Win in hand, the Wolf spikers head home. (Bettie Sifuentes-Hart photo)
It was close, but everything broke the right way.
Refusing to buckle against a scrappy foe Wednesday, the Coupeville High School varsity volleyball squad traveled to Friday Harbor and delivered a stirring straight-sets win.
Knocking off the host Wolverines 25-23, 29-27, 25-20 in a highly competitive rumble, Scout Smith’s spikers get to 2-1 in Northwest 2B/1B League play, 2-4 overall.
And they’ll get right back at it in a matter of mere hours, hosting Concrete Thursday in Cow Town, with JV playing at 5:00 PM and varsity at 6:30ish.
Instead of being tired when they face the Lions, the Wolves should still be flying high on adrenaline from Wednesday’s clash.
Kennedy O’Neill delivered Coupeville’s first wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am kill to knot things up at 5-5 in the opening set, and the battle was launched.
The teams endured through 11 ties in the first frame, with the last at 23-23, but it was the Wolves who had the momentum when it mattered the most.
Despite strong work at the service stripe from Haylee Armstrong and at the net from Tenley Stuurmans, CHS trailed by a point here, a point there most of the set, before closing on an 8-2 tear.
Fab frosh Zariyah Allen kick-started the final push, delivering a tip winner that froze the defense, before Arianna Cunningham knocked the Wolverines back on their heels, drilling a kill with some serious nastiness exploding from her powerhouse arm.
That set up Willow Leedy-Bonifas to deliver a four-point run on her serve, though it was Armstrong who came back around to close out the set with an ace which caught the backline and made Friday Harbor weep salty tears of regret.
Yes, the whole island cried…
Haylee Armstrong (middle), Kennedy O’Neill, and their fan club president go island-hopping. (Michelle Armstrong photo)
The second set was actually even more intense, with 13 ties and both teams holding off two set points before Coupeville clinched the frame off of a tip winner from Armstrong, who danced away as the locals cried some more.
Getting to that final freeze-frame, comprised of equal parts Wolf joy and Wolverine despair, was set up by both teams selling out play after play, the ebb and flow of the match filled with surprise saves and wicked winners.
Rhylee Inman, Coupeville’s other freshman phenom, notched a pair of well-placed shots, while Capri Anter and Isa Mc Fetridge stalked the service stripe, looking to fire up the ace machine, and Lexis Drake helped make the net a no-fly zone for the Wolverines.
CHS had set points at 24-23 and 25-24, only to see the hosts dodge the bullet, before Friday Harbor came within a point of tying things up with leads at 26-25 and 27-26.
Cunningham denied her rivals with a kill off the back line, before Allen and Armstrong delivered back-to-back winners to finally end things in a second set threatening to run forever.
That seemed to knock the air out of the Wolverines for a bit, as Coupeville rocketed out to a 10-1 lead in the third set, with Stuurmans and Anter unleashing on their serve.
The Wolf lead got all the way to 20-9, before Friday Harbor found a last gasp, briefly derailing things by going off on its own 10-2 tear to cut the deficit down to 22-19.
There was no collapse coming, however, just a brief burp, as Coupeville righted itself and put the match away with a final bit of firepower.
Cunningham climbed an invisible ladder one final time, her furious fist tenderized the volleyball, and winner, winner, what’s for dinner on the ferry?
Whatever was available, it surely tasted like sweet, sweet victory.
Wednesday stats:
Zariyah Allen — 6 kills
Capri Anter — 3 kills, 8 digs, 1 ace
Haylee Armstrong — 2 kills, 7 digs, 8 assists, 2 aces
Arianna Cunningham — 8 kills, 17 digs, 1 block assist, 1 ace
Lexis Drake — 1 dig, 1 block assist
Rhylee Inman — 2 kills, 3 digs, 1 block assist
Willow Leedy-Bonifas — 13 digs, 3 aces
Isa Mc Fetridge — 2 digs, 1 ace
Kennedy O’Neill — 6 kills, 3 digs, 1 block assist
Tenley Stuurmans — 11 kills, 8 digs, 21 assists, 1 solo block, 3 aces
