By: Evan O'Kelly, Associate Commissioner for Communications

PORTLAND, Ore. – For Diane Flick-Williams’s Western Washington volleyball team, it is more about the process and less about the opponent.
 
That showed last week as the 20th-ranked Vikings defeated an Alaska Anchorage team that received votes in the latest AVCA polls before taking down No. 18 Alaska two nights later. The wins put the Vikings at the top of the GNAC standings with a league record of 7-1, with WWU sitting at 13-2 overall on the season. “We put an emphasis on the little things we needed to do to get better,” said Flick-Williams, whose squad was named GNAC Team of the Week on Monday. “We always look more toward the next building block to put together our best performance, and we try to control what we can control. We had a good performance last weekend, and I was really happy with how we were able to come out with a win in each match.”
 
The wins did more than lift the Vikings into first place – they signified a resilient response to a 3-0 loss to Saint Martin’s on Oct. 4. After snapping an 11-match winning streak and suffering their only conference defeat of the season, the Vikings bounced back and put together a pair of signature performances on their home floor.
 
Defeating the Seawolves, who stand at 14-3 overall and 5-2 in league play, was no easy task with two of the four sets advancing to extra points. After trading the first two sets 27-25 for WWU and 25-21 for UAA, the Vikings pulled away with wins of 25-13 and 28-26 to take the match. “Anchorage played just as gritty as we did, and there were a couple points we were able to capitalize on,” Flick-Williams said. “It takes a ton of focus and a lot of sustained energy and consistency to play well against them, and that is something we tried to work on in the offseason. The Thursday match took a lot of energy, and I was proud of how we rebounded from the weekend before.”
 
 
The 18th-ranked Nanooks, also at 14-3 and 5-2 this season, posed an equally challenging threat that the Vikings handled well on Saturday. A sound defensive performance limited Alaska to an attack percentage of just .142 and the set scores of 25-23, 25-21, 25-15 suggested the Vikings gained strength as the match wore on. “We were able to find different ways to score,” Flick-Williams said on her team’s win over Alaska. “It wasn’t our best offensive performance, but it was one of our better defensive performances. When it comes to the service line and net, those are areas we have been able to call upon when other parts of our game aren’t at our highest level. Finding different ways to enhance parts of our game and not be a one dimensional team has been helpful.”
 
Senior Devyn Oestreich, the preseason GNAC Player of the Year, is having her best season yet in a Viking uniform. The do-it-all outside hitter leads the conference with 4.15 kills per set while chipping in 3.84 digs per set – both figures being career single-season bests. The Olympia, Wash., native’s skillset was on full display in the win over the Seawolves, as she smashed down 21 kills and added 22 digs for her 11th double-double of the year and first 20-20 performance. In 78 career matches played, Oestreich is averaging 2.92 kills per set and 3.51 digs per set, and she is on the cusp of the 1,000-career dig plateau entering this week with 934. “Devyn is playing with great comfort in her game,” said Flick-Williams. “The freer she is, the better she is. What people don’t always see is that she’s a great connector for us on the team. She helps elevate the people around her and brings a steady presence for us.”
 
It is fitting that the on-court performance of fellow outside hitter Delaney Speer, whose head shot is nearly indistinguishable from Oestreich’s, has closely mirrored that of the latter’s as well. Another double-double machine on the WWU roster, Speer had a team-high 11 kills in the win over the Nanooks after putting up 16 kills and a dozen digs in Thursday’s victory. Overall on the season Speer, a junior from Maple Valley, Wash., is averaging a career-best 3.58 kills per set to go along with 3.04 digs per set. She has completed nine double-doubles this fall. “Delaney has been working so hard on her game and she competes on getting better,” Flick-Williams said of the third-year Viking. “It really shows when she plays, and behind the scenes she is also a great connector of people like Devyn. Their relationship and the way they are able to lead together has been the glue on our team.”

Emily Vossenkuhl, who joined both Oestreich and Speer as a member of the 2025 preseason all-conference team, has been the Vikings’ top presence at the net. The junior middle blocker from Ridgefield, Wash., leads the squad with 1.12 blocks per set including eight total in last week’s pair of wins. Offensively, she has contributed 1.62 kills per set and ranks second on the squad with an attack percentage of .316. “She is a force at the net and can fly,” said Flick-Williams. “She has some great offensive numbers and brings this great calmness to the court. She is a fabulous player at the net and is someone who can be a big difference maker at key moments.”
 
Also with double figures in kills (11) in the win over the Seawolves was senior pin hitter Abby May, who has blossomed into an integral part of the Viking attack this fall. May has reached double digits in kills six times, including a career-best 14 on Sept. 20 in a five-set win over Central Washington. “Her game has stepped up and I am so proud of her,” Flick-Williams said on one of the longest-tenured Vikings, who redshirted as a freshman in 2021. “Abby is somebody who takes on challenges and works hard to get better every day, and she does it with a smile on her face and arms around her teammates. She has really found a great niche and is good at being an important person for us when we need it.”
 
Now in her third season wearing the libero jersey at WWU, junior Finnley Claeys is the team’s leader with 3.91 digs per set which ranks her sixth in the conference. Claeys had 16 digs in the win over UAA, to go along with a career-best five service aces. She has reached double digits in digs in all but two of the Vikings’ matches this season. “Finnley is our smiling assassin,” said Flick-Williams. “She has great command of her serve and really steadies the left side of our defense. She is a good, stable force for us, and that stability that we can rely on in different areas is something we really have going for us.”
 
The setting tandem of Adele Holland and Caroline Hansen deserves credit for facilitating a WWU offense that leads the conference in hitting percentage (.245) and assists per set (12.71). Holland, a fifth-year senior from Puyallup, Wash., is averaging 5.82 assists per set this fall and has reached double digits in every match. Her 30 helpers in the win over UAA on Thursday marked her second-highest total of the 2025 season. She has racked up 1,596 career assists – third most among active GNAC players. Hansen, a junior from Vancouver, Wash., had 29 assists in the win over UAA and has also reached double figures in assists in all 15 of WWU’s matches this fall. She is close behind Holland at 5.09 assists per set and is nearing 1,000 in her career entering this week with 919.
   
“They are a great match and work well with each other, giving information and talking in and out of matches,” Flick-Williams said of her setting tandem. “They gameplan together and do a god job making decisions and putting our hitters in good positions to be successful. They both have good command of the offense and are willing to take chances and risks when needed.”
 
A new face having a strong impact within the lineup this fall is redshirt freshman middle blocker Teya Zaddack, who has played all 55 sets in her debut collegiate season. Zaddack is second on the team with 0.73 blocks per set, including six total in last week’s matches. She also chipped in nine kills while committing zero errors in last week’s wins. “I am really proud of her,” said Flick-Williams. “She has come a long way in the past year of training and stepping into a new role this season. She has worked hard to learn the game and to become more effective. I am proud of her effort and the improvement she has shown week in and week out.”
 
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
Western Washington was by no means a bad team in 2024, going 12-12 overall and finishing fourth in the GNAC standings at 11-7. But the jump to the top of the conference standings through the first half of 2025 correlates directly with a significant spike in individual offensive statistics. Oestreich, Speer, May and Vossenkuhl, who account for 85% of the team’s attack (11.57 of 13.55 kills per set), have each put together the best offensive statistical seasons of their WWU careers.
   

	Player	Position	Stat	2025 Figure	2024 Figure	Improvement
	Abby May	Pin Hitter	Kills Per Set	2.22	1.68	+0.54 (32%)
			Attack %	.257	.172	+.085 (49%)
	Devyn Oestreich	Pin Hitter	Kills Per Set	4.15	2.80	+1.35 (48%)
			Attack %	.327	.232	+.095 (41%)
	Delaney Speer	Pin Hitter	Kills Per Set	3.58	2.52	+1.06 (42%)
			Attack %	.241	.139	+.101 (73%)
	Emily Vossenkuhl	Middle Blocker	Attack %	.316	.260	+.056 (22%)

 
Now in her 26th season at WWU, Flick-Williams has built the Vikings into the most successful program in conference history. WWU’s record of 365-61 (.857) in conference play and 519-142 (.785) overall since the league was formed in 2001 are both far and away the top figures among the

GNAC’s 10 schools. In addition to being the conference’s all-time winningest coach, Flick-Williams has an overall career record of 543-151 (.782) since taking over in the fall of 2000. WWU’s 10 GNAC regular-season titles are six more than the next closest program, and WWU has established itself as a contender for what would be its first league crown since the 2021 campaign.
 
The midway point in the 2025 conference season arrives on Friday night, when the Vikings square off against No. 7 Simon Fraser (12-2, 6-2) in what figures to be one of the most compelling matches of the year. First serve is set for 7 p.m. (Pacific) at SFU’s West Gym in Burnaby, B.C. For Flick-Williams’s side, the process remains the same. “We go into this one with the same routine we had before,” said the veteran head coach. “We have had some great matches against Simon in the past and they are always a tough team to play at home. Regardless of the numbers ahead of our team names, it is always a grind with them. We are preparing for a knockdown, drag out dogfight and are going in with the mentality of fighting to be the best we can be.”