The Crescent Valley girls volleyball team poses with the 5A state trophy after defeating Bend. (Photo by Austin White)

INDEPENDENCE – Crescent Valley girls volleyball dominated throughout the 2026 fall season, having avoided a loss to an in-state opponent all year.

And in the OSAA/OnPoint Community Credit Union 5A state championship game against No. 2 Bend on Saturday at Central High School, that trend only continued as No. 1 Crescent Valley swept the match 25-20, 27-25, 26-24 to take home the program’s third state.

The Raiders simply had a wealth of attack power all season in their senior class between Allison Curtis, Georgia Vawter, Niana King, Karsyn Horn and Morgan Stoye.

Curtis was especially lethal in the championship game, posting a team-high 15 kills with one block and one ace.

But really it was the collective that made CV too hard for anyone in Oregon to KO.

“All four years we’ve been to the state tournament,” Vawter said. “And now, being a senior, this is a dream come true. This is really the best feeling, I can’t even put into words this feeling.”

“It’s really nice, growing up with everybody on my team so just having one last game with them and winning state is so fun, it means a lot,” Raiders sophomore setter Lela Campos said. 

With eight seniors on the roster total and the 2026 state tournament marking the group’s fourth trip to the final event, taking home the blue trophy was especially sweet for a group that had been trying to get to this moment since watching the team win it their freshmen year in 2023.

“I’m super happy for them, they’ve worked hard all season and all four years they’ve been in high school,” Raiders head coach Paul Ossowski said. “They just truly earned it. For me, just watching them, I’m so proud of them. Seeing that last point happen and see all their teammates just rush on to the court, it’s such a good feeling to see them and the joy they have playing this game.”

And it wasn’t always easy with a couple coaching changes mixed in, but the second-year leader in Ossowski said the goal was to provide some stability, and the title proves the girls right in their trust in him.

“I coached some of these girls in club and they were like, ‘Hey look, we need a coach,’” Ossowski said. “There was trust before I even became the coach. … Even just that was like, ‘Wow, these girls trust me and they want me to be somebody to help them out and help them grow in life and in volleyball.’ Just from the get-go, there was a trust there.”

Crescent Valley started out strong with a 5-0 lead to open the first set that ballooned to 10-3. 

Bend slowly kept chipping away though and eventually tied the set at 19 behind a couple of big kills and a block from junior Izzy Limoges.

However, the Lava Bears ran out of gas and the senior leadership of the Raiders knew how to close out a tight set.

Two kills from Curtis, one kill from King and two kills from Vawter on the last two points made it a 25-20 first set win for the Raiders.

“I think Karsyn (Horn) has a strong serve and her passing is impeccable,” Vawter said. “(Curtis) is a beast at the net, so all four of us are just great together.”

Bend, playing in the state title game for the second consecutive season, wasn’t going down easy and took the early advantage in the second frame.

CV was able to claw back and tie it at 11 before Bend went on another little run and then held a lead at 22-19.

However, the maturity and talent of the Raiders started to shine through as they were able to continuously get off hard swings at the net, even when the Lava Bears attack might have sent them out of the normal bump, set, spike rotation.

“They’re obviously a well-rounded team and we try to do the same thing so we practice against it all the time,” Bend head coach Kristin Cooper said. “To have that ball keep getting put down your throat, it’s hard. All we can do is try to respond and do it right back.”

“I just know that we got to swing aggressive, we gotta be aggressive no matter what,” Ossowski said of his team finding ways to get swings off. “That really started last season. I don’t care if the ball is 10 feet off the net – we practice it too, we practice out of system and we practice hitting from the back row, everybody. Even our libero, she’s ripping it from the back row because we gotta be aggressive and you gotta swing if you want to win really big games.”

Crescent Valley grabbed its first lead of the second set when it went on 6-2 run to go up 24-23, forcing a Bend timeout.

Bend senior Brooklyn Fobi got a kill to tie it at 24, Horn got one for CV and then a service error tied it at 25. But then it was back to the bread and butter for the Raiders with Campos setting up a kill for Vawter and then Stoye put down the final kill for a 27-25 winner.

For Campos, who was named to the All-Tournament first-team, deciding where to go when she’s got weaponry that’s deeper than Batman’s tool belt is all about riding the hot hand.

“I kind of think of who’s the hottest, who’s giving us the most points and energy right now,” Campos said. 

Bend came out strong again in the third to take an early lead, but it didn’t take as long for CV to get back into it with the deficit staying under four until an 11-11 tie. 

From there, the two sides traded blows with seven ties and four lead changes down the stretch.

The Lava Bears grabbed their biggest lead at 20-17 and 23-20, the latter of which felt like the match was destined to go to a fourth following an ace from Fobi.

Instead, the Raiders called timeout, collected themselves and figured out a way forward.

“I think we all just believed in ourselves and were confident we were going to win,” Campos said. “I think we just trusted each other and that game we really played as a team and not as individuals.”

A kill from King was sandwiched by two Curtis kills to get the set quickly tied back up at 20. But a kill and a block from Bend’s Hailey Krueger, plus another ace from Fobi made it 23-20 Bend and another CV timeout came.

Curtis came out and picked up two more kills and Campos got through on an ace to tie it back up at 23. A line violation by the Raiders gave the Lava Bears set point at 24-23, but it was Curtis again with a kill to tie it.

Curtis then stepped up to serve and put home an ace between two Lava Bears near the sideline. And on the next serve, Bend struggled to get a clean set and King made sure to slam home the floating ball for the set, match and state title.

“Since we’re all seniors, we’ve all had growth,” Vawter said on what made 2026 different from previous years. “We all just came together, every practice. We really trusted each other and instead of playing as individuals.”

“The seniority over there and the no panic,” Cooper said of the difficulty of closing out a team like CV in sets. “Sometimes on some teams you can get errors, but they don’t make those errors. We just had to be strong in those final points and it just quite wasn’t there.”

Curtis finished with 15 kills and right behind her was King with 10, Vawter with nine, Stoye with seven and Horn with eight.

For Bend, Limoges had seven kills, two blocks and an ace while Fobi had eight kills, four aces and a block. For the Lava Bears, it’s their fourth runnerup finish in five years, three of those coming against the Raiders.

The state title for Crescent Valley is its third and first since going back-to-back in 2022 and 2023. And for the seniors, it’s a 29-1 season, the lone loss coming out of state, to cement themselves as undoubted 5A champions.

“Probably go get food on the bus ride or something, just be as a team, it’s our last time,” Vawter said of celebration plans.

Third/fifth place

No. 4 South Albany bounced back from a five-set loss to Crescent Valley in the semifinals on Friday to take down No. 3 Summit in the third/fifth place match 3-1 (25-23, 24-26, 25-20, 25-14).

The RedHawks, who came into the season as two-time defending champions, had plenty of production to try and replace in 2026 from those two title teams.

Senior Audrey Webb filled many of those spots with her play over the weekend, easily earning a nod for the All-Tournament team alongside junior Addie Minnick.

Most importantly, she got to end her high school career going out with a bronze trophy with all teammates. 

“I think us stepping the way we did today is really awesome, especially playing 10 sets yesterday,” Webb said. “This school and this team, it just means everything to me. Our team has been so supportive throughout all the years and shows up to practice willing to work hard every day. It’s a really cool thing to be a part of.”

Fourth/sixth place

No. 9 West Albany survived a five-set thriller with Wilsonville (25-20, 25-18, 19-25, 24-25, 15-11) and No. 10 La Salle Prep took out No. 6 Crater 3-1 (16-25, 25-22, 26-24, 25-23) to set up the fourth/sixth place match.

Once there, the Bulldogs recovered from a second set drop to win in four (25-19, 15-25, 25-18, 25-20) to secure fourth place and a first, third and fourth finish for the Mid-Willamette Conference.

With six seniors on the team, going out with a win was a solid consolation prize for a Bulldogs team that proved it was one of the best in the state despite being hidden a little bit by the likes of Crescent Valley and South Albany in their league.

“As a senior, I’m just grateful that I had that opportunity,” Bulldogs senior Alice Beatty said. “I’m grateful to have an award with my favorite team.”