Coupeville Sports

Jae LeVine keeps the ball in play Tuesday. (John Fisken photos)

McKenzie Bailey goes low for the bump.

It got better.

Bouncing back from a rough first set, the Coupeville High School JV volleyball squad put up a progressively stronger fight as its match rolled on Tuesday night, before falling to visiting South Whidbey in straight sets.

A 25-8, 25-13, 25-18 loss to a very strong Falcon team notwithstanding, the Wolves had their moments.

Monica Vidoni had several strong plays at the net, where she used her height to stuff South Whidbey kills, and continued to crack low, screaming, hard-to-return serves while at the stripe.

In support of her, Valen Trujillo was everywhere at once, including one tip in which she froze two Falcon players in mid-stride and dumped the ball into a narrow gap between them for a winner.

McKenzie Bailey, Miranda Engle and Ally Roberts all had hustle plays, and the Wolves found a better passing rhythm as the match progressed.

Punctuating the match was two consecutive plays late in the third set, when South Whidbey players twice drilled other players by accident.

The first time a Wolf was on the receiving end, followed by a Falcon at the net getting hit in the back of the head when her own teammate sent a low serve into the back of her skull.

Coupeville played without foreign exchange student Merle Fitzenhagen, who is out with a concussion after taking a vicious shot to the face in the team’s last game.