2 weeks Ago
The season of firsts continues for the Caldera volleyball team this fall. The Wolfpack have clinched their first-ever winning season, have beaten teams they have never defeated before, and are headed to the playoffs for the first time in their three-year varsity history. Thursday night's 3-1 home win (25-17, 19-25, 25-21, 25-22) over Summit in the final Intermountain Conference match of the season put the cherry on top of a successful year that will continue into the Class 5A state playoffs next Saturday.
“We wanted it so bad,” said senior Avary Arment. “We have never been to the playoffs, I’m so glad that we were able to pull it off.” For Caldera's seven seniors, who were the first freshman class when the school opened, capping off the regular season with the program’s first win over Summit (11-10 overall, 6-4 IMC) to go along with their first wins ever over Bend High and Mountain View, shows just how far the program has come over the past four years.
Since joining the varsity ranks in 2022, the Wolfpack (13-8, 6-4) have seen their win total increase from two wins, to three wins to 13 this season. They also doubled up their IMC win total from three last season, to six this fall. “I’ve been here since the very beginning,” said senior Akela Utu.
“To see everyone grow up and learn new things, it is so cool growing up with the program and seeing everything develop.” Caldera is now in position to host a playoff match next Saturday against an opponent to be determined, and a victory will send the Wolfpack to the 5A state tournament at Forest Grove High School Nov. 8-9.
Caldera had many ups and downs throughout the season to reach this point. The Wolfpack were riding high at the start of IMC play, winning their first three matches and picking up a marquee win over Bend High (the Lava Bears’ only conference loss this season) but the hot start quickly faded as the Wolfpack dropped their next four IMC matches, two of them in five sets. “I think we got a little cocky in the beginning after having those big wins,” Utu said.
“But then we had a really serious talk about respecting your opponent and just playing to compete and playing to win. That was a big thing for us in helping us regain our competitiveness at the end of the season.” For a team that was unaccustomed to winning matches in league play, the early success — especially the win over the Lava Bears — was a new challenge to handle.
The Wolfpack struggled with it for a brief period of time, but were able to pull together in the final weeks of the season. “When we started off with that big win over Bend, we kinda lost our fire,” Arment said. “We had to find our ‘want.
’ We talked about our goals for the rest of the season. We wanted to make the playoffs. I think we were able to find that through the rest of the season.
” Caldera ended the season with three straight IMC wins, including wins over Mountain View and Summit, which had beaten them in their previous matches of the season. “It feels good to be winning games heading into the playoffs,” said Caldera coach Alicia Rudloff. “We haven’t been a fish out of water, we know how to fight for our lives.
We are figuring out how to close and figuring out a way to deserve to win because we haven’t been winning the last two years. We finally feel like we deserve to win.”.
