Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

SOLON – After being swept by rival Mount Vernon on Tuesday and dropping the opening match of its home quadrangular to Class 2A fifth-ranked Dyersville Beckman on Thursday Solon needed a win.

The Spartans got two just for good measure.

Solon posted back-to-back sweeps of Vinton-Shellsburg and Oelwein to finish 2-1 at its own quadrangular on Thursday in Solon.

“It definitely felt good to get back on track and to get some momentum back and finish off the week strong,” Solon junior Camryn Keith said. “Now we want to start next week even better.”

Solon (5-7) pushed Beckman (10-4) to the brink in its opener on Thursday before falling 25-21, 27-25 for its fourth consecutive loss.

Rather than hang their heads the Spartans started a winning streak.

Solon rebounded with a 25-17, 25-18 sweep of WAMAC rival Vinton-Shellsburg (7-8) before closing the evening with a 25-10, 25-14 win over Oelwein (0-11).

“We know that we didn’t play to our full potential in those games we lost,” Solon senior setter Kennedy Bombei said. “We know we can play better so our heads weren’t down, we knew we could come back stronger.”

Solon actually needed a little while to get going against Vinton-Shellsburg.

The Spartans trailed 13-11 in the opening set but used a 9-0 run to take control.

Keith had a pair of kills and Katlyn Jeter and Maddie Manifold each had kills during the nine-point spurt that put Solon up for good.

“We were a little slow in the Beckman game but we just brushed it off and came back with more energy in those last two matches,” Manifold said. “Once we got our energy up we were fine.”

It was a similar script in the second set as Solon overcame a 14-12 deficit with three straight points and closed out the sweep by scoring eight of the final 10 points.

Manifold and Keith each had seven kills against Vinton-Shellsburg while Jeter added five as five different Spartans had at least three kills.

“We have a lot of options at the net,” Manifold said. “We all can put the ball away and I think that’s a big thing for us.”

Solon closed out its 2-1 evening with a dominant win over Oelwein.

The Spartans had a 17-point run in the opening set and finished with a 25-4 edge in kills.

“We were definitely having more fun in the last two matches,” Keith said. “We play a lot better when we have fun. We relaxed and played our game the way we know how and we played a lot better.”

Six different Spartans had at least three kills in the wins over Oelwein and Vinton-Shellsburg.

Keith had a team-high eight against Oelwein while sophomore Delaney Bombei had five and sophomore Sophia Hoeper had three in the win.

“It could be anyone on any night and that’s what we look for, the girl that is on that night is who we are going to go to,” Solon coach Jeff Walker said. “No team can pick one of our girls and try to take that girl out because we have other hitters that can take over a game also.”

Solon will take part in the Linn-Mar Invitational on Saturday before hosting Class 4A eighth-ranked West Delaware on Tuesday for senior night.

Thanks to its strong finish on Thursday the Spartans have some momentum going forward.

“The last two matches our energy was a lot higher and we played better together as a team,” Keith said. “The first one I know we could have played stronger than we did but we finished the night a lot better.”

Solon                             25  25

Vinton-Shellsburg    17  18

Solon (Kills-aces-blocks)

Maddie Manifold 7-0-0, Delaney Bombei 3-0-1, Kylee Flynn 0-1-0, Stella Mesch 0-1-0, Camryn Keith 7-0-0, Claire LaDage 3-0-0, Sophie Hoeper 1-0-0, Katlyn Jeter 5-1-1, Kennedy Bombei 1-0-0, Alexa Hupfeld 0-1-0, Team 27-4-2.

Assists – Kylee Flynn 10, Kennedy Bombei 10.

Vinton-Shellsburg (Kills-aces-blocks)

Ashlie Meyer 2-0-0, Aly Smith 2-0-0, Samantha Walton 6-1-0, Kayla Griffith 1-0-0, Brylee Bruce 1-0-0, Alyssa Griffith 3-0-0, Brynn Patterson 4-2-1, Team 19-3-1.

Assists – Kinzley Kurth 5, Brylee Bruce 4

Solon                          25  25

Oelwein                      10  14

Solon (Kills-aces-blocks)

Maddie Manifold 5-0-0, Delaney Bombei 5-0-2, Kylee Flynn 0-1-0, Camryn Keith 8-1-0, Sophie Hoeper 3-0-0, Katlyn Jeter 3-0-0, Kennedy Bombei 0-2-0, Alex Hupfeld 0-3-0, Payton Haasl 1-0-0, Team 25-7-2.

Assists – Kennedy Bombei 7, Kylee Flynn 4, Brynn Deike 2

Oelwein (Kills-aces-blocks)

Kennedy Lape 1-3-0, Falynn Buehler 1-0-0, Zoey Reisner 2-0-0, Naomi Gaede 0-2-0, Natalie Crandall 0-0-1, Team 4-5-1.

Assists – Falynn Buehler 2

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