Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

SOLON – Normally falling into a quick 5-0 deficit isn’t an ideal start for a volleyball team making its postseason debut.

For ninth-ranked Solon an early five-point hole served as the perfect wakeup call in it’s regional opener on Monday.

Solon quickly erased its early deficit and then flexed its muscle in a 25-21, 25-15, 25-9 sweep of Williamsburg in a Class 3A, Region 7 quarterfinal.

“In a way that was the perfect start for us,” Solon junior setter Brynn Deike said. “I think that by getting down it showed us that we need to work to make it to state.”

Solon rebounded from its slow start in impressive fashion while improving to 24-12 on the season with its second three-set sweep of the Raiders this season.

Senior Delaney Bombei had 10 kills to lead four Solon players with at least six kills as the Spartans advanced to the Region 7 semifinal where they will host host Albia (18-12) on Wednesday at 7 p.m.

Alibia swept Chariton in a quarterfinal on Monday.

“We’ve played Williamsburg a lot and so we are really familiar with how they play and I think them getting us a little off balance made us want to push even hard,” Bombei said. “We definitely picked it up after that.”

Williamsburg (9-21) came out firing, scoring the first five points of the match.

Senior Jessie Julius had three kills and a block during the five-point run to open the match and had seven of her match-high 13 kills in the opening set.

Trailing 5-0 first-year Solon head coach Mikayla Siddell took a timeout and had a message for her young team.

“Coach took that timeout and said ‘I told you not to underestimate them and look where we are now’,” Solon sophomore Grace Erwin said. “We knew it was our game and it was on us.”

Long had warned the dangers of overlooking opponents in the postseason.

She reiterated that in the first-period timeout.

“At the first timeout I said we can’t underestimate teams and told them to make sure we were playing our side first,” Siddell said. “I think we kind of underestimated them a little bit and I though that we had to take care of the ball on our side, move our feet and doing what we’ve been training the whole season for.”

Solon didn’t need long to erase the early deficit.

The Spartans scored six straight points out of the timeout and thanks to a pair of ace serves from Bombei.

“It was just siding out,” Bombei said. “We were all getting in our heads and getting a little frazzled. We just had to take a deep breath and get the ball back.”

Williamsburg was up to the task in the opening set pulling even at 21-all with a 3-1 run.

Solon responded by scoring the final four points with the final two coming on ace serves by freshman libero Kennedey Whitford.

“Overall I think it was really motivational,” Deike said of the slow start. “It just showed us that if we want to win, in what could be our last game, we really need to get it together and act like the team we are capable of being.”

The final two sets were all Solon.

The Spartans never trailed in a 25-15 win in the second set and had runs of seven, six and five points in a 25-9 win in the clinching third set.

“We had to make some adjustments with our middles and I think that once we found that out we started to throw in some different plays and it worked out for us,” Siddell said.

Bombei had four of her team-high 10 kills in the final set.

Sophomore Aly Stahle had nine kills, Erwin had seven kills and six blocks and Deike had six kills in a balanced Spartan attack.

“It was just staying on our toes and communicating,” Deike said. “Moving toward the ball and not letting anything drop and playing as one team and not as individual parts.”

Solon                            25  25  25

Williamsburg            21  15   9

Solon (Kills-aces-blocks)

Kennedey Whitford 0-2-0, Aly Stahle 9-1-2, Grace Erwin 7-0-6, Yasmine Sell 4-1-0, Kylee Flynn 0-3-0, Delaney Bombei 10-3-0, Sophia Hoeper 3-0-0, Brynn Deike 6-2-0, Totals 39-12-8.

Assists – Brynn Deike 24, Kylee Flynn 6, Grace Erwin 1

Williamsburg (Kills-aces-blocks)

Erica McMullin 1-0-0, Jessie Julius 13-0-1, Lilly Andrews 1-0-0, Kate Oelmann 1-0-0, Phoenix Gryp 5-1-1, Peyton Driscoll 2-1-0, Natalie Bemer 1-0-0, Totals 24-2-2.

Assists – Natlie Bemer 9, Averi Nielson 6

Did you enjoy this subscription free article? Help keep Your Prep Sports free by donating.