Marion halts Solon’s reverse sweep attempt to book state volleyball tournament appearance

SOLON — No. 8 Marion volleyball senior middle hitter Addison Parker went for a solo block against Solon junior middle hitter Avery Kellen. Kellen’s right hand hit the top of the net in the follow through.

The gymnasium inside Solon High School exploded. It took the Marion Wolves a few moments before they realized the whistle was blown. Then, the players finally caught up to the euphoria happening on the visitor’s side of the gym.

“I don't even know what happened. It was just such a relief,” Parker said. “We came into this, and like we were nervous. It was such a huge release.”

A reverse sweep cut off at the last possible moment. A trip to the 4A state tournament in Coralville booked for next week. The Wolves took the No. 7 Solon Spartans in an extended five set match (25-20, 25-19, 19-25, 22-25, 17-15).

“That's just awesome. I'm so proud of the girls,” Marion head coach Roxanne Paulsen said. “They didn't give up. They we were down multiple times in that set, and they never gave up.”

Paulsen had anticipated the regional final going five sets, knowing it could’ve been even more beneficial for the Wolves, but didn’t expect the match to maintain the sky-high intensity for nearly two hours.

These two teams faced off just a month ago, with Marion winning the game in five sets then.

Marion’s played its fair share of winner-take-all matches, making the first few sets crucial to set the tone. The Wolves took the first two sets, stringing together three separate runs — one in the first set and two in the second — to put Solon on its back foot.

“We didn't play defense in the first two sets,” Solon head coach Ruben Galvan said. “I think that was a big change right there. Our defense really stepped it up.”

Then, the Spartans slowly started fighting back. In the fifth set, neither team held any lead larger than two points. Marion led the set through the first half, until Solon pushed back to tie the match at 15.

Two Spartans errors later, Marion rejoiced in the victory on its opponent’s court.

“It was so much more like fun to play than the usual five-set game,” freshman middle hitter Abbey Kirk said. “Five-set games are fun to play, but this one, just knowing everything's on the line, our seniors really deserve that.”

Marion (28-13), who’ll play as a 7-seed in the tournament, will face No. 2-seeded Sioux Center at Xtream Arena on Nov. 3 at 4:25 p.m.

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