way to late to be of any use to you, but i solo'd into top 300 spots 3 rounds running whilst only playing half seriously
go zik, and have the ability to scan for yourself. spend like a couple of hours picking 'perfect targets' from sandmans. Whilst your doing that, note inactives, and go collect their ships. Have your ships constantly flying, whether in defence or attack. Any downtime that alliances generally have in between their attacks, is where the solo player can gain on them. Gain MoC position in your gal if you can, and run defence on your planet via the gal communication systems. Fly early, none of these stupid ass land at 2pm in the afternoon jobbies when u play solo!
Scan for your galmates, and scan for #tran
