Bear River volleyball unbeaten through first 6 matches

The Bear River High School girls volleyball team is on track to be the team to beat in the Pioneer Valley League once again, winning its first six matches of the 2025 season. The Bruins secured a 3-0 victory over Placer Thursday night, sending them into the Reno High Sierra Tournament with some positive momentum. "This is a really fun group," said Bear River coach Matt MacDonald. "It's a lot of kids that have played volleyball competitively for a long time and a lot of kids that have been playing for me for quite a while." Bear River graduated just three seniors from last year's team and brings back a bulk of talent, including the team's leader in four-year starter Eden Cha. "She just does so many things so well and her situational awareness and her competitiveness is just the catalyst for us," MacDonald said of Cha. MacDonald says that he likes the production that Cha and the other returning starters bring to the team, but he feels that the influx of youth on this team is the difference maker for the Bruins. Sophomores Grace McKeown and Bella Stafford are both returning starters and MacDonald believes that they lead by example for the younger players on the team. "They've both had a really nice year so far," said MacDonald of the sophomore duo. "One of the cool parts when you have this many returners is you're able to really kind of diversify and it feels like we're a little bit farther ahead than most years. We feel like this team is where we want to be and we're about five weeks ahead of where we were last year at this time." Another top returner for the Bruins this year is junior Gabby Sams, who MacDonald says is a complete player that can be a weapon both defensively and offensively. MacDonald said one of the key newcomers on this year's team is freshman setter Shelby Jeffers, who has shown flashes of her potential early in the year. "From a maturity standpoint, she plays a lot older than a freshman. Her intelligence is great and even though she hasn't played as much volleyball, she's picking things up incredibly fast," MacDonald said of Jeffers. "She's our future at that position and the fact that we're able to get her some meaningful plays in all these matches has just helped her development immensely." Bear River has been one of the top small school programs in the section the last few years, winning over 30 games and making deep NorCal runs in 2023 and 2024. MacDonald said the team has made a habit of peaking late in the season, but this year's focus is on being battle-tested earlier. Last season's five-set loss in the NorCal semifinals highlighted the need for tougher preseason competition, so MacDonald scheduled more challenging opponents and entered big tournaments to prepare for high-pressure moments. While the team boasts one of its deepest offensive groups in years, MacDonald emphasized that improving defensively will be crucial in chasing a section title. Bear River has gone unbeaten in the Pioneer Valley League in the last two years, but MacDonald believes that the road to a league title will be much more difficult in 2025. Said MacDonald, "We know the PVL is going to be a really good league for us this year and we think a lot of teams will make the playoffs in our league. A lot of teams are off to great starts."