Solon 2 West Branch 0, Solon 2 West Liberty 1
The varsity Lady Spartans opened the 2024 season with a quad in West Branch Tuesday, Sept. 3 defeating the host Bears 2-0 (25-19, 25-17) and West Liberty 2-1 (24-26, 25-18, 15-9)).
Senior Grace Erwin led against West Branch with a match high seven kills, senior Addie Miller produced five while junior Jozie Lahr and senior Yasmine Sell made four apiece. Junior Cydney Jaster had 13 assists with a dozen from sophomore Scarlett Ferin. Erwin had a pair of block assists with one each by Miller, Lahr, and junior Gable Knight. Erwin, Jaster, and sophomore Macy Fuller had an ace serve each.
Erwin, Sell, and junior Kiley Devery led all with eight kills each against the 8th ranked (in Class 3A by the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union in their preseason rankings) Comets while Miller produced seven, Lahr made four, and junior Kennedey Whitford and senior Izzy Frees had one each. Sell and freshman Charleigh Whitford made two solo blocks with one from Kahr. Erwin, Fuller, and Frees had an ace apiece.
Solon goes 3-0 in Marshalltown’s Apgar Invitational
Last Thursday and Friday the Lady Spartans competed in Marshalltown’s Apgar Invitational and came home victorious against Waverly-Shell Rock (WSR) (21-14, 18-21, 15-5), Marshalltown (21-9, 21-8), and Columbus Catholic (Waterloo) (21-8, 21-10).
Yasmine Sell led with six kills against the WSR Go-Hawks (ranked 14th in Class 4A in the preseason rankings) with five by Kiley Devery and four each from Grace Erwin and Jozie Lahr. Erwin and Lahr made two solo blocks each with one by Devery while Erwin also had a pair of aces.
Lahr made a team high four kills against Marshall- town with three each from Erwin and Gable Knight, and two apiece by Addie Miller, Sell, Devery, and Charleigh Whitford. Erwin produced three solo blocks with Kennedey Whitford and Macy Fuller making two ace serves each against the Bobcats.
Erwin and Sell torpedoed the Sailors with a salvo of seven and six kills respectively with three each from Lahr and Devery. Erwin and Lahr made one solo block each and Charleigh Whitford slammed three aces.
CR Washington’s Warrior Invitational nets a 3-2 showing
Cedar Rapids Washington hosted their Warrior Invitational this past Saturday pitting the Lady Spartans against a field consisting of Cedar Rapids Kennedy, Dubuque Senior, Johnston, Oskaloosa, Xavier Catholic (Cedar Rapids), Davenport North, Linn-Mar, Cedar Rapids Jefferson, and the host Warriors.
Solon disposed of Johnston 2-0 (21-13, 21-17) with Jozie Lahr and Yasmine Sell producing four kills each, Grace Erwin making three, Addie Miller producing two, and one each by Gable Knight and Kiley Devery. Miller, Erwin, Lahr, and Devery each had a solo block with three aces by Izzy Frees, two from Macy Fuller, and one by Erwin.
The Lady Spartans fell 2-1 (21-12, 16-21, 13-15) to Linn-Mar, who had just dropped out of the IGHSAU rankings after sitting in the No. 10 spot in the 5A pre-season rankings. Lahr led Solon with six kills, Sell made five, Knight had four, Devery made three, and Miller produced two. Miller and Lahr made a solo block each with three aces by Charleigh Whitford. The Lions’ Kelsey Klesner led all with nine kills.
Solon bounced back for a 2-0 (21-10, 21-17) win over Davenport North with a match-high seven kills by Erwin, five from Sell, four by Miller, three from Devery, two by Lahr, and one by Knight. Miller and Erwin made a solo block each. Cydney Jaster made two aces with Macy Fuller, Scarlett Ferin, and Charleigh Whitford producing one apiece.
Solon had no trouble with the Warriors, taking a 2-0 win easily (21-5, 21-5) led by Sell with six kills. Devery made three, with two each from Miller and Lahr while Erwin and Frees had one apiece. Lahr also made a solo block. Charleigh Whitford shelled Washington with seven ace serves and Frees pounded away with five of her own.
It was a different story when Solon faced the No. 1-ranked (in 4A) Xavier Saints, falling 2-0 (18-21,11- 21) despite six kills from Erwin and four by Sell. Lahr and Sell had one solo block each while Fuller and Charleigh Whitford each made an ace.
Lady Spartans 9th in IGHSAU’s 2nd weekly rankings
Solon improved from No. 11 in the preseason rankings to the No. 9 spot in Class 3A in the IGHSAU’s rankings released last Thursday. Mount Vernon held the No. 1 spot followed by Assumption Catholic (Davenport), Wahlert Catholic (Dubuque), Western Christian, Sioux Center, Mid-Prairie, Kuemper Catholic, and Cherokee. West Liberty dropped to the No. 10 spot, down from No. 8 in the first rankings while WaMaC West foe Center Point-Urbana dropped from No. 7 to No. 11. West Delaware, Union, Van Meter, and Wilton rounded out the top-15 teams in the state.