By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
SALEM, Ore.– South Salem Kamree Orizotti enters her senior year in some rarified air.
The incoming senior currently sits sixth All-Time on the assists lists with 2,541 career assists. She is within 828 career assists of Madison McLain’s All-Time career record of 3,369. McLain achieved the record between 2010-2013 as a member of the Santiam Christian Volleyball squad.
Of note, too, Orizotti had a 58 assist game against Sunset as a junior, which was in the opening round of the 6A State playoffs that was tied for third-most ever in a single match. The game tied her with Elle Renault (Madras, 2012) and Jackie Carle (Jesuit, 2022) in having that amount in a match.
Having some great hitters through the years that finish up those set-ups that she is providing has given Orizotti the confidence and grow into the setter that she is today.
“With setting comes a leadership role and having those qualities. As a setter, I bring that calm and collective self, and it rubs off on my teammates and shoutout to them for putting the balls down and giving me the assists,” said Orizotti, who has cracked 1,000 assists each of the last two years. “Coming in as a freshman, I’ve always had great leaders around me and I just aspired to be like them and it’s helped me personally, so I want to do that for everyone on the team.”
Wednesday morning at the Saxons Open Gym was just another day in the office for Orizotti. Working on her craft all the while laughing and having a good time. A Towson-commit, the Saxon setter is set beyond this next Fall season, but she also knows that she needs to be there for her team.
Coming off a fifth-place finish last Fall, those returning this year like Orizotti are driven and want to get back to Forest Grove and make another deep push for a possible State Title berth here in a few months.
“We’re just really driven. We just want to get into the gym and work, and I think that’s a good quality that our returning players have. We had a good run last year, and we just wanted to build off that and do even better this year,” said Orizotti.
Photo’s By Jeremy McDonald
