The Best From The West: Making An Immediate Impact On The Court
September 22, 2026 | Volleyball
SEATTLE – They've come from all over the West … half a dozen different locales, as close by as Bellevue to as far away as Phoenix. One even came back home, in a manner of speaking, after spending the past several years in Texas.
Yet, even with all of that geographic diversity, none of these University of Washington freshmen are strangers to each other on the volleyball court. They've crossed paths in tons of tournaments, club competitions and camps.
Those paths ultimately have led these select six – Lily Mae Buerkle, Hayden Conner, Sammy Destler, Kylie Kleckner, Kaitlyn Nguyen, and Rian Stephan – to Seattle.
Now, they are busy blending in their abundant talents with the rest of the Huskies, who just completed a 9-0 preseason slate and head into the Big Ten schedule this coming weekend at Michigan State on Friday and at Michigan on Sunday.
"It's fun – we've all known each other a long time before we got here," said Conner, a 6-foot-2 middle blocker from Phoenix, a two-time high school All-American and winner of conference and regional Offensive Player of the Year awards last fall at Corona Del Sol High School.
"We all committed (to Washington) pretty early, so it was cool having that connection," she said. "We saw each other at club tournaments before we got here. We've gone through a lot of things together."
Added Stephan, a 6-1 outside hitter from just up Interstate 5 in Lynden and part of last year's undefeated Lynden High School team that won the Washington Class 2A (small-medium school) state title, "You play the same club teams when you're in club at a high level, and you get to know the people you're playing against. Kaitlyn (Nguyen) and I knew each other from playing in club our whole lives, so you know who's who."
Of the 15 Huskies on the roster, those six first-years actually make up the largest class. There are five second-years, three third-years, and one fourth-year.
"We kind of know every year how many people we need to find," fourth-year head coach Leslie Gabriel said. "We knew this year we would have to bring in six players. We were very fortunate that the ones we went after are the ones that we got.
"We think each of them is special and brings something unique to the court that helps us," she said.
Washington wasn't the only choice available to any of them to continue their careers. But it ultimately became, for various reasons, the top choice for all of them.
"It's just how much this program has grown," said Destler, a 6-1 outside who's now a Husky after earning three All-American awards at Marymount High School in Los Angeles and helping her club team win the 18-U national title earlier this year. "I knew immediately when I got on phone calls and visits, it felt like not just a team, but like a family, just really close and genuine."
Similar to her fellow newcomers, Buerkle was drawn here for both volleyball and academics.
"I always wanted to be at a place where I could push myself to be a better athlete and also a student," said Buerkle, a 5-11 setter who not only starred in volleyball at Portland's McDaniel High School, but also owns the school record for girls shot put. "Something unique about the staff here is they care about you as a person, not just as an athlete. They're really invested in our success on and off the court."
SAYING HELLO TO A HIGHER LEVEL
Now that they're all here, there's always that period of adjustment and acclimation to the college game –especially in NCAA Division I.
"Everything is faster and everything is bigger," said 6-foot outside hitter Kleckner, who was born in Seattle before moving to Texas, where she helped Byron Nelson High School, about 20 miles north of Fort Worth, go 82-1 over the past two seasons. "And the coaches expect a lot of you. You have to be ready to play every day, and that's something we're all learning to adjust to is to always be ready."
Nguyen had the shortest trek to Montlake, coming from Bellevue High School, just across Lake Washington.
"It's just the pace and how big the girls are – they're a lot stronger than the girls in club," said Nguyen, a 5-4 libero who tied the school record for digs in a three-set match when she came up with 26 in last Saturday's 3-0 sweep of South Dakota. Then she added with a grin, "It's just trying to get used to that – and not get hit in the face. You have to reset really fast and take care of your own things."
Nguyen and Kleckner already have played their way into the starting lineup. Nguyen has been on the court for all 34 sets of the first nine matches; Kleckner has played in 32 sets.
Kleckner started off with 15 kills and a .314 hitting percentage in the season opener against UC Irvine at the Husky Invitational on Aug. 28, a 3-1 UW victory. The next day in a 3-0 sweep of San Diego State, she had 11 kills on .200 hitting, then finished the tournament with 15 kills on .282 hitting in a 3-2 win against IU Indianapolis.
Her tourney totals of 41 kills on .269 hitting, 10 blocks, 21 digs and four service aces earned her Big Ten Freshman of the Week honors.
Nguyen has a team-leading 138 digs. She is the only Husky with a triple-digit dig total so far. She also ranks No. 2 on the squad with 58 assists, including a best of 11 against Mississippi on Sept. 3 in the Big Ten / SEC tourney.
"It's cool (that they're starting); that's really hard to do as freshmen," Gabriel said. "They've come in and done a good job of just learning our systems and learning how we play. I'm proud of their effort that they give each day."
Destler and Buerkle have seen limited action so far, with Buerkle playing eight sets and Destler seven. Buerkle has racked up 12 assists; Destler has logged 10 kills. Conner got onto the court for the first time this past weekend in South Dakota, playing in both matches and logging three kills against South Dakota State. Stephan is awaiting her first college competition.
Among all six of the newbies, Gabriel has seen one particular quality that doesn't have its own box score stat line.
"The volleyball IQ of this class is pretty high," she said, "which has really helped them coming into this preseason."
SIX DIFFERENT WAYS TO GET HERE
Speaking of IQ, it certainly extends beyond volleyball for all six freshmen. That is particularly true for Nguyen, who posted a near-perfect 3.98 high school grade-point average with a heavy load of honors courses and enters Washington as an academic junior.
A biochemistry major, she'll have some choices to make in the future when her undergrad degree is complete and she still has volleyball eligibility remaining. She has plenty of time to think about it.
"I've talked to our academic advisor about my options. I could get my masters during that time, or if I wanted to just stay and double-major, I could do that. I haven't decided yet," Nguyen said.
For Stephan, playing volleyball at Washington is actually closer to home for her than when she was playing club volleyball. Her hometown of Lynden is about 100 miles north of campus, a drive of a couple hours, depending on traffic. Her club team was all the way over in Ellensburg, a distance of about 190 miles from home.
"For like six weeks (during the summer) we did Sunday training in Ellensburg – four hours over there and four hours back," she said. "We did that once a week. Then once high school practices started, my coach was really close friends with the club director there. So I would do training and practice in the high school gym during the week because it was really hard to go that far in school."
Buerkle's training went beyond volleyball. She also lettered three years in track, As a junior in 2025 she set the McDaniel school record in the shot put with a toss of 40 feet, 6½ inches in winning the Portland Interscholastic League 6A (large school) championship. On the same day she did that, Buerkle also won the PIL javelin crown with a personal-best mark of 116-5.
She went to the Oregon state meet all three years in the shot, once in the javelin and once in the discus.
"I always thought that as a volleyball player, I have the shoulder and have the arm strength, so I thought about trying something new," Buerkle said. "I started out doing all three (shot, discus, and javelin). I really liked the shot put, mostly because it pushed me in a different way than volleyball did. It was a lot about power and really building that skill, so that was really fun."
Kleckner was all about volleyball and has the resume to prove it. Her high school team won the Texas state title during her junior (40-0) and senior (42-1) seasons, and won the MaxPreps national championship those same two seasons (2024 and 2025). She was the MaxPreps Junior of the Year and the Texas high school Female Athlete of the Year, both in 2024.
That she now gets to play collegiately in the same city where she was born carries added meaning for Kleckner, who lived in the Shoreline area, less than 10 miles north of campus.
"It was always a dream (to play here)," Kleckner said. "But it kind of solidified when I met the people and met the coaches and all of our ideas kind of aligned."
In addition to their club and high school experience, Conner and Destler both have taken part in the USA National Team Development Program.
"That was a really great experience, seeing club kids from all over the country," Conner said. "Playing with them, learning a new system, playing underneath all the coaches from around the world and learning how they teach volleyball – it was a really cool experience."
Added Destler, "I loved going there, playing with high-level athletes and getting challenged by them and having really good coaches."
Gabriel, who has seen hundreds of freshmen don Husky purple during her three-plus decades with the program (four years as a player, 22 years as an assistant coach and now in her fourth as a head coach), is enjoying helping this particular group navigate their first season of college competition.
"They're a lot of fun. They're good volleyball players, and a lot of them have played for a long time," she said.
"They've played a sport that they love, and they love what they're doing."
Yet, even with all of that geographic diversity, none of these University of Washington freshmen are strangers to each other on the volleyball court. They've crossed paths in tons of tournaments, club competitions and camps.
Those paths ultimately have led these select six – Lily Mae Buerkle, Hayden Conner, Sammy Destler, Kylie Kleckner, Kaitlyn Nguyen, and Rian Stephan – to Seattle.
Now, they are busy blending in their abundant talents with the rest of the Huskies, who just completed a 9-0 preseason slate and head into the Big Ten schedule this coming weekend at Michigan State on Friday and at Michigan on Sunday.
"It's fun – we've all known each other a long time before we got here," said Conner, a 6-foot-2 middle blocker from Phoenix, a two-time high school All-American and winner of conference and regional Offensive Player of the Year awards last fall at Corona Del Sol High School.
"We all committed (to Washington) pretty early, so it was cool having that connection," she said. "We saw each other at club tournaments before we got here. We've gone through a lot of things together."
Added Stephan, a 6-1 outside hitter from just up Interstate 5 in Lynden and part of last year's undefeated Lynden High School team that won the Washington Class 2A (small-medium school) state title, "You play the same club teams when you're in club at a high level, and you get to know the people you're playing against. Kaitlyn (Nguyen) and I knew each other from playing in club our whole lives, so you know who's who."
Of the 15 Huskies on the roster, those six first-years actually make up the largest class. There are five second-years, three third-years, and one fourth-year.
"We kind of know every year how many people we need to find," fourth-year head coach Leslie Gabriel said. "We knew this year we would have to bring in six players. We were very fortunate that the ones we went after are the ones that we got.
"We think each of them is special and brings something unique to the court that helps us," she said.
Washington wasn't the only choice available to any of them to continue their careers. But it ultimately became, for various reasons, the top choice for all of them.
"It's just how much this program has grown," said Destler, a 6-1 outside who's now a Husky after earning three All-American awards at Marymount High School in Los Angeles and helping her club team win the 18-U national title earlier this year. "I knew immediately when I got on phone calls and visits, it felt like not just a team, but like a family, just really close and genuine."
Similar to her fellow newcomers, Buerkle was drawn here for both volleyball and academics.
"I always wanted to be at a place where I could push myself to be a better athlete and also a student," said Buerkle, a 5-11 setter who not only starred in volleyball at Portland's McDaniel High School, but also owns the school record for girls shot put. "Something unique about the staff here is they care about you as a person, not just as an athlete. They're really invested in our success on and off the court."
SAYING HELLO TO A HIGHER LEVEL
Now that they're all here, there's always that period of adjustment and acclimation to the college game –especially in NCAA Division I.
"Everything is faster and everything is bigger," said 6-foot outside hitter Kleckner, who was born in Seattle before moving to Texas, where she helped Byron Nelson High School, about 20 miles north of Fort Worth, go 82-1 over the past two seasons. "And the coaches expect a lot of you. You have to be ready to play every day, and that's something we're all learning to adjust to is to always be ready."
Nguyen had the shortest trek to Montlake, coming from Bellevue High School, just across Lake Washington.
"It's just the pace and how big the girls are – they're a lot stronger than the girls in club," said Nguyen, a 5-4 libero who tied the school record for digs in a three-set match when she came up with 26 in last Saturday's 3-0 sweep of South Dakota. Then she added with a grin, "It's just trying to get used to that – and not get hit in the face. You have to reset really fast and take care of your own things."
Nguyen and Kleckner already have played their way into the starting lineup. Nguyen has been on the court for all 34 sets of the first nine matches; Kleckner has played in 32 sets.
Kleckner started off with 15 kills and a .314 hitting percentage in the season opener against UC Irvine at the Husky Invitational on Aug. 28, a 3-1 UW victory. The next day in a 3-0 sweep of San Diego State, she had 11 kills on .200 hitting, then finished the tournament with 15 kills on .282 hitting in a 3-2 win against IU Indianapolis.
Her tourney totals of 41 kills on .269 hitting, 10 blocks, 21 digs and four service aces earned her Big Ten Freshman of the Week honors.
Nguyen has a team-leading 138 digs. She is the only Husky with a triple-digit dig total so far. She also ranks No. 2 on the squad with 58 assists, including a best of 11 against Mississippi on Sept. 3 in the Big Ten / SEC tourney.
"It's cool (that they're starting); that's really hard to do as freshmen," Gabriel said. "They've come in and done a good job of just learning our systems and learning how we play. I'm proud of their effort that they give each day."
Destler and Buerkle have seen limited action so far, with Buerkle playing eight sets and Destler seven. Buerkle has racked up 12 assists; Destler has logged 10 kills. Conner got onto the court for the first time this past weekend in South Dakota, playing in both matches and logging three kills against South Dakota State. Stephan is awaiting her first college competition.
Among all six of the newbies, Gabriel has seen one particular quality that doesn't have its own box score stat line.
"The volleyball IQ of this class is pretty high," she said, "which has really helped them coming into this preseason."
SIX DIFFERENT WAYS TO GET HERE
Speaking of IQ, it certainly extends beyond volleyball for all six freshmen. That is particularly true for Nguyen, who posted a near-perfect 3.98 high school grade-point average with a heavy load of honors courses and enters Washington as an academic junior.
A biochemistry major, she'll have some choices to make in the future when her undergrad degree is complete and she still has volleyball eligibility remaining. She has plenty of time to think about it.
"I've talked to our academic advisor about my options. I could get my masters during that time, or if I wanted to just stay and double-major, I could do that. I haven't decided yet," Nguyen said.
For Stephan, playing volleyball at Washington is actually closer to home for her than when she was playing club volleyball. Her hometown of Lynden is about 100 miles north of campus, a drive of a couple hours, depending on traffic. Her club team was all the way over in Ellensburg, a distance of about 190 miles from home.
"For like six weeks (during the summer) we did Sunday training in Ellensburg – four hours over there and four hours back," she said. "We did that once a week. Then once high school practices started, my coach was really close friends with the club director there. So I would do training and practice in the high school gym during the week because it was really hard to go that far in school."
Buerkle's training went beyond volleyball. She also lettered three years in track, As a junior in 2025 she set the McDaniel school record in the shot put with a toss of 40 feet, 6½ inches in winning the Portland Interscholastic League 6A (large school) championship. On the same day she did that, Buerkle also won the PIL javelin crown with a personal-best mark of 116-5.
She went to the Oregon state meet all three years in the shot, once in the javelin and once in the discus.
"I always thought that as a volleyball player, I have the shoulder and have the arm strength, so I thought about trying something new," Buerkle said. "I started out doing all three (shot, discus, and javelin). I really liked the shot put, mostly because it pushed me in a different way than volleyball did. It was a lot about power and really building that skill, so that was really fun."
Kleckner was all about volleyball and has the resume to prove it. Her high school team won the Texas state title during her junior (40-0) and senior (42-1) seasons, and won the MaxPreps national championship those same two seasons (2024 and 2025). She was the MaxPreps Junior of the Year and the Texas high school Female Athlete of the Year, both in 2024.
That she now gets to play collegiately in the same city where she was born carries added meaning for Kleckner, who lived in the Shoreline area, less than 10 miles north of campus.
"It was always a dream (to play here)," Kleckner said. "But it kind of solidified when I met the people and met the coaches and all of our ideas kind of aligned."
In addition to their club and high school experience, Conner and Destler both have taken part in the USA National Team Development Program.
"That was a really great experience, seeing club kids from all over the country," Conner said. "Playing with them, learning a new system, playing underneath all the coaches from around the world and learning how they teach volleyball – it was a really cool experience."
Added Destler, "I loved going there, playing with high-level athletes and getting challenged by them and having really good coaches."
Gabriel, who has seen hundreds of freshmen don Husky purple during her three-plus decades with the program (four years as a player, 22 years as an assistant coach and now in her fourth as a head coach), is enjoying helping this particular group navigate their first season of college competition.
"They're a lot of fun. They're good volleyball players, and a lot of them have played for a long time," she said.
"They've played a sport that they love, and they love what they're doing."
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/ VolleyballSunday, September 13
Sunday, September 13
Sunday, September 13
Sunday, September 13
