By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
MILL CITY, Ore.– The Santiam Volleyball team will have a daughting task to fill the void of nine seniors who had graduated from their 2A State Playoff team last season.
But of the three who are returning in Maizy Downey, Tenley Henness, and Aubrey Ohrt, they bring back a plethora of experience, confidence, and leadership traits from the last two seasons.
“This week was a little tough, but we got it together. For me, Aubrey and Maizy, we’re trying to figure out how we can be better leaders for everyone because everyone takes everything differently, so we’re trying to be leaders for everyone. We talk to each other about it,” said Henness.”We’re stepping up a lot. We’re really putting our voice into everything. We’re making it known that we’re the ones coming back and trying to be leaders for everyone.”
Henness and Ohrt were freshmen on the Wolverines squad that reached the 2A State Final site. This past season they saw the thrill of victory in a five set thriller over Delphian in the Tri-River Conference League Playoffs to clinch the final playoff spot in the 2A State Playoffs, only to be faced with heartbreak a few days later when their season ended in four sets to Heppner in the opening round of the postseason.
The drive is there from that last game. Confidence is there too. That’s going to be a key factor for Santiam this Fall, knowing that teams believe it’ll be a down year for the squad. But the Wolverines are hoping to use that confidence to make some noise in league that feels more wide open this year with Western Christian down and Salem Academy now back in 3A.
“I think me and Tenley personally, we went to State our team freshman year, and we kind of fell apart. Last year we had a good chance, unfortunately it didn’t work out, I think this year we really want this. We’re really ready to come out, give it our all. It’s our last year with Maizy, and I think we’re ready, honestly,” said Ohrt.
“Our confidence is going to be a big, big thing for us this year. We’re a smaller team. We graduated nine seniors, and they’re not going to think much of us. So I think we just got to come in with confidence and be ready to face whoever we face.”
Santiam will open the season on August 28 with their annual jamboree before playing their first official game on September 2 when they host Monroe and Scio in a pair of non-league games.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
