Marion High School - Marion, Iowa

No.1 Saints brace for No.3 Solon

The Xavier Saints reached the Class 4A championship game in 2012 and 2013, so some people have anointed them the favorite to win the 3A title this year after dropping down a class despite heavy graduation losses.

The Saints will find out where they really stand Friday night after hosting the third-ranked Solon Spartans.

Xavier whipped then-No.5 Davenport Assumption, 30-6, last Friday. Another convincing victory over Solon might prove the point.

Solon reached the semifinals of the Class 3A playoffs last year and snapped Iowa City Regina's 56-game winning streak this season, 29-28.

All eyes will be on Saints Field in the Class 3A District 4 opener for both clubs.

All eight Metro football teams will be in action Friday night. The Washington Warriors, ranked No.3 in Class 4A, will be hosting Iowa City West at Kingston Stadium. All of the other Metro teams are on the road.

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Lions, Saints climb in volleyball poll

The Linn-Mar Lions and Xavier Saints both climbed a notch in the IGHSAU volleyball rankings Thursday.

Linn-Mar jumped from No.7 to No.6 in the Class 5A rankings. Xavier went from No.11 to No.10 in the Class 4A poll.

The Marion Indians remained the highest-ranked team in the Metro area with the No.3 spot in the Class 4A poll.

Kennedy, which was ranked 10th last week in Class 5A, dropped out of the ratings this week.

CLASS 4A

1. Harlan (11-1), 2. West Delaware (10-0), 3. Marion (6-1), 4. Le Mars (4-0), 5. Sioux City Heelan (5-5), 6. Indianola (8-4), 7. Charles City (12-2), 8. Clear Creek-Amana (5-3), 9. Lewis Central (5-4), 10. Xavier (5-3), 11. ADM (14-5), 12. Carroll (2-1), 13. Waverly-Shell Rock (7-6), 14. Boone (5-2), 15. DeWitt Central (8-3).

CLASS 5A

1. Ankeny Centennial (12-0), 2. Dowling (11-1), 3. Bettendorf (6-0), 4. Johnston (7-1), 5. Ankeny (4-2), 6. Linn-Mar (6-1), 7. Southeast Polk (15-1), 8. Iowa City High (5-1), 9. Council Bluffs Lincoln (7-6), 10. West Des Moines Valley (11-3).

No. 3 Indians sweep CPU in volleyball

CENTER POINT - Alyssa Thomas collected 15 kills Tuesday night as Class 4A third-ranked Marion swept Center Point-Urbana, 25-15, 25-17, 25-12 in a Wamac Conference volleyball match in Center Point.

Morgan Swanger and Isabella Sade had seven kills for Marion (6-1, 2-0). Johanna Steggall and Olivia Frazier had six kills.

Amanda Sahm contributed 36 assists. Sahm was 17-for-17 on serves and Steggall was 15-for-15.

Abby Phillips finished with 17 digs. Steggall had nine, Sahm eight and Haley Dullea seven.

Wash tournament had something for everyone

A star-studded 12-team field Saturday at the 24th annual Washington Warrior Invitational volleyball tournament showed once again that class doesn’t really matter.

In the championship finals, Class 5A fourth-ranked Johnston survived Class 3A top-ranked Solon in three games.

But throughout the day-long tourney with seven ranked teams, little schools battled big ones on an equal footing.

From the Metro area, highly ranked Class 4A Marion and Class 5A Linn-Mar both made the championship semifinals. And unranked Jefferson fell to Johnston in the quarterfinals.

“We came really close to both Johnston and Solon,” said J-Hawk Coach Mary Kay Van Oort. “To think we played that well that against such impressive competition that’s here today is a good day. And I know we can play even better.”

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