By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
FOREST GROVE, Ore.–The South Salem and Sheldon Volleyball teams were all too familiar with one another when they once again met on Saturday in the 6A State Third/Fifth-place game at Forest Grove High School.
The Saxons had taken the first two meetings between the two squads, sweeping the Irish at the Mountain View Tourney on August 29 and defeating Sheldon again on October 18 in three sets at the Clearwater Classic, but on Saturday, it became a battle. A battle that came down to the fifth set between the two squads as both squads were looking for a strong finish to the season after a tough loss in the Semi-Final round the night before.
“We knew that we needed to come out strong and we’ve been really inconsistent with that this weekend. It was getting the serve, going back there and staying confident, trying to take the early lead. If we could build a little bit of a cushion right away and Kam goes back there and serve several great serves, we make a couple great plays and we’re looking really good right away,” said South Salem Head Coach Matt Leichty. “Once you get that lead, it’s so much easier to maintain momentum.”
The Saxons jumped out to an 11-2 lead on the Irish out of the gate in the fifth set. They were in this game a year ago before falling to Nelson in four sets, yet they were driven to get that third-place trophy this season.
In the years that South Salem has had a Volleyball program, they never finished any higher than fourth place at State. The last two years they finished sixth in 2023 and fifth last year. But they put themselves in a favorable position to make some program history if they could hang on.
For their five seniors, they wanted to find a way to get it done. To get that third-place trophy. After how Friday night ended, a five-set defeat to eventual State Champions in Jesuit, they wanted to show that they were able to rebound and close out the tournament strongly.
“That was something that we worked on last night. We’re like, ‘we can be disappointed and sad, but we have to reset fast to be able to come into this game playing well’. Not too many teams really anywhere get to end the season off with a win, so to be one of those teams to get to do that is really special,” said Briella Mathis.
They would eventually end up making history sure as they closed out the five-set victory 25-22, 22-25, 25-18, 27-25, 15-7 to finish third, but they had to come through in the clutch one last time to make it happen.
Remember that 11-2 lead that they started with, in the best-of-15 fifth set, Sheldon mounted a comeback. Next thing anyone knew, it was 11-7 with momentum slowly going back in the favor of the Irish.
Both teams had their rallies in this one for sure during the game’s previous four sets, but before Sheldon could cut the deficit down any further, the Saxons shut the door with a 4-0 run to close out the victory. Handing the South Salem squad the third-place trophy and sending their seniors off into the sunset with a program-best finish while giving those returning something better to strive for in 2026.
“Every year I’ve been in this program, we’ve just gotten better and I’m excited to see what they’re going to keep doing,” said Kamree Oritzotti.
“The last few years with this group have been outstanding and I feel like we’ve made a lot of strides in the program where we’ve put ourselves in that conversion of one of the more elite teams in the State,” said Leichty. “That’s pretty cool to feel like walking into tournaments that we’re there. We walk into the State tournament and this is a place where we feel like if we do our job, then we should make it…it’s good motivation and hopefully some incentive going into next year that hey, we still got a couple pieces coming back. How do we re-group, come back and be even better next year?”
South Salem finishes the year 28-5
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
