They were so close. Yet, they always will be.
After Marion jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five regional volleyball championship game, Solon clawed its way back to force a fifth set. It came down to the very last point. But in the end, the Wolves secured the 17-15 set victory to advance to the state tournament.
Faces crunched and tears skydived to the floor from every Solon player as they walked the net opposite of Marion. Not because they lost the game, but because reality struck.
The team was too close for their season to end in that fashion.
“I am insanely proud of this team,” said junior middle hitter Avery Kellen. “Our team chemistry is absolutely out of this world, and I think we’re even more sad that we’re not going to play with each other again rather than losing a game.”
Marion dominated the first two sets of the game, 25-20 and 25-19, respectively. Once the second set concluded, Solon head coach Ruben Galven huddled with his assistant coaches looking for answers. The huddle broke after 30 seconds and he went to the doors behind the bleachers to meet with his team.
Their confidence wasn’t lost, and it showed when the starters took the floor with smiles on their faces.
“I didn’t think we were done,” he said. “We had not gotten into the groove of the game. And I thought once we would get into that, we were going to make a change.”
The Spartans held a lead for the majority of the third set on the way to a 25-19 finish. The fourth set was the real challenge as Marion kept pushing back every Solon momentum play with one of its own.
With a 14-17 deficit, freshman outside hitter Amelia Guinn secured the kill but hit the padded pole holding up the net when she landed. Clearly shaken by the incident, she stayed in for one more play where she blocked a Marion spike to bring her team within one.
The sequence fueled an 11-5 Solon run to close the fourth set, 25-22.
“It hurt continuously, and [my teammates] told me I could do it,” she said. “Having them behind me and pushing me through the rest of the game was unthinkable to have.”
The air in the gym became heavy as each point went by in the fifth set. Both teams traded points before the Spartans jumped up three. Then the Wolves tied it back up at 10 apiece. For each point Solon scored, Marion came right back.
A Guinn spike put the Spartans up, 15-14, with one more point securing the program’s first state tournament appearance in 11 years. But two Marion kills and a Solon net violation quickly turned those title hopes to dust.
However, the Solon volleyball program will hold its head high moving forward after seeing such success it hasn’t seen in some time.
“I think we were expecting it to get handed to us,” Guinn said. “We’ve been reverse swept before, and we knew we could do it, but we came up short. But we knew it was possible, and we tried our hardest.
“It was great to see how we became ranked when we were and showed how good Solon volleyball can be, and how we should be on the map.”
