Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

SOLON – A five-set loss to Marion in the regional final last season was a heartbreaking close to an otherwise impressive 29-win season for Solon.

The Spartans have been even better this fall upping their win total and climbing to fourth in the Class 3A rankings.

For Solon the question is what the Spartans learned from last year’s disappointing postseason finish.

Head coach Ruben Galvan was quick to point out following a 25-6, 25-3, 25-7 sweep of Central Lee in the 3A, Region 5 opener on Tuesday the true measure of growth for his team will come in the next week.

“We don’t know if we’ve learned anything because we aren’t there yet, I don’t want to get ahead of ourselves,” Galvan explained. “I think their mindset is different right now but obviously we aren’t there yet.”

Solon (36-7) was close to perfect in taking its first step toward a possible postseason redemption on Tuesday.

The Spartans never trailed and racked up 18 ace serves in its postseason opener advancing to the Region 5 semifinals where they will host West Liberty (24-17) on Thursday at 7 p.m.

Central Lee closed the season 7-19.

“I think they are learning from it but we aren’t in that spot yet,” Galvan said. “I think they’ve talked about it, I think they understand where we were last year versus where we are at now. Right now they are really comfortable with each other.”

For the returners on Solon’s roster like seniors Harper Nicholson and Addison Walter last season’s regional final loss was a motivator.

“It was definitely a really tough loss in the final and I think that gave us so much more motivation coming into the postseason,” Walter said. “We’ve talked about it a lot actually as a team because it was disappointing so coming back from that we really want to prove ourselves this year.”

Solon knows there is work yet to be done before an opportunity to play in another regional title.

The Spartans are content to take the postseason one match at a time.

That focus showed up on Tuesday.

Solon scored the first nine points of the match and opened the second set with an 11-0 run.

The Spartans scored five consecutive points to open the third set and rattled off a 14-0 run to take a 19-1 third-set lead.

“It’s the drive. That loss at the end of the season didn’t feel good for any of us, we knew this year we have to do everything in our power to get that opportunity again,” Nicholson said. “All of us know our goals, we have that drive and we want to win.”

Sophomore Amelia Guinn had a match-high 12 kills to lead Solon on Tuesday while Walter added nine kills and Makinley Galvan had six kills.

Solon finished with a 38-10 edge in kills and had four blocks, three from Nicholson who crossed the 100-block mark for her career.

“I think it was a really good first game of the regional,” Nicholson said. “I think we really needed something like that and we wanted that win and we wanted it to be a really good win and I think that’s what we had tonight.”

Junior Kendyl Kidwell had a match-high seven ace serves and Scarlett Ferin had six aces for the Spartans.

Kalynn Timmons added four ace serves.

“I felt like we did a good job of keeping our side controlled,” Walter said. “We played the way we are capable of and we want to take that momentum into the next game.”

Central Lee     6    3    7

Solon              25  25  25

Solon (Kills-aces-blocks)

Macy Fuller 0-1-0, Addison Walter 9-0-0, Hailey Gorham 3-0-0, CJ Whitford 4-0-0, Kalynn Timmons 0-4-0, Kendyl Kidwell 0-7-0, Harper Nicholson 1-0-3, Makinley Galvan 6-0-1, Amelia Guinn 12-0-0, Beckett Kruse 2-0-0, Scarlett Ferin 0-6-0, Zephie Bishop 1-0-0, Totals 38-18-4.

Assists – Scarlett Ferin 23, Ava Hohn 5

Central Lee (Kills-aces-blocks)

Madison Frueh 2-0-0, Brylee Cook 2-0-0, Carly Broadwell 3-0-0, Kaylee Moeller 1-1-0, Chloee Haigh 1-0-0, Maggie Mullins 1-0-0, Totals 10-1-0.

Assists – Brylee Cook 8

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