Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

SOLON – In a season full of ups and downs the home finale for the Solon volleyball team on Tuesday served as a summary of the last month for the Spartans.

Solon flashed high-level potential but ended on a low, falling to Western Dubuque 25-27, 25-16, 23-25, 25-21, 15-12 in a WAMAC East Division match in Solon.

The Spartans twice had opportunities to close out the match, holding late leads in each of the final two sets but watched as Western Dubuque (14-10, 5-1 WAMAC East) used late runs in both the fourth and fifth sets to secure its eighth straight win.

 “That’s kind of how it has been all year and it’s hard to say that,” Solon senior Grace Keith said. “Every team has its ups and downs but we’ve definitely struggled with that.”

Rachael Nelson had 12 kills and Keith had 10 but it wasn’t enough as Solon dropped to 9-15 and 2-4 in WAMAC East play.

The Spartans led 20-17 in the fourth set and 11-10 in the fifth but both times a late Western Dubuque run was the difference.  

“We are so on and off,” Nelson said. “One set we can win 25-9 and the next set they can beat us 25-9. It’s just being more consistent. That’s the main thing we have to work on.”

Solon was on early scoring the final three points of the first set to earn a 27-25 win.

Nelson even the opening set at 25-all with a kill and junior Katie Yi secured the opening-set win with back-to-back kills that gave the Spartans an early edge.

Solon led 10-8 in the second set up Western Dubuque used a 12-0 run to take control and evened the match with a 25-16 win.

“We are just up and down,” Solon coach Sarah Ferin said. “We haven’t found the correct rhythm to stay in the entire time. We are getting there. This was a lot better but we haven’t been able to keep it going.”

Solon again made plays late to win the third set as Nelson had an ace and Eli Becicka had a kill during a 5-1 Spartan run that turned a 20-19 deficit into a 24-21 lead.

An Abby Smith kill clinched a 25-23 win and put Solon on top two sets to one.

Solon appeared ready to close out the match leading 20-17 in the fourth but the Bobcats closed the set with an 8-1 run to force a fifth set.

In the fifth set Solon quickly led 2-0 after back-to-back aces by Smith but Western Dubuque scored eight straight points to take an 8-2 lead.

“I think we were trying too hard to overdo it,” Nelson said of the 8-0 run. “We couldn’t put consistent balls in and we couldn’t get our passes up.”

Solon wouldn’t go away.

The Spartans answered with an 8-1 run and led 11-10 following a dump kill by Nelson.

“I was very impressed with the way we came back,” Keith said. “We got our crap together and we wanted to win it but at the end of the day it’s what it is.”

The final run in a match full of them belonged to the Bobcats.

Western Dubuque scored five of the final six points, clinching the win on a kill by Regann Pfeiler.

Pfeiler finished with a match-high 20 kills while Lundsi Wilgenbusch added 13 for the Bobcats.

“They are playing really good volleyball,” Ferin said of Western Dubuque. “I was happy with our performance obviously I wish we would have been able to finish it off.”

Yi finished with seven kills for Solon and Kate Benzing had six for the Spartans which close out regular season play on Thursday at Central DeWitt.

“There was a lot of great stuff,” Ferin said. “We had some really good defense, we had some nice serve, I’d like to clean up serve receive a little but we had some good hits. It was a well fought match.”

(Kills-aces-blocks)

Solon

Grace Keith 10-1-1, Ashley Ford 1-0-0, Raysa Garbes 0-1-0, Kate Benzing 6-0-2, Rachael Nelson 12-1-1, Abby Smith 5-1-1, Elli Becicka 1-1-0, Katie Yi 7-0-1, Team 42-5-6.

Assists – Raysa Garbes 11, Rachael Nelson 10, Lauren Roeder 1. 

Western Dubuque

Hanna Horsfield 2-1-0, Elayna Bahl 5-0-2, Jenna Burds 1-2-1, Emma Baumhover 0-2-0, Lyndsi Wilgenbusch 13-1-1, Karlie Fagan 7-1-2, McKenzie Simon 6-2-0, Regann Pfeiler 20-2-0, Mallory Siegert 1-0-0, Team 55-11-6.

Assists – Jenna Burds 35.

Solon                           27  16  25  21  12

Western Dubuque     25  25  23  25  15