By Jeremy McDonald

jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

ALBANY, Ore.–  The South Albany State Preview brought in some great talent from across the State Saturday at South Albany High School, making it a great mid-season test going into the second half of the season and eventually into the postseason.

For the South Salem Volleyball team, despite being as young as they have been this year, they led much of their three games and had a chance to win all six sets as they finished pool play 1-1-1 and reached the Championship Bracket.  A goal for them entering the tournament despite their two-set defeat to Westview 25-16, 25-17 Saturday.

“Just playing the good teams and getting the experience since we’re a young team is  pretty solid.  It was a pretty good tournament to show up too,” the Saxons Brooksie Isham said.  “We did a really good job, we did what we needed to do early in the morning.  We fought there at the end of the day, I felt like it was good overall.  Just overall, take care of business, execute on the balls we need to do and just play,:

South Salem’s rival in Sprague had a tough morning at it going up against Jesuit, South Albany and Churchill, going 1-2 in the morning session and dropping into the Consolation bracket.  But there the Olympians did Sprague things and began to march their way to the consolation finals.  Sweeping Churchill (25-16, 25-8) and Crook County (25-13, 25-19) before falling to undefeated Wilsonville in straight sets with the 5A Wildcats improving to 12-0 on the season.

“It really is putting us into a position to see where we can hang with a bunch of the top teams in the State.  This is our third tournament in a row and we perform pretty well at all the tournaments, so it’s nice to be able to see the girls come together and be able to play as a team and increase our level of ability as we get further into and deeper into the season.  The goal is to ultimately peak  at playoffs,”  said Olys Head Coach Anne Olsen.  “So we go into McNary on Tuesday and we’re focused heavily on making sure that we’re ready to try to knock them off,

“But it’s a matter of our girls figuring things out  and fine-tuning things and showing up to play.  Just working through all of those little bits and pieces that we need to really bring it together as a team.”

Sprague host McNary on Tuesday at 6:30pm while South Salem host North Salem on Tuesday, also at 6:30pm.

Photos By Jeremy McDonald