VICTOR —  The Solon trio of Kelsey Cave, Jordan Runge and Jordan Smith were too much for Oskaloosa to handle as the teams met Tuesday night at HLV High School in a Class 4A regional final.

The winner would go on to next week’s state tournament and the sixth-ranked Spartans will make that trip to the Cedar Rapids Ice Arena with a 25-11, 23-25, 25-11, 25-18 victory over the No. 15 Indians.

The 31-8 Spartans will meet Harlan (32-5) on Nov. 7 in the first round of the state tournament. It will be the second trip to the state tournament in school history for the Spartans, who also qualified last year.

Solon recorded 71 kills against the Indians, who close the year at 19-17, and had 78 digs in the match.

Runge, a 6-foot sophomore, knocked down a match-high 21 kills while Smith, a 5-10 sophomore, contributed 16 kills and Cave, a 6-2 senior, had 15 kills.

While Solon’s height advantage may have played  a big role in the outcome of the match, Oskaloosa coach Jennifer Comfort thought it might have been the quick-striking offense that made the difference.

“The quickness of their offense, more than their height, was the difference,” she said. “It was match with two good teams and they came out and won in the end.”

The first set saw Solon take an early 5-1 lead on kills by Runge and Cave and an ace by Rylee Smith.

Oskaloosa had a pair of hitting errors by the Spartans to cut the deficit to 5-3, but Solon tallied six straight points to take control of the set.

Highlighting the run was a kill by Smith and a service ace by Taylor Nearad.

The Indians got back in the match by grinding out a hard-fought win in the second set.

They led 3-1 early before Solon bounced back to take a 6-5 lead.

The teams traded points until a service error by Kelsey Hinrichs gave the Indians a bit of momentum at 10-all.

Taylor Crawford got the serve for Oskaloosa and a hitting violation by Solon put the Indians in front by a point. A Kate Hasselman kill followed by an ace along the sideline and a Solon hitting error increased the Oskaloosa lead to 14-10.

The Indians never trailed after that, although the Spartans made it tough for the Indians to get a comfortable lead.

Solon pulled to within 22-21, only to see the Indians collect the win as Allie Christenson and Hunter Shaull combined for a block on set point.

The Spartans regained control of the match in the next set by scoring nine unanswered points, thanks to the serving of Rylee Smith. She had three of her four aces as Cave added a block and a kill to the spurt.

One of the points of the set came with Solon leading  16-9 when Runge tried to put down a hard attack. But Hasselman made a sparkling save to get the ball up, but that only delayed Runge from putting down a cross-court kill to give the serve back to the Spartans.

The Indians had another save on a kill attempt as Taylor Richardson dug the ball up on a ball hit by Cave, but Jordan Smith would eventually get the kill for a 21-10 advantage.

But the Spartans would score four of the next five points with a hitting error by the Indians giving Solon the 25-11 win and a 2-set-to-1 lead going to the fourth set.

It was much the same for Solon in the eventual final set as it led from nearly the start.

Oskaloosa tied the set at 1 on a kill by Shawni Wills, but the Spartans wouldn’t let the Indians back in the set.

The Spartans went on a mini 4-0 run for a 17-10 lead, but the Indians came back to trail by just 17-14 as Hasselman and Wills had kills off Solon blocks and Crawford added a kill of her own.

But that would be as close as Oskaloosa would get as Cave closed out the match with a block as the Indians left the court denied of their 12th trip to the state tournament.

Solon’s Emma Rickels had 52 of her team’s 63 assists while Rylee Smith recorded 29 digs while Jordan Smith had 19 and Hinrichs had 15 digs. The team had 78 digs in the match.



Solon 25-23-25-25, Oskaloosa 11-25-11-18

Oskaloosa statistics

Serving — Allie Christenson 7-for-7; Taylor Crawford 17-for-17, 1 ace; Kate Hasselman 9-for-10; Kailyn Risher 10-for-11; Kena Veldhuizen 7-for-7; Shawni Wills 12-for-14, 1 ace. Totals 62-for-66, 2 aces.

Assists — Christenson 24, Crawford 1, Taylor Richardson 1. Total 26.

Spiking — Christenson 15-for-16, 1 kill; Crawford 16-for-17, 6 kills; Hasselman 39-for-42, 10 kills; Risher 13-for-15, 4 kills; Hunter Shaull 1-for-3; Veldhuizen 7-for-9, 1 kill; Wills 21-for-21, 5 kills. Totals 112-for-123, 27 kills.

Blocks — Christenson 2, Crawford 1, Hasselman 1, Shaull 4. Total 8.

Digs — Christenson 7, Crawford 1, Hasselman 5, Richardson 4, Veldhuizen 14, Wills 1. Total 32.