SALEM – After winning an unsanctioned 6A state title last year, it would have been easy for No. 2 Central Catholic boys volleyball to rest on its laurels in 2026, the first year the sport was sanctioned by the OSAA.
Instead, the Rams wanted to make history as the first ones in the official state championship record book.
Sitting at 21-0 coming into the OSAA/OnPoint Community Credit Union 6A/5A state championship game against No. 1 South Salem at West Salem High School, the Rams were ready to battle.
And in three short sets, Central Catholic left no doubt as it took out the Saxons 25-17, 25-16, 25-21 to lift the first-ever OSAA 6A/5A state boys volleyball blue trophy.
“I think my coaches, my teammates, my family, everyone who supported us had that mindset of we need to win the next one, we need to be the next champions,” Rams senior Dwight Nguyen said. “We did it to add another banner to our program and start a new program for new kids coming to Central who want to play at the next level.”
The Rams looked like a force from first serve, and it started at the net where the block caused some havoc among South Salem’s top hitters in senior Logan Scott and junior Tim Ganchenko.
Whether it was a tipped shot, a forced error or simply a block, the Saxons had a hard time on first swings throughout the match.
Both teams played five-set thrillers the night before, and for Rams head coach Sharlene Alagar, that was a wake-up call more so than an energy drainer.
“We had a grueling five-set match last night against Summit, I think it was a good wake-up call if you wanna say that,” Alagar said. “It allowed us to learn some things about ourselves mentally, we just had to work through some nerves and remember how we fight and how we win together.”
Winning together meant great communication in the back row from sophomore libero Carson Posner and junior setter Shawn Paul.
The two executed well on getting up strong digs to allow for Paul to often set up for the deep attacking crew of the Rams in Nguyen, senior Luke Fazio, senior Taj Dhruva and senior Henry Ruginis.
Paul was accurate all evening and mixed a dump here and there for a kill, as well as an ace during the match.
“Shawn is so versatile, he’s a great kid too,” Nguyen said. “He can take criticism from anyone, he loves the whole team. He’s just a baller and he’ll adjust so fast.”
“Shawn has been such a consistent player, he came into my program as being a non-club player,” Alagar said. “He learned volleyball from scratch playing in his backyard in his neighborhood. He’s grown so much in the past two years that we’ve had him. The fact he never comes out and he’s running that 5-1. … Even if he’s tired you’ll never know because he’ll never complain and he delivers the goods every time.”
It was Fazio and Nguyen rolling at the net in the first set where the Rams jumped out to an early big lead, then extended it to 18-9.
South Salem was able to pull within four points at 20-16, but the block from the Rams forced three consecutive hitting errors to help close out the first 25-17.
“Central played great,” South Salem head coach Matt Leichty said. “We played them one time, had a pretty good idea of what they were going to do, but they executed really, really well today. The blocking was a factor, but they executed really well offensively too. We had a hard time getting them out of system like we wanted to.”
“Our middles did a really great job of closing the block and getting beneficial block touches,” Fazio said. “It allowed the defense to make easy reads and pick up balls.”
The second set was tighter from the jump, tied at 10 with each side trading points.
Three kills from Fazio and one from Nguyen, plus a hitting error from the Saxons, put the Rams on a 5-0 run to go up 15-10, which later extended to a 23-13 lead with kills coming from Dhruva and junior Keegan Duffield as well.
But the focal point became Fazio who had 20 kills the night before against Summit in the semifinals. He was on fire again and was there to pump the Rams up after each point scored on Saturday.
“Luke came into this season on fire, from the first open gym to the first practices, he was like, ‘I want to go back-to-back, I want this, I want the first OSAA-sanctioned title,” Alagar said. “He knew what he wanted and he has fought for it at every practice, every warmup, every time you see him.”
“Luke especially works way too hard,” Nguyen said. “He’s so hard on himself. He’s such a great guy, on and off the court you see it hanging out with his friends. He really uplifts the team whenever we’re in our heads. He’ll talk to us and say, ‘Hey, it’s a game. We’re a family, we got this.’”
The third set was tied at 10 again, and this time it was a block from Fazio and one from Nguyen that started to power the Rams pulling away, making it 16-12 after a kill from Nguyen.
South Salem was able to pull within two points a few times, but another kill from Nguyen and an ace from Paul made it 22-18 Rams and they could see the finish line.
On match point up 24-21, Paul found Nguyen on the far side and the senior slammed it across court and inside the lines for the final point and a state title for Central Catholic.
Fazio finished with 14 kills while Nguyen led with 15 and Dhruva chipped in nine. Ganchenko led the Saxons with 12 and Scott had 11.
“I’m really proud of us as a team, we really worked hard,” Fazio said. “We came into the gym today knowing that we wanted to sweep and we knew that we could sweep. We played before and knew what their tendencies were like, we knew how they played. We came out and brought the extra intensity and really got after it.”
For South Salem, a silver trophy is still validation for the burgeoning program, a budding sport like boys volleyball. Many players on the team were new to the sport over recent years as a club and emerging activity.
Guiding those players was Scott, who is set to play volleyball in college next year at Orange Coast College (CA). Him and his fellow seniors in Will Thompson, Connor Wolfgram, Cameron King-Widdall, JJ Jaime and Eddie Hernandez.
“(Scott) is everything you want out of your best player,” Leichty said. “He does all the dirty work, he’s willing to get in there. He’s heading to college to play as a libero and you see him get in there and he will do whatever he can do to keep a point alive.”
For Central Catholic, the first OSAA title is validation for a group that went unbeaten last year while being an emerging activity.
The group of four seniors now gets to leave with a legacy and another banner for the home gym.
“Last year I called it their legacy, building their legacy,” Alagar said. “This year it’s their dynasty era. They lived up to that, they proved themselves and I couldn't be more proud of them.”
In the third place match, No. 3 Summit rolled as well in a sweep of No. 4 Silverton, 25-22, 25-15, 25-22.
austinw@osaa.org
Subscribe
