5 questions heading into the high school volleyball season
Published 2:00 pm Thursday, August 14, 2025
Volleyball is a unique high school sport in Central Oregon, as seemingly all pockets of the region have found success on the courts. Six different Central Oregon schools have brought home state titles a combined 22 times. Five teams have won multiple state championships. And most of the titles have come within the past 30 years.
The Bulletin has already asked questions about the upcoming soccer and cross-country seasons, now here are the five big questions heading into the volleyball season:
1. Can Bend stay on top of the Intermountain Conference?
Since the Intermountain Conference reformed to its current iteration in 2022, Bend High has been the dominant force.
The Lava Bears have gone 28-2 in league play over the past three years and won the league outright each of those years. (Counting the 2021 season, when competing in 6A’s Mountain Valley Conference, the Lava Bears are 42-2 over the past four years.) Bend has also reached the Class 5A championship match two of the past three years.
The Bears lost three all-state players to graduation, including IMC Player of the Year and first-team all-state player Lucy Schuller. But Bend has proven over the past decade to be a team that retools as well as any program.
2. Can another IMC team make a tournament run?
Perhaps there is a little nostalgia for when teams in the IMC would square off in the state championship match, like in 2017 when Bend took down Summit. But it has been several years since an IMC team not named Bend has advanced past the opening round of the state tournament.
Outside of Bend, only two teams have reached the 5A volleyball tournament since 2022. Caldera made the state tournament for the first time in program history a year ago, but fell in the quarterfinals. Summit made it to the tournament in 2023, but had a similar fate. Ridgeview, which won the 5A title in 2019, has not made the tournament since 2021.
3. How does Crook County fit back into the IMC?
Crook County is returning to compete at the 5A level and is joining the IMC after competing in 4A’s Tri-Valley Conference.
The Cowgirls made the 4A state tournament each of the past three seasons and are coming off of a third-place finish last fall. Crook County was even a force when it was a 5A IMC team from 2018 to 2022, making two 5A tournament appearances and placing fourth in 2019.
It has been nearly 20 years since Crook County has been in the same conference as the Bend schools. It is worth nothing that during the Cowgirls’ run of eight-straight state titles between 2006 and 2013, Crook County beat both Summit and Mountain View twice in state championship matches.
4. Can Sisters find its way back?
For the first time since 2012, Sisters’ season ended before the state tournament, falling in the second round of the 3A playoffs last year.
Sisters has been one of the dominant volleyball programs in the state the past decade with four state titles since 2014, including one in 2023.
The Outlaws must replace three all-conference seniors from last year’s team. Sisters will also have its third coach in as many seasons, with Mahryahna Callegan, a Mountain View grad, taking over the program from Josh Kreunen.
5. Will boys volleyball become sanctioned?
Boys volleyball isn’t yet a fully sanctioned high school sport and is not played until the spring, but a decision will likely be reached in the next few months on whether or not boys volleyball becomes an official OSAA sport.
The Oregon School Activities Association plans to make the decision by early October. Boys volleyball spent the past two springs as an “emerging activity,” hoping to become a sanctioned sport just like girls volleyball.
Summit, Crook County and Central Christian were the only three Central Oregon schools to field a boys team last spring. Both Summit and Crook County went on to play in their classifications’ state title matches, with the Storm bringing home the 5A title.
