Sports 2024-2025

Volleyball ends conference play undefeated

Mason Greene • December 23, 2024

Amblessed Okemgbo (center) and Shelby Clixby (right) cheer on their team mates, Saturday, Nov. 9, 2024, at an NCAA volleyball game against Pacific Lutheran University at Whitworth University in Spokane, Wash. | Caleb Flegel/The Whitworthian

Whitworth Volleyball completed their conference schedule with a reverse sweep of PLU on senior night, finishing 16-0 vs Northwest Conference (NWC) opponents.

This is now the second time in the last four years the Pirates have finished unbeaten in conference play. They last accomplished the feat in 2021. At that time, the NWC championship and winner of the automatic bid to the NCAA Division III tournament was determined by the final regular season standings.

By finishing with the best conference record in 2024, Whitworth has claimed the #1 seed and earned the right to host the four-team, single-elimination NWC tournament taking place Nov. 15 and 16. The winner will be crowned champion of the NWC and receive the coveted automatic bid to the NCAA Division III tournament. The Pirates will be looking to avenge last year’s first-round exit.

Ella Jimenez winds up for a kill, Saturday, Nov. 9, 2024, at an NCAA volleyball game against Pacific Lutheran University at Whitworth University in Spokane, Wash. | Caleb Flegel/The Whitworthian

“Since then, it’s lit a healthy fire of no, we want to host [a] conference,” said senior Ella Jimenez. “We want to take on these teams and bring those schools to us.”

The players and coaches around the program have felt that 2024 could be a special season. Those looking from the outside agreed. Whitworth was picked to finish first in the NWC preseason poll back in August. Since week seven, they’ve been ranked inside the top 25 by the AVCA Division III coaches poll.

“As a coaching staff, we continue to remind them to just really lean into our values, our love for each other, and to just put it all out there,” said Head Coach Katie Bodecker. “And if we give everything we have, if we work hard and we show up every day […], then we have no reason not to be successful.”

Whitworth head coach Katie Bodecker instructs her team during a timeout, Saturday, Nov. 9, 2024, at an NCAA volleyball game against Pacific Lutheran University at Whitworth University in Spokane, Wash. | Caleb Flegel/The Whitworthian

Now in her 12th season as Whitworth’s head coach, Bodecker recently secured her 200th career win on Sept. 13 against Chapman. She’ll be relying on the culture that’s been built over that time as she looks for her sixth appearance in the NCAA Division III tournament.

“This group of upperclassmen and senior leadership, they’re very committed,” said Bodecker. “They want to have a season that leaves a legacy. They want to have a season that will always be remembered.”

Whitworth’s only two losses came against tough non-conference opponents. Both Wisconsin-Oshkosh and Claremont-Mudd Scripps have spent much of the 2024 season ranked in the top 10 in all of Division III. The Pirates themselves are a different team since those losses and will be looking to demonstrate that growth by winning the NWC tournament and earning a berth in the NCAA Division III tournament.

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