The Western Washington University women's volleyball team played a high intensity spring exhibition game against Seattle University on May 10th. This was Western's last spring exhibition game of the year.
Both teams fought the whole game. Every set was action packed and close.
In the first set, Western started out strong with a close lead but Seattle U managed to tie at 18. Seattle U then pulled ahead to win the set with a score of 26-24, taking the lead in the game 1 set to 0.
“We've just really driven home the point that we're going to beat all these teams and there's no excuse anymore,” setter Adele Holland said. “We're not young, we have the experience and we're gonna go full force into next season.”
Last season was Holland's first full season being setter. She had 191 digs, 1.95 digs per set and 6.39 assists per set.
The crowd heated up in the second set and so did the team. With intense cheering from the crowd and the team on the bench, Western took the set with a score of 25-20, tying the game at 1-1.
Anna VanderYacht and Adelle Holland high-fiving a teammate at the Western Washington University women's volleyball game against Seattle U on May 10, 2024, in Bellingham, Wash. Both Holland and VanderYacht played a great game. // Photo by Eliot Wells
“I'm really happy with how our team played as a team. We played [Seattle U] earlier a couple weeks ago and struggled a lot,” Diane Flick-Williams, Western's head volleyball coach, said. “I think we improved from two weeks ago so it was really great to see things that we've been working on in practice translated to a match.”
WWU took the first point of the third period and much like the last two, this period was close and intense. Seattle U took the lead early on in the period but WWU was able to tie it at 14-14. Then Western went on an amazing run and brought the score to 20-16.
Western took the third set win with a set score of 25-22, putting them in the lead with a game score of 2-1.
“We were attacking out of the gate … and we had the mindset of lots of energy, lots of communication. I thought that we did a great job of executing that today,” libero Anna VanderYacht said.
Seattle U took the first point of the fourth set and kept taking more. Trailing 2-7, Western head coach Flick-Williams was forced to call a timeout.
Anna VanderYacht bumping the ball in the Western Washington University women's volleyball game against Seattle U on May 10, 2024, in Bellingham, Wash. VanderYacht is one of the team's liberos. // Photo by Eliot Wells
Western trailed 7-15 before Anna VanderYacht went on a serving hot streak tying the score up at 19-19.
After a high intensity back and forth, Western took the lead at 23-22, before Seattle U came back to tie.
Western won the fourth set after an ace from Finnley Claeys, making the set score 26-24 and giving the Vikings a 3-1 win.
Finnley Claeys and Anna VanderYacht are the two liberos on the team and both are native to Whatcom County. Claeys attended Meridian High School in Bellingham and VanderYacht went to high school in Lynden.
“Both liberos, Finnley Claeys and Anna VanderYacht, did an awesome job. We had huge service runs from both of them, which took some momentum, especially because we were down by a lot when they were doing that,” Flick-Williams said.
Last season the Vikings had a record of 12-14 and a conference record of 12-6 in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference. The 2024 roster will feature almost every returner with only one senior graduating from last season.
Meladie Young is in her second year at Western majoring in Visual Journalism. She is a sports and recreation reporter for The Front this quarter. In her free time you can find her with her camera or watching hockey. You can reach her at meladieyoung.thefront@gmail.com.
