Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

TIFFIN – Clear Creek Amana coach Jackie Clubb stressed Thursday’s season-opening WAMAC quadrangular as a starting point.

Solon senior Camryn Keith called it a learning experience.

Regardless of how you label it Solon and Clear Creek Amana both learned something about their teams on Thursday and both sides agreed they liked what they saw.

Class 4A eighth-ranked Clear Creek Amana and Solon each went 1-1 at the WAMAC Conference quad that also featured 3A No. 10 Mount Vernon and Center Point-Urbana.

“We talked about how this is just a starting point in our season because it’s two good non-conference games,” Clubb explained. “We get to have a starting point that we can build off of and learn from two great matches and use it for the rest of the season.”

Clear Creek Amana split matches with WAMAC East Division foes Mount Vernon and Solon falling to the Mustangs 25-11 and 25-17 in the opener and defeating Solon 25-16, 25-15.

The Spartans opened the season 1-1 downing Center Point-Urbana 25-16, 25-20 in the opening round.

“I think we played good today but I’ve definitely seen us play better at practice,” Keith said. “We will get there we just need more practice but we will get there.”

Keith led a trio of Spartans with five or more kills in the win over Center Point-Urbana hammering a match high eight kills to go with two ace blocks and an ace serve.

Junior Sophia Hoeper had six kills and Delaney Bombei added five.

“We have a couple of freshmen playing and one sophomore and we just haven’t all played together a ton and we just learn how we can pick each other up and what the best way is for us to work together as a team,” Keith said. “If someone is down how do we help them? We don’t quite know that yet so I think once we figure that out we will be much better.”

Clear Creek Amana fell behind early in the opening set with Mount Vernon and couldn’t recover.

The defending 3A runner-up Mustangs finished the night 2-0 with a win over Center Point-Urbana.

“We saw where we needed to be to compete at a high level,” Jackie Clubb said. “It’s a good reminder to always have that and for the players to see that it’s always a good thing. Today was a starting point for all of us.”

Clear Creek Amana bounced back quickly from its loss to Mount Vernon with a sweep of the Spartans in the final match of the night.

Sophomore Bliss Beck and senior Calia Clubb each had five kills to pace the Clippers in the win.

“After the first match we just said lets put it behind us,” Calia Clubb said. “It’s going to be a big learning point for us to know what we need to work on and our weaknesses.”

Solon led 5-4 in the opening set but Clear Creek Amana scored the next three points and wouldn’t trail again.

The Clippers pulled away with a 7-1 burst that featured back-to-back kills by Clubb and was capped by an Addison Gisleson ace serve.

“Our hitters were finding what was open on the floor more often,” Calia Clubb said. “We were playing a lot better defense and covering tips more.”

Clear Creek Amana used a 6-0 burst in the second set to seize control.

Beck had a kill, Gisleson two ace serve and Jaclyn Pitcher a pair of kills in the 6-0 run that gave Clear Creek Amana a 15-7 lead it would never relinquish.

“I definitely think we learned that we have upperclassmen that can step up even if they might not have played much last year,” Calia Clubb said. “We know they can step up with confidence.”

Keith had five kills and a pair of ace blocks to pace Solon while Bombei had three kills.

“It’s way better than 0-2 so I will take it any day,” Keith said. “I think we had confidence from the first match we just didn’t quite carry it over to the last one but we know we can play better we just have to come back with more confidence and work together as a team.”

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