By Jeremy McDonald

jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

WILSONVILLE, Ore.–  The West Salem Volleyball team opened the season with two solid wins against two squads that made playoff runs this past Fall as they took down Clackamas  25-21, 25-8, 17-25, 25-16  and a 25-13, 25-18, 25-20  sweep of Ridgeview at Wilsonville High School.

New lineup, new Head Coach with former McKay Head Coach Scott Coons taking over the program, the squad carried over the momentum from their jamboree at South Salem back on Thursday to Saturday’s twin-bill of games behind their three-hitter scheme.  The scheme, points Coons, opens up different sets that they can use in a game as they embark on the season.

“It really gives all of our hitters options to hit in every location so they’re not ‘oh I’m a OH, I’m hitting out of that spot’.  So it allows us to put our best hitter in that moment against the weakest defender because we can shift,” Coons said. “So how we set-up our serve-receive is around that so it gives us a lot of offensive options.  With a team like this that has a lot of offensive firepower, that gives us…we got 12 different sets we could run.  So it’s really showing to be able to do something that we like,” describes Coons.

Returning sophomore Ashleyn Stanley and junior Laureyn Johnson from their 18-7 2021 squad, the Titans will be turning to their youth to fill the void left by 11 seniors.  The good thing is, with three seniors this season, West Salem will return the bulk of this years squad going into next.  Adria Dixon, Savannah Johnson and Ruby McNamme are the three seniors for the squad looking to leave their mark one last time  going into Thursday’s league game with South Salem.

“Every game we’re coming out as a new team and doing something new.  We all work well as a team, not a lot of us have played together and I think we’re already meshing and I’m excited to see what the next games are going to look like because we’re all meshing all together already,” Dixon said.  “I think it’ll be super strong and for the following years cause I’m a senior and I’m graduating, I think it’ll go forward.”

The game with the Saxons, at South, will start at 6:30pm before following it up at Sprague (September 6) and the Southridge Tournament (September 10).  West Salem’s first home game of the year will be September 13 against McNary.

Photos By Jeremy McDonald