Coupeville Sports

Wolf junior Tiffany Briscoe is a key returning player. (John Fisken photos)

   Sophomore Katrina McGranahan is back and ready to unleash her power game.

Never back down.

That captures the attitude shown by the Coupeville High School volleyball squad, which is looking to bounce back from a fourth-place finish in the 1A Olympic League last year.

While those Wolves went 1-11, many of the matches were close affairs and CHS was rarely, if ever, blown out.

The loss of five players to graduation will sting a bit, but much of the core of the team was young last year, which bodes well for this season and the future.

“My expectation is that our team competes every day, gives maximum effort for the sake of their team, and challenges each other to become better,” said Wolf coach Breanne Smedley. “Our goals are to improve with each week, earn a league title, and compete into the post season.

“We are out to beat them all! We talk about all other teams as just another jersey,” she added. “We are constantly competing with ourselves and focusing on what is going to help us improve each week.

“All else will fall into place if we are successful in this.”

As Smedley heads into her second year at the helm of the Wolves, she’ll have a roster that is still fairly young, with just two seniors.

Middle blocker McKenzie Bailey and setter Sydney Autio, who was out injured much of last year, are those veterans, and they’ll be joined by juniors Valen Trujillo (libero), Tiffany Briscoe (OH) and Ally Roberts (OPP).

Sophomores Kyla Briscoe (OH/OPP), Katrina McGranahan (MB), Lauren Rose (setter), Hope Lodell (OH) and Payton Aparicio (OH) and freshman phenom Emma Smith (MB) are also in the mix.

It’s a group that has stepped up in off-season workouts and is intent on toppling Klahowya, Port Townsend and Chimacum.

“Our strengths include the ownership the girls are taking over the program, and their competitiveness to continually improve,” Smedley said. “We have depth from pin to pin in our offense, which will prove to become a strength for us if we can focus in on quality first ball contacts.”

As their season opener approaches (Sept. 8 at home against South Whidbey), the Wolves remain hard at work.

“We need to work on controlling the first ball contact on serve receive and in defense,” Smedley said. “We are also working on getting our middles to run quicker through the middle and introducing combinations into our offense.

“It is all dependent on the first ball contact, though.”