The number 1 ranked Jesuit volleyball team heads into playoffs on Wednesday October 30th.
After last year’s win against Oregon City in the state final, Jesuit’s volleyball team has been the team to beat.
Jesuit wrapped up their metro season with Aloha on October 23rd and became metro league champions for the seventh year in a row. Their success has been seen through the players on the team and their perseverance.
The Saders have had a successful season so far and finished with a record of 24-2. Their only losses have been out of state at the Arizona Tournament of Champions Invitational. In state, the volleyball team hasn’t lost a game and in many cases, finishes with 3-0 sweeps.
Early in the season, Jesuit dropped their first set against Beaverton when Jesuit traveled to Beaverton high school. Since then, Jesuit has only dropped one more set, against Sheldon during the West Linn Tournament. That match was the first one in the bracket play of that tournament and Jesuit dominated the first set and let them back in during the second set.
The top five teams in the state besides Jesuit is #2 ranked Oregon City, #3 ranked Sprague, #4 ranked Nelson, and #5 ranked West Linn.
On Jesuit’s side of the bracket that the team could potentially face is Sheldon, West Linn, and Nelson. Jesuit could face Sheldon during Quarterfinals which would be a big match since Jesuit’s 2022 loss against Sheldon in the state final. Semifinals could be West Linn or Nelson. As the teams enter playoffs, Nelson is 21-4 and West Linn is 15-8. All of these teams have had successful seasons and matched up with Jesuit at some point.
The Saders finished league with many players making the first team all-league and second team all-league. Making first team all-league was senior setters, Hayden McGehee and Jackie Carle, senior libero Addy Azavedo, senior all around Julia Paulson, junior hitters Sadie Ross and Iman Foster, and sophomore middle Alex Douglas. Making second team all-league was junior hitter Jada Johnson and junior defensive specialist Kiana Johnson. Junior hitter Zola Zuccolo was honorable mention. Lastly, player of the year was Addy Azavedo.
From that list, the saders seem to have many players with talent and reliability. Jackie Carle talks about the talent of their volleyball team.
“One could argue that Jesuit is made up of a full team of first team players. All 14 players on our team have contributed which explains why our success in the season” Carle said.
The volleyball playoff season is just around the corner and Jesuit’s volleyball team is coming to claim back to back state titles. Can they do it?
The saders face Gresham on Wednesday the 30th at 6:45 taking place at Jesuit. The number 1 ranked team match up against the 32nd.
“I’m really excited to go into my third year old playoffs and I’m looking forward to competing with this team. I think we definitely have the opportunity to go back to back but we really need to lock in and just compete” Johnson said.
