Madison Schmitt, the only senior on the Wilsonville girls volleyball team, has been playing The La Salle Falcons twice a year for 4 years.  They play them once at home and once away.  Every year until now the Wildcats have never seen a win against the Falcons.  The first time the team met the Falcons it was at home.  Unfortunately La Salle came out on top, but the wildcats took this as a learning opportunity and hit the ground running.  They practiced and prepared for the time where they would travel to the Falcons’ home court.  This time was September 28 on a Thursday.  Before the game La Salle was ranked second in league and Wilsonville was third.  It took all 5 games, but the Wildcats beat the Falcons 3-2.  Schmitt recalls the moments after the game, “I was incredibly emotional after the game.  My goal senior year was to beat La Salle, and the girls as well as coach Nathan helped me achieve that.  The team worked so hard, and that obviously showed during the game.  Honestly, a lot of people didn’t believe we would be good this year and we completely proved them wrong.  After the game I was so proud to be a part of the team, and to spend my last game against La Salle with them.  It was truly an honor.”  The Cats still have 5 games left in league and they have the chance to do very well in playoffs.

An interesting thing about the volleyball team is this year they got an all new coaching staff. Nathan Blankenship, the new head varsity coach, played professionally in Australia, and has coached high school volleyball before, most recently a JV coach at Clackamas High School. Nathan brought with him Johnny Glen from Clackamas high to coach Wilsonvilles JV2 team. Rounding out his coaching staff is Scott Thompson as the JV coach.  We look forward to seeing what this new coaching staff can do.