Coupeville Sports

      Foreign exchange student Merle Fitzenhagen has been an enthusiastic contributor to the Wolf spike squad. (John Fisken photo)

Sacrifice the body!

All the best volleyball players do it, and it’s a fad that’s catching on with the Coupeville High School JV spikers.

A match or two after Miranda Engle used the top of her shoulder to keep a ball in play, foreign exchange student Merle Fitzenhagen, a newcomer to the sport, used another part of her anatomy to keep a point going against King’s Thursday.

“We’ve been telling her if a ball hits off of a shoulder, a back, a head, etc., that it is legal,” said Wolf coach Amy King. “She was playing back row — King’s hit a ball over and it came over fast enough that we didn’t have a chance to play it, but it played off of Merle’s head, went up to the ceiling, which when it came down we played it and got it over the net for the point.

“Poor Merle couldn’t stop herself from laughing until she came out.”

Playing without big hitter Engle, who was out sick, the Wolves struggled with the powerful Knights, losing the second and third sets 25-12, 25-14. King declined to reveal the score of the first set (“We shall just completely look past it, because, yes, it was that ugly…”).

Things got better, however, as the Wolves, even down a woman, remained scrappy.

“There were at least good things here and there,” King said.  “Our girls went for everything and made the best of our games.”

The highlight reel:

“Monica (Vidoni) had a great block and many hits; Jae (LeVine) had a surprising and fun kill from the back row; Lauren (Grove) had a few hits from the front row; Valen (Trujillo) and Ally (Roberts) had hits from all parts of the court,” King said.

“We are young and still learning. We do have a good JV team, getting better with each week.”