Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

SOLON – When WAMAC East Division rivals Solon and Marion met back in September in Marion it was a back-and-forth five-set thriller that came down the wire and ended a Solon win.

Marion coach Roxanne Paulsen expected a similar scenario in the regional rematch on Tuesday.

Not only was Paulsen correct but it was a nearly identical but opposite outcome.

Eighth-ranked Marion won the opening two sets, saw seventh-ranked Solon come roaring back but made the key plays late to secure a 25-20, 25-19, 19-25, 22-25, 17-15 win in the Class 4A, Region 8 title match in Solon.

“I thought it would go five,” Paulsen said. “I thought if we did what we needed to do we could make it go five but if you would have told me we were going to pull it out, they had set point, but we dug really deep there for a little bit and found a way. Thank god we did.”

In the regular season meet Solon won the first two sets, watched Marion pull even, before winning the fifth set 15-12.

On Tuesday it was the Wolves that made the key plays down the stretch.

Marion (28-13) used a block from 5-foot-6 sophomore Hayden Dietz to stop a Solon run late and a kill from senior Addison Park to take a late lead while advancing to the state tournament for the fourth time in five seasons.

Marion will face second-ranked Sioux Center (28-4) in a Class 4A state quarterfinal on Monday at 4:25 p.m. at Xtream Arena in Coralville.

Solon closed the season 29-10.

“We had a lot more mental errors at the end and I think that was the big difference,” Solon coach Ruben Galvan said. “I think we had the opportunity to put the game away and we didn’t take advantage.”

Marion was impressive early winning the opening set 25-20 and taking the second set 25-19.

The Wolves never trailed in the first set and after Solon scored the first three points of the second set Marion scored the next six and never trailed again.

“The longer we stretched the match I thought the better it was for us,” Paulsen said. “It kept the pressure on them a little bit.”
Solon got rolling in the third set.

The Spartans got five kills from senior Kiley Devery and four from junior Addison Walter in a 25-19 win in the third set.

“We didn’t play defense in the first two sets,” Galvan said. “That was the big change right there. Our defense really stepped it up and that’s why we were able to compete.”

Solon pulled even with a 25-22 win in the fourth set, closing the match on a 3-1 run that featured a pair of kills by junior middle Avery Kellen.

Kellen had five of her 10 kills in the fourth set.

“Our energy went up,” Kellen said. “Even the girls that didn’t go onto the court their energy was phenomenal and our energy on the court was amazing.”

The fifth set was back-and-forth from the start.

Solon scored the first two points but couldn’t put the Wolves away.

“I think we all knew that this was an important game for us,” Galvan said. “I said a couple of times, ‘this is your game’ and I think especially in the third and the fourth set they really believed but we came up short.”

Solon had match point at 15-14 but Marion rallied.

The Wolves pulled even on a Solon error and scored the final two points on a Parker kill and a Spartan hitting error.

“Really it came down to us being able to keep them out of system as much as we could,” Paulsen said. “We saw some openings on the right side and our girls were pretty disciplined today and really stayed focused on the game plan when they needed to.”

Devery had a match-high 23 kills for Solon while freshman Amelia Guinn had 19 kills and Kellen added 10.

Freshman Abbey Kirk had 22 kills for Marion, junior Nayomi Vasser had 13 kills and three blocks and Parker had 12 kills for the Wolves.

Marion                       25  25  19  22  17

Solon                          20  19  25  25  15

Solon (Kills-aces-blocks)

Kennedey Whitford 1-2-0, Makinley Galvan 5-0-0, Amelia Guinn 19-0-0, Addison Walter 8-0-2, Jozie Lahr 3-0-0, Kiley Devery 23-1-2, Scarlett Ferin 1-0-0, Avery Kellen 10-0-1, Totals 70-3-5.

Assists – Ava Hohn 37, Scarlett Ferin 21, Kennedey Whitford 2

Marion (Kills-aces-blocks)

Hayden Dietz 9-0-1, Lucy Turner 0-4-0, Alyrah Hahn 0-1-0, Paige Johnson 0-3-0, Addison Parker 12-0-1, Braelin Wieseler 8-0-1, Grace Whalen 2-0-0, Abbey Kirk 22-1-0, Jaleaya Oliver 0-2-0, Nayomi Vasser 13-0-3, Totals 66-11-6.

Assists – Grace Whalen 53, Abbey Kirk 1, Paige Johnson 1

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