6A SEMIFINALS
FOREST GROVE – No. 3 Jesuit def. No. 2 South Salem 3-2 (25-14, 21-25, 27-29, 25-18, 15-9): Being on the wrong end of an unbelievable comeback isn’t easy to bounce back from.
Jesuit was in that situation after leading 19-7 in the third set, only to see South Salem rally, fend off a set point and ultimately win the third set 29-27 to go up 2-1 in the match.
But the two-time defending champion Crusaders don’t get rattled by much, and they showed their championship pedigree in the response.
The fourth set was all Jesuit outside of another late Saxons run, forcing a decisive fifth set.
And in the fifth, the Crusaders block shutdown the Saxons’ attack completing, going up 10-2 before another late South Salem rally made things somewhat interesting. But it wasn’t enough as Jesuit escaped with the 15-9 set win.
“We’re so passionate and worked so hard all season, we knew we had them and we knew we didn’t finish it,” Jesuit senior Jada Johnson said. “We knew moving forward, we had to finish it. We really put our foot on the gas. Our motto is, ‘Foot on the neck,’ so we had to put them away now.”
What worked so well for the Saxons to crawl back in the third set was some lighter attacks in the block where they pushed rather than trying to swing through it.
In the fourth, Jesuit started pressing more at the net with its hands to make sure those light swings stopped falling to its side of the floor.
“They started mixing up their shots a lot, which is a little difficult,” Johnson said. “We made sure our timing was out, pressing our hands a lot, pushing into the court because we knew their sets were a little tight. We knew if we pushed we’d put them away.”
If it wasn’t the block hurting South Salem, it was Johnson who ended the match with 33 kills, 12 of them coming in the third set alone.
For her and the whole squad aiming for their third consecutive title, there’s no doubt they’ve had a target on their back despite not being the top seed.
“We always know we have a target on our back, but we accepted it and something we talk about is being hunters and not being hunted,” Johnson said. “We choose to go after them even when it gets hard.”
Now, that third straight crown is one match away. And with a win, it would be the Crusaders’ 10th all time, giving them the most in state history and breaking the current tie at nine with Gresham and Santiam Christian.
The opponent will be top-seeded Sprague who took out Sheldon in four sets. The two haven’t met this year, but Sprague’s lone final appearance before was in 2018 where Jesuit won.
The Crusaders hope to do more of the same come 8:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 8 inside Forest Grove High School.
“Same thing, keeping our mentality strong, making sure we work together,” Johnson said of what they need to do to win. “Keeping the mentality that we’re not finished yet, we want to finish and let’s finish strong.”
No. 1 Sprague def. No. 4 Sheldon 3-1 (25-19, 25-15, 14-25, 25-21): After taking the first two sets, but dropping the third, Sprague needed a little pick me up.
Or for junior Brooke Friesen, a little pickle juice to help with the cramps that were plaging her in the fourth set.
The salty concoction worked as the Olympians were able to hold off a rally from the Irish and take the semifinal match 3-1.
“I feel like it’s kind of relief because we’ve worked so hard this season, we’ve been ranked No. 1 and it’s nice we’ve been able to prove we can make it to the state championship,” Sprague junior Khloe Livingston said. “We’re all really excited and ready to compete tomorrow.”
There was no slowing down the Olympians in the first two sets as they raced out to early leads, survived some mid-set runs from the Irish and then put both of them away in the closing points.
It was all about winning on the serve for Sprague and limiting the chances for some of Sheldon’s hard hitters.
“I feel like we really locked in on the serve, serve-receive game, that helped us win it,” Livingston said. “We all played together as one team.”
That’s the message on the T-shirts adorned by the Sprague fans in attendance, One Team. And they were one set away from the final before Sheldon got on a heater and gave Sprague some of its own medicine in the third.
The Irish block got the Olympians out of sorts in their attack, leading to a bunch of errors and some big-time points for Sheldon to try and steal the momentum.
However, the experience Sprague squad made sure it ended in that third set and got right back to winning the fourth, going up 15-8 at one point and closing out the match from there.
“I feel like a lot of us have had this experience of going to state, especially me and (Friesen) and Emma (Brewer), it’s our third or fourth year here,” Livignston said. “We aren’t really expecting a ton of emotions from the crowd or anything. We’re used to it and that’s helping us build our energy.”
Helping build the semifinal victory was Brewer, who had 16 vicious kills to lead the Olympians. Friesen delivered five blocks and 28 assists while Livingston had eight kills and nine digs.
Now, the Olympians will go for history trying to win the program’s first-ever state title. They’ll be looking for revenge for the 2018 team that made the state title game, only to fall to Jesuit.
The Crusaders will be the opponent again come 8:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 8 at Forest Grove High school. It’s all about staying excited within each other and not letting the moment get too big.
“We’re gonan rest up, we’re definitely gonna take our time to heal,” Livingston said. “We’re gonna stay excited and stay pumped up and be ready for whoever we’re playing.”
6A QUARTERFINALS
No. 1 Sprague def. No. 9 South Medford 3-0 (25-18, 25-12, 25-17): No. 1 Sprague was pushed in its first round match against No. 9 South Medford as the first set started out a back and forth affair. The Olympians were finally able to break away and get a 20-15 lead and carried that out to a 25-18 set win.
The Olympians dominated to start the second and third set, but each one was met with a strong Panthers rally. South Medford cut the lead in the second set to 13-11 at one point and 20-16 at a point in the third. But both times, Sprague was able to regroup and close out the set, taking the second 25-12 and the third 25-17.
Emma Brewer led in kills with 12, a transfer from Salem Academy this season who has made the Sprague attack that much more deadly in 2025.
“It’s really nice because we’ve been able to mix up our offense a lot more,” Sprague junior Khloe Livingston said of adding Brewer. “We’ve had more opportunities to run plays and put the ball away more.”
No. 4 Sheldon def. No. 5 Nelson 3-1 (21-25, 25-18, 25-18, 25-10): No. 4 Sheldon fell behind No. 5 Nelson when the Hawks took the first set 25-18. However, the Irish rebounded quickly and jumped out to a 12-3 lead in the second set that Nelson couldn’t recover from. That tied the match at a set apiece.
In the third, Sheldon grabbed the early lead and then the two sides went back and forth from there, keeping the frame at an 11-9 Sheldon advantage. The Irish went on a big 8-1 run from there though to make it 19-10 following a Hawks timeout.
Nelson got within three at 20-17, but the Irish closed out the third frame 25-18 to go up 2-1 in the match.
And in the fourth, it was nothing but green as the Irish dominated. The frame was tied at four when Sheldon went on two separate 5-0 runs and eventually forced a Nelson timeout with Sheldon up 18-9. The timeout wasn’t enough to rally the Hawks as the Irish closed it out 25-10.
No. 3 Jesuit def. No. 11 Oregon City 3-0 (25-14, 25-20, 25-15): No. 11 Oregon City tried its best, but there was no slowing down senior Jada Johnson and No. 3 Jesuit in the quarterfinals as the Crusaders cruised to a sweep (25-14, 25-20, 25-15).
Johnson went on a 4-0 run herself in the middle of the second set that put Jesuit up for good. The Pioneers had a good rally in the second to make it interesting, but following a Crusaders timeout up 24-20, they were able to put it away and go up 2-0.
Senior Sadie Ross finished with 17 kills to lead Jesuit while Johnson had 12, four in each set.
“It’s been really special, I’m super proud of this team and how far we’ve come,” Johnson said. “The opportunity to go for a three-peat means everything to me.”
No. 2 South Salem def. No. 7 South Eugene 3-1 (25-18, 17-25, 25-17, 25-13): No. 2 South Salem survived upset-minded No. 7 South Eugene in four sets (25-18, 17-25, 25-17, 25-13). The Axe started out strong in the first set, but the Saxons were able to fight their way back and take the first.
South Eugene came back with that same energy, but didn’t lose the lead this time and took the second.
In the third, South Salem got off to a better start and carried that momentum throughout the frame to go up 2-1. The Saxons kept it going to start the fourth, but a big rally from the Axe eventually tied the fourth frame at 15.
The Axe took leads of 16-15 and 17-16, but it was ultimately the Saxons who finished the match on 9-4 run to advance. It wasn’t the cleanest matching swinging for the Saxons, but Briella Mathis led the way with 15 kills while Addison Herber had 11. Kamree Orizotti finished with 40 assists and Ellenia Setzer finished with 14 digs and the match-ending ace.
5A SEMIFINALS
No. 1 South Albany def. No. 4 Crater 3-2 (25-17, 21-25, 27-25, 19-25, 15-9): After dropping the second set to pull into a tie for the match, No. 1 South Albany was in trouble in the third frame.
Trailing No. 4 Crater 20-14, the RedHawks looked out of sorts as the Comets’ block continued to stifle them. It looked as if Crater was right on track to go up 2-1 with all the momentum toward an upset.
However, the RedHawks aren’t defending champions for no reason. Instead, they dug in and rattled off an 8-2 run to tie the set at 22.
Crater was able to fend off two set points, tying the frame at 25 apiece. But South Albany scored the next two, the last a hitting error by the Comets to seal it.
“I felt like their block changed a lot and we were struggling with that,” South Albany senior libero Maddie Angel said. “They were being smarter with their hits, which we had to adjust to and we did well.”
But the Comets didn’t come all this way for that to be the end. They rallied in the fourth set after being tied at 12. They closed the fourth set with a 13-7 run to win it 25-19 and force a decisive fifth set.
But in the fifth, the South Albany attack finally found a way to break through and constantly hit the floor, taking an early lead and nursing it to a 15-9 fifth set win.
“We’ve been here before, our [fifth] match of the season we lost in five,” Angel said. “I think we needed to prove to ourselves that we could do it. We’ve lost six sets in the past two years, so we needed to know we could do it.”
However, it’s hard to know you can do something when you haven’t had to do it.
Last season, South Albany only lost two sets all season, including in the state playoffs where the RedHawks swept all five of their opponents en route to the program’s first-ever state title.
“When we got into the huddle, we decided to that we were going to stop focusing on Crater and focusing on each other,” Angel said. “I think that helped us pull away from them. We fed into each other, came together, which helped us play better.”
Stats wise, the RedHawks were led by senior Taylor Donaldson and junior Audrey Webb, who each had 20 kills. Sophomore Addie Minnick chipped in 12 kills while senior Ryland Minnick had three big blocks sprinkled throughout.
As for Angel, she had 27 digs on the night and one ace, but that ace is what closed the match and sent the RedHawks back to the state final.
“I think we’re excited, I think we’re drained, it’s been a long day,” Angel said. “I think we’re excited for tomorrow and just ready to get after it.”
The opponent will be No. 3 Bend, who took out No. 2 Crescent Valley in four sets.
South Albany faced Bend twice this year at tournament, winning 2-1 on Sept. 20 at an Oregon City tournament, and then 2-0 a week later at the RedHawks’ home tournament.
While that certainly gives the RedHawks that a repeat is possible, but the focus will be on themselves and making sure they’re having fun.
“(Bend) is a tough team, so we’re just going to go out and play our game and have fun together, no matter the outcome,” Angel said.
No. 3 Bend def. No. 2 Crescent Valley 3-1 (25-27, 25-15, 25-19, 25-23): It was hard for Bend girls volleyball senior Makena VandenBos to stop the tears from falling after the Lava Bears semifinal matchup with Crescent Valley.
They weren’t tears because of a loss, but rather a senior and her team making the state final in her final shot at it.
The Lava Bears mostly controlled the match against the Raiders, falling late in the first set but winning the next three somewhat comfortably.
“I’m just so excited, our team has worked really hard to get here,” VandenBos said. “I’m so proud of everyone on our team. I’m just really feeling the love on our team right now.”
The first set was mostly back and forth right until the end, but the Lava Bears had two set points at 24-23 and 25-24 where they weren’t able to put the Raiders away.
Instead, Crescent Valley rallied and took the first frame 27-25 to get the early lead.
“It was just like, ‘We need to lock in right now and play our hearts out,’” VandenBos said of the message to the team. “‘We have nothing to lose and we need to work for this state championship, we really want to get there.’”
CV led as late as 11-10 in the second set, but Bend put the pedal to the metal from there with a 4-0 run to go up 14-11. The Raiders would get as close as 20-18, but Bend closed it out 25-18 to level the match.
In the third, Bend started with a 4-0 run and never gave it up despite the Raiders pulling within one point at 16-15.
“I think we started playing more for each other, and I think that made the biggest difference,” VandenBos said of the adjustments. “Just playing Bend High volleyball is what made a big difference.”
In the fourth, Bend was up 16-10 when Crescent Valley fought to eventually take a 20-19 advantage trying to force a fifth set.
Instead, the Lava Bears stayed composed and played for each other, going up 24-22 and closing it out two points later 25-23 to win the match.
Junior Brooklyn Fobi led the attack with 16 kills and also added 12 digs. Freshmen Kailyn Cooper and Lucy O’Connell held the back line with 17 digs each, the latter also distributing 33 assists. VandenBos had five kills and 1.5 blocks.
Bend is now in the state final for the first time since 2023 when it lost to Crescent Valley. The Lava Bears are aiming for title No. 3 in program and their first since winning it all in 2017 over Summit.
The match is set for 6 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 8 at Forest Grove High School.
“I think we just play our hearts out and bring everything we have,” VandenBos said. “This is our last moment to prove who we are.”
5A QUARTERFINALS
No. 1 South Albany def. No. 8 Wilsonville 3-0 (25-18, 25-8, 25-16): No. 1 South Albany had no problem in the quarterfinals with No. 8 Wilsonville. The RedHawks imposed their will in the second set, taking it 25-8 as a part of the sweep to send the defending champions to the semifinals.
Audrey Webb led the attack with 16 kills while Taylor Donaldson chipped in 12. Maddie Angel served well with six aces and had a team-high 17 digs.
“(Donaldson) is very smart with her swing, she can see open areas all the time,” Angel said. “She can do it all, it’s cool to watch. Especially being behind her, tell her what’s open and stuff and try to help her as much as I can.”
No. 4 Crater def. No. 5 Summit 3-1 (25-18, 26-24, 15-25, 25-23): No. 4 Crater took the first two sets before No. 5 Summit got into some better looks in the third set, taking it 25-15 to try for the reverse sweep. Instead, the Comets got back to themselves in the fourth and came up clutch on match point to take it 25-23 and the match 3-1.
No. 3 Bend def. No. 6 West Albany 3-1 (25-17, 17-25, 25-19, 25-14): No. 3 Bend and No. 6 West Albany traded sets to start their quarterfinals match, but it was the Lava Bears ultimately pulling away with 25-19 and 25-14 wins in the third and fourth sets.
Junior Brooklyn Fobi led the way in kills with 19 while two other Lava Bears reached double digits in freshman Riley Isfeld with 12 and freshman Kailyn Cooper with 11. Cooper and senior Rylee Smith held down the back row with 20 and 18 digs, respectively, and Fobi added four aces.
That’s been the theme for the Lava Bears this season is working in younger talent around a senior like VandenBos. And the transition has been smooth.
“I think it’s been really fun, and those (young) girls are so talented,” VandenBos said. “They’re leaders. Even though they’re young, they make such a huge difference on our team.”
No. 2 Crescent Valley def. No. 7 Corvallis 3-2 (25-10, 22-25, 25-15, 25-27, 15-8): The best match of the quarterfinals was between No. 2 Crescent Valley and No. 7 Corvallis as it went the distance.
The Raiders took the first set 25-10 and seemed to be cruising, but the Spartans returned favor with a 25-22 set two win. CV got back to winning in the third with a 25-15 win, but couldn’t close it in the fourth. The Spartans fought off a couple match points and took the fourth 27-25 to force the decisive fifth.
That took it out of the Spartans though, and the Raiders went on to take the fifth 15-8 and advance to the semifinals.
austinw@osaa.org
Subscribe
