Prep report: Eagles advance, Tigers ousted in WIAA volleyball openers
Oct. 19—SOLON SPRINGS — Fifteen kills from Bailey Monson helped Solon Springs advance from its first test in the WIAA Division 4 regional volleyball tournament.
The seventh-seeded Eagles bounced No. 10 Butternut 3-1 (25-23, 24-26, 25-21, 25-22).
Jaelyn Gehl added nine kills and a pair of blocks, Isabel Molina had nine kills and a pair of aces, while Audrey Swanson contributed nine kills, two aces and a team-best 15 digs.
Kyra Latvala set Solon with 42 assists and served four aces.
Paetyn Simenson added 14 digs for the Eagles, who'll play at second-seeded Prentice on Thursday.
The Cardinals kept the Tigers from establishing a rhythm and swept Northwestern out of the Division 2 regionals 3-0 (25-19, 25-21, 25-13).
"We were never really able to get things going tonight. We had a hard time with serve receive, so we weren't able to run our offense the way we have been all season," Northwestern coach Charlie Hessel said.
Brynn Hessel finished with eight kills and Kayla Paulsen six. Brinley Tonn dished out 21 assists. All three were seniors on a team that finished the season 21-11 overall.
Kyra Johnson had 14 kills and Gabby Martenson 12 as the Eskomos swept at home. Both players had three blocks.
Bailey Plante served six aces and Kaitlin Lattner posted 35 assists.
The Greyhounds outlasted the Lumberjacks 15-13 in the fifth set of their last scheduled home game of the season.
Ayla Oltmanns made a big mark on both ends of the floor, with 13 kills and 16 digs. Riley Panger added 12 kills.
Ola Okoro set the East offense with 35 assists and had a team-best 20 digs.
Three Rails had double-digit kills despite a short sweep of the Hunters. Ella Walker led the way with 11, while Hope Carlson and Maddy Walsh added 10 apiece.
Sami Shelton paced the offense with 24 assists. Carlson was the dig leader with 24.
Seniors Noah Foster of Cromwell-Wright and Miles Fischer of Cloquet had dominant performances on Tuesday at Proctor Golf Course.
Both were best in their boys' classes by more than 50 seconds over 5 kilometers.
Fischer posted the lowest time of the day, running in 16 minutes, 13.2 seconds in Class AA, while Foster ran a 16:15.3 for top honors in Class A
Ian Thorpe of North Shore (Class A) had the third-best boys time of the day, followed by Mark Kaczmarczyk of Duluth East (Class AAA) and Murray Salzer of Moose Lake/Willow River Barnum (A).
North Shore won the A championship and Grand Rapids in AA.
In the girls' races, Liz Nelson of Mountain Iron-Buhl had the day's best time, finishing in 19:41.3, with Olya Wright of North Shore in second in Class A (19:54.4) and fourth overall.
The AA winner was Mileena Sullivan of Hibbing in 19:43.6, with Lizzy Harnell of Proctor 10 seconds behind her.
East freshman Carolina Arvold was the best AAA runner and rounded out the overall top five.
Team winners were North Shore (A) and Hibbing (AA).
Duluth East won eight of 12 events to take a Lake Superior Conference victory across the St. Louis River at Superior on Tuesday.
Julia Zimpel led the way for the Greyhounds, winning the 200-yard individual medley (2:29.06) and 100 butterfly (1:07.12) and swimming a leg of a successful 200 medley relay.
Superior's three winners included Kate Porter in the 200 free (2:22.48) and 100 free (1:00.74), Ava Denninger in the 100 breaststroke (1:21.36) and the 400 free relay.
