This season, South Salem High School’s Girls Volleyball finds themselves a shoe in at the State Championships. Last year, the South Salem Varsity Girls Volleyball team won the 2025 OSAA State Championships third-place match against Sheldon High School by a score of 3-2. The South Salem Girls Varsity Volleyball team holds an overall record of 11–2 with a 4–0 league record in the 6A Central Valley Conference for the 2026 season. This year’s varsity team consists of Ellenia Setzer ‘27, Leah Ione ‘27, Zoe Wadsworth ‘28, Annie Koreski ‘28, Ava Mosgrove ‘27, Nora Kartye ‘28, Kennedi Smith ‘27, Liv Muhammad ‘29, Aleydah Luna ‘28, Abby Jochim ‘28, Jaya Krishnamurthy ‘27, Avery Herber ‘27 and Addison Herber ‘27.
Team Bonding
The team has worked hard this year building morale for tournaments and games, especially through team bonding and encouragement.
“We do letters for every single game. Matt [Leichty] usually gives up a piece of paper the practice before our game with someone’s name on it, and we write a letter to them and give it to them right before the game.” said Jaya Krishnamurthy ‘27 “I really like this idea because it helps bond us, even with people that we are not close with. We also do team dinners before pretty much every game and either do it at someone’s house, or at school.”
Maintaining a Competitive Edge
Despite losing some highly accomplished seniors last year, South has started the season strong. Since the beginning of the season, the seniors have shared their passion for their team and goals for state.
“I mean [our goal is] winning but our coach, Matt [Leichty] and our team says don’t be too focused on the state championship. We tend to focus on playing our best at the moment.” said Avery Herber ‘27. “The competitiveness this year has been so high in practice, which has been really cool to see and it keeps everything fun and light.”
The 2026 OSAA Girls Volleyball State Championships are set to be held on Nov. 6–7, 2026.
