. It really was the best feeling, and I was so thankful I found real family. And since my husband passed, they have been so supportive – they are the ones who bought my season tickets after Chris died. Their care and love made me feel complete."
 
That wasn't the only connection Adele made during those first few days.
 
The other one was with Anna VanderYacht, a fellow freshman and a pin hitter from nearby Lynden. She is the daughter of Missy VanderYacht, who had been Darcy Holland's roommate when both were students at Western in the early 2000s.
 
"I had known of her before I came to Western," Holland said. "I think it was kind of a fate moment that we got to live together. We did get to pick (roommates), and we committed to the program at about the same time. We both discovered that we were going there, we each needed a roommate, and it worked out perfectly."
 
A RARE OPPORTUNITY
 
After signing with Western, Holland fully expected to be redshirting during the fall of 2021. In Flick-Williams' program, all true freshmen redshirt. Many of them go on to become All-Conference; some are voted All-Region, a few even make All-American. Some wind up as four-year starters.
 
But they all redshirted as freshmen while settling into college life both academically and socially, and growing into Flick-Williams' highly successful program.
 
That was the plan for Holland, too. Then in late September, starting setter Malia Aleaga went out with a concussion and was sidelined for six matches.
 
As the only other setter on the squad, Holland was next-woman-up. And for the first time since 2010, a true freshman was seeing action for Western. Matter of fact, she started her first six matches, logging 226 assists as the Vikings won all six.
 
"She prepared for every match as if she was a viable option – she did all of the prep work," Flick-Williams said. "What a role to be in with a senior-laden team! She did what we asked her to do, and that was just do her best. … That whole "old soul" kind of kept her grounded during that time She definitely helped us win that stretch of matches, and that helped us have a really good season in the end."
 
Holland saw limited time after Aleaga returned, but still wound up playing in 18 of the final 19 contests. That included all four in the NCAA Tournament as the Vikings won the West Region title and advanced to the Elite Eight.
 
"It was a blur. When I signed, I knew I was the only backup at my position," Holland said. "Diane had said they would do their best to redshirt me, but if need be, they would pull me out and I could play. I was ready to do whatever she and the team needed. I knew exactly what I was signing up for."
 
Getting that playing time as a true freshman certainly put her into a rather exclusive club within the realm of Western volleyball. But Holland hardly felt alone out there.
 
"My teammates were fantastic," she said. "I knew how to play volleyball, but our system is different. And coming to college, the game is so much faster. I just felt a great outpouring of support from my older teammates who helped me out there."
 
Added Flick-Williams, "The players were really supportive, and she did great."
 
BACK ON TRACK
   

Holland did get her redshirt season – just a year later than expected, as a sophomore in the fall of 2022.
 
"Diane and I talked about whether we were going to redshirt or not," Holland said. "My freshman year, I was willing to do whatever we needed."
 
They made the decision to redshirt. Everything was going fine until late in the season when Aleaga wound up with another concussion, this one during the final set of a four-set match at home against Western Oregon.
 
"I was like, 'Here we go – it's going to be my time to go back in again,'" Holland said.
 
That, of course, would have cost her the redshirt year. Instead, Tupu Lologo was able to step in and get the Vikings through the rest of that match and all of the next one before Aleaga returned to action.
 
"She was our do-it-all player," Holland said of Lologo. "She could play libero, hitter, setter – she was just athletic and could do anything."
 
Holland was back in action in 2023. She started 25 of the 26 matches, playing all 98 sets and racking up a team-high 626 assists as the primary setter for the Vikings. She had eight assist/dig double-doubles.
 
Last season, she split time with Caroline Hansen in a 6-2 system. Each played 79 sets and each racked up 400-plus assists, Holland had a team-leading 423 (5.35 per set) plus 145 digs.
 
"I love Caroline – she's the best blessing to have as my co-setter," Holland said. "It's really nice to have somebody who can be your eyes off the court. When we sub in, we can talk to each other, or between sets, about what we're seeing in the other team, and seeing in our hitters. She has been phenomenal."
 
Added Flick-Williams, "They're a great combination of eyes for each other, and they're not shy about sharing that with each other."
 
Setter has always been the optimal position for Holland. Part of that is her 5-foot-8 height. Part of it is her mindset and her approach to the game.
 
"I've always seen myself in kind of a leadership role, and I think people always refer to the setter as the quarterback of the team, so I really like that role," she said. "You get to touch the ball every play almost without fail. That was great as a young player, too – and I've loved it ever since."
 
In her coach's eyes, Holland is the epitome of what a setter should be.
 
"She likes to direct what's going on. She can make a first pass better, and she can make it better for the next contact," Flick-Williams said. "One of the things we expect (of our setters) is to be great mailmen: They know the address to send it to, and they deliver it on time. It's super-important to have the plan of what our offense is and why we're running what we're running.
 
"She's definitely a student of the game."

ANOTHER SIDE OF ADELE
 
In addition to setting high standards for herself on the volleyball court, Holland does likewise in the classroom.
 
A marketing major, she carries a 3.91 grade-point average. She is a three-time Great Northwest Athletic Conference All-Academic honoree, and also has earned three GNAC Faculty Athletic Representative Scholar-Athlete awards. The latter are given to those with GPAs of 3.85 or higher.
 
This past February, Holland teamed up with two classmates to put those marketing skills to work – and was rewarded in a big way. She, Kyle Hanson, and Christopher Martin were named winners of the annual WWU Marketing Program Case Competition.
 
Sponsored by New Engen, each three-member team is given a case for which to develop a marketing strategy. The case for Holland's team was for Cotopaxi, an outdoor gear company that specializes primarily in different kinds of backpacks, and also makes totes and roller bags. The goal was to come up with a plan to reach a younger target market and to promote cross-selling.
 
They had one week to do it.
 
"We put in probably 30 hours over the course of that week to form this presentation," Holland said. "We put together a nice Power Point to present in front of alumni, New Engen workers, and there were a lot of other really great people there from places like Amazon and Spotify. It was great – we got to network with lots of people there."
 
They were awarded first place, which included a cash prize and an advanced opportunity to interview at New Engen. One of the team members who has graduated is already working there. Since Holland is still in school, "I might interview with them down the line."
 
Her team also won the People's Choice Award, voted on by the other teams that made presentations, "which is cool because it's from your peers," Holland said.
 
With her mom Darcy being a teacher, Holland thought she might go in that direction, too. Then she did DECA (a club for students interested in business) while in high school and that piqued her interest in marketing.
 
"I started taking classes at Western and liked it, so I stayed with it," she said. "I just like working with other people and like helping people out. I think I have a little creative streak for marketing and for designing things."
 
ONE MORE CONNECTION
 
During the 2022-23 school year, schools and other athletic entities celebrated the 50th anniversary of Title IX, the landmark legislation that made gender equity in sports and other areas the law of the land. It opened doors for girls and women everywhere to participate in and enjoy the same opportunities and benefits of athletics that men had enjoyed for years.
 
Western Washington, long one the leaders in embracing and promoting women's athletics, put together a "Women of Western" event in May 2023, honoring nearly 200 female student-athletes who played for the Vikings between 1968 and 1991, as part of the school's Title IX celebration.
 
The organizer of it all was Terri McMahan, who played a key role on the Western volleyball team in the early 1970s before going on to become a high school coach and athletic director, earning Hall of Fame honors in both areas.
 
Holland was approached by Flick-Williams and asked if she would give a talk about Title IX.
 
"Diane set me up for it, which I was so appreciative of. I was eager to do it," Holland said. "She set me up with Terri, and she is such a great lady and had done so much for women's athletics. I was able to work with her and hopefully write a story that was meaningful to the ladies who were there."
 
"She was an easy choice. She's a great public speaker because she comes from true authenticity of what she's talking about," Flick-Williams said. "She's tied into the idea of leaving a place better than she found it. She realized what she found was (built on) the backs of other people. She has always had a connection of what the alumni have given to the program: The women of the past have prepared for the women of the future."
 
Holland's talk started with some of the connections she had made while at Western – great aunt Dotti, roommate Anna VanderYacht, and McMahan, among others. Another one was with Lorrie Post Hodge, an All-American outside hitter and a WWU Hall of Fame member. When Holland was just 11, Post Hodge became her first volleyball coach.
 
Then, Holland switched directions and talked about a connection she had made just a couple hours earlier. That one was with Trena Page, who played tennis, basketball and field hockey at Western from 1969 to 1973 – back when it was still Western Washington State College. (It became WWU in 1977).
 
Page went on to teach at White River High School in Buckley, 130 miles southeast of Bellingham and just 25 miles from Mount Rainier. While there, she started – and coached – every girls sports program that the school had at the time, including volleyball, basketball, slowpitch softball, and track. One of the athletes on the volleyball and basketball teams was Adele's mom Darcy.
 
"I can't imagine the trials she endured while women's sports were in their infancy," Holland told those in the packed room. "One thing my mom has told me about having Trena as a coach was that she always put an emphasis on her girls becoming good people rather than just good players.
 
"This is something I've recognized in my coach, Diane, along with the rest of the athletics staff at Western. And as I'm sure all of you know, when you're a player, those are the coaches you remember most, and they are the ones that make the most impact in your life."
 
Her meeting with Page just prior to the celebration was an emotional one.
 
"I burst into tears right away," Holland said. "My team knew I was looking for her. When somebody found Trena, they brought her up to me. She thought I looked just like my mom. It was cool to meet somebody whom I've kind of idolized for what she has done."
 
'TO THE GIRL THAT WEARS MY JERSEY …'
 
 
In the volleyball team room inside Carver Gymnasium, each locker area is signed by the players who wore a particular number: No. 1 is signed by each player who had that jersey, same for No. 2, and on down the line.
 
Occupying a spot on one of the walls is a poem titled "To the girl that wears my jersey …"  It is in the first-person style by Caroline Showalter, who writes heartfelt essays and poems and posts them online (including at  www.theodysseyonline.com).
 
The poem starts out talking about the feelings when taking off that jersey for the final time. "One of the saddest parts of an athlete's career is when they have to give that jersey up for someone else to wear when they move on in life. … So here's some things I would like to say to the girl that is wearing my jersey."


From there, it encourages the next player to give 110 percent. Put in extra hours after practice. And above all, "cherish every moment. When I wore that jersey, I thought that the games and practices would never end until it got close to the end."
 
It reminds the next player that the jersey has been through everything: winning streaks, heartbreaking losses, comebacks, blowouts … and more. "There were times where we went out to eat and I got food on it, and times where it held my tears after a tough loss."
 
The poem closes by exhorting the next player in that jersey to "play with heart, be humble, and don't disrespect the tradition, team, or organization you are a part of. … Finally, play for someone other than yourself. Play for the name on the front of your jersey more than the one on the back."
 
There's also a part of the poem that talks about the importance of a particular number to each player who wears it … and each player who has worn it.
 
That's where it all takes on a different twist for Holland. From the time she arrived at Western, she has worn No. 19. A deep dive into the annals of Vikings volleyball history found no other No. 19s …
 
… ever. Not a SINGLE one.
 
"I think I just liked it my whole life – I've had it since I was 11," Holland said. "It doesn't have any kind of significant meaning – no special dates, no parents' numbers. I just liked the way it looked.
 
"It was available every year. Everyone else wanted the single digits or the 7s or the 13s. I just liked 19," Holland added. "I'm the only one (who has worn it), the first, which is cool."
 
If, at some point, another player comes along and wants No. 19, what might she be like? What special qualities might she have befitting of wearing Holland's number?
 
"I don't think it would be specific to the jersey," she said. "Diane does a great job of recruiting young ladies like this: someone who loves their teammates, someone who is willing to sacrifice and put their own ego aside for the sake of the team. I think that's a common theme for every player who comes through our program."
 
Whether or not it's linked to a specific number – in this case, 19 – Holland hopes to leave a certain legacy by the time her career concludes later this fall.
 
Some of those closest to her already know what part of that legacy will be.
 
 "Adele is a doer – always putting others before herself," great aunt Dotti said.
 
Added Flick-Williams, "The passion she has for the game, passion for people around her and for the sport and for the program. She just has this deep-rooted, almost a need to give back that's so awesome. She's definitely a giver from the heart, and I think that's what embodies her."
 
Holland certainly would agree with that. But wait …
 
… there's more.
 
"I think I see myself as definitely the optimist of the team," she said. "The person who, in any circumstance – even the un-ideal ones – brings a joyful and loving outlook. I hope my legacy to anyone younger than me is just that it's the people you are going to remember. You forget all (the other things). All that's left is the relationships after this is done.
 
"I feel really well-connected to my teammates."
 
Of course she does. Whether it's her fellow Vikings … a special roommate … or even a great aunt whom she just recently met and with whom she now shares a strong, loving bond …
 
… no one makes connections quite like Adele Holland does.