Coupeville Sports

Wolf seniors (l to r) Megan Oakes, Haley Sherman, Breeanna Messner, Amanda Fabrizi, Sydney Aparicio and Allie Hanigan prepare for player introductions. (John Fisken photos)

Departing star Messner and next year’s big gun, Hailey Hammer.

Outgoing setter Oakes and her successor, sophomore Sydney Autio.

They went out as a group, weathering a hellish storm of super-charged spikes to the end.

Facing a high-flying, big-hitting group from visiting King’s, the six seniors on this year’s Coupeville High School volleyball squad put up their typical fight-to-the-finish effort Tuesday night.

But, in the end, they had to accept a season-closing 25-19, 25-17, 25-14 loss to a team which is expected to make a long playoff run.

After the tears of the opening ceremonies had faded, the six-pack (Haley Sherman, Amanda Fabrizi, Megan Oakes, Allie Hanigan, Sydney Aparicio and Breeanna Messner) played valiantly.

Fabrizi (“A rock star on the back line” said CHS coach Kirsty Croghan) added some more floor burns to what has to be an already impressive collection, refusing to give in on even the hardest hit ball.

Her running mate, Messner, had a spectacular play where she went up into the stands to save a ball, setting up young gun Kacie Kiel, who slammed home the winner and made the sacrifice worth the effort.

It was a scenario repeated late in the match, when what looked like a sure-thing ace by a King’s server was blunted by three straight players getting a small portion of their outstretched arms on the ball at the last second.

Surprised to see the play still developing, the Knights popped up their return, at which point Sherman laid down a withering winner that hit the court loud enough to be heard out on the prairie her ancestors have farmed for decades.

Coupeville led for chunks of the first set and stayed close for much of the following two sets, but could never quite get on a roll the way King’s did from time to time.

The final point the Wolves won in 2013 came courtesy of junior Hailey Hammer, who unleashed the last of a season’s worth of kills, then walked away to prepare to lead this team next season.

The Wolves (3-12), playing under Croghan, a former CHS star in her first year as a head coach, finished strongly, nabbing two of their three wins in the final four matches of the season.

They also came inches away from upending traditional power Archbishop Thomas Murphy and showed tremendous growth.

The only downside is they got caught in a numbers game and won’t get to play on. After years of making the playoffs (where they would have scared some teams), the Wolves were denied this year when only two of the three 1A schools in the Cascade Conference advanced.