PORTLAND, Ore. – Western Washington University junior outside hitter Abby Phelps recorded a 17-kill, 23-dig double-double to lead the No. 8-ranked Vikings to a three-game sweep over Concordia University Saturday afternoon in Great Northwest Athletic Conference action on LCEF Court.
The 25-18, 25-21, 25-16 victory extended WWU’s current winning streak to 12 consecutive matches and improved the Vikings to 19-3 overall and 13-1 in GNAC play. WWU retains at least a share of the GNAC lead heading into the final three weeks of the regular season. Concordia drops to 9-12 overall and 4-10 in league play.
“I think we had a really good offensive day and had good performance by Abby (Phelps) and our middles, Joslyn Bopray and Michaela Hall,” said 18th-year head coach Diane Flick-Williams. “It was a battle out there on trying to get better throughout the match.”
Phelps (Manson, WA/Chelan) recorded her league-leading 16th double-double of the season, turning in match highs with 17 kills and 23 digs. Her offensive performance also included a .333 hitting percentage, making only 2 hitting errors on 45 attacks. She added one service ace and 4 block assists for 20.0 points.
“Abby played out of her mind today and was a real offensive and defensive force for us today,” added Flick-Williams.
Junior middle blocker Michaela Hall (Centralia, WA) contributed 8 kills on a .444 hitting percentage and sophomore middle blocker Joslyn Bopray (Spokane, WA/Lewis & Clark) matched Phelps with a team-high 4.0 blocks.
Reigning GNAC Defensive Player of the Week Joellee Buckner (Colville, WA) narrowly missed recording a double-double with 7 kills and 20 digs. Junior setter Brette Boesel (Brewster, WA) led all players with 35 assists.
The Vikings out-hit the Cavaliers .290 to .148 and held a 5.0 to 4.0 advantage in blocks.
Concordia was led by 12 kills from Lindsey Dorsey and a 24-assist, 14-dig double-double by setter Michele Brown.
The Vikings (19-3, 13-1 GNAC) will play four of the final six matches in the regular season at home, beginning with matches this week against Alaska Anchorage (Thursday, 7 pm) and Alaska Fairbanks (Saturday, 7 pm) on WECU Court at Carver Gym.
“We are excited to get back home and play in front of our home crowd at Caver Gym,” said Flick-Williams. “We have had a long haul on the road and we are looking forward to sleeping in our own beds and settle into the home game routine.”
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).
Game Notes: Abby Phelps recorded her 46th career double-double (16th this season)…Phelps is 13 kills short of 1,000 for her career (will become 13th player in program history with 1,000 career kills)…Joellee Buckner is 7 digs short of moving into the all-time WWU top 5 for career digs (currently 6th with 1,304)…Michaela Hall moved into 14th place in WWU history with 269 career blocks…WWU is one victory shy of its fifth consecutive 20-win season…over the last six seasons (since 2012), WWU has combined to go 137-32 (.811).
