Coupeville Sports

Let’s keep the good times rolling.

That’s the goal for the high-powered Coupeville High School volleyball squad as it heads into year four under the guidance of coach Cory Whitmore.

The Wolf spikers are on a streak of three-straight seasons of 11 wins or more, with a trip to state in the middle of that run.

Since Whitmore entered the gym to take the reigns, Coupeville has amassed a 35-16 mark, with back-to-back titles in the Olympic League followed by a second-place showing last season in the new North Sound Conference.

Now, as the Wolves get ready to make another run at King’s, South Whidbey and Co., they will have to do so without two key players.

Emma Smith, a First-Team All-Conference pick last season, and steady team leader Ashley Menges are no more, having swapped out spikes and sets for the lives of college freshmen.

“As a team, we have talked openly about what it’s going to take in order to make up for the loss of Ashley and Emma, and they’re excited for the challenge,” Whitmore said.

“Ashley and Emma leave such an impact on the program that we’ll need a collection of players – returning and new to varsity playing time – to step up in a variety of ways.”

While the loss of the duo stings, the Wolf bench is crammed with talented, battle-hardened players.

“We are very excited to return a large core number of our players from last year’s strong season,” Whitmore said.

Leading the way are Maya Toomey-Stout (First Team) and Scout Smith (Second Team), who both earned All-Conference honors as juniors.

“They have continued to improve their game this off-season,” Whitmore said. “They will attract attention as primary setter (Scout) and as an effective outside hitter (Maya).

“Hannah Davidson (middle blocker), Emma Mathusek (libero), and Chelsea Prescott (outside hitter) all contributed considerable playing time during the past season and continue to grow in their strength and confidence.”

Prescott, a junior who has played at the varsity level for most of her prep career, is the lone non-senior in that core group.

While the first five are pretty much set, the battle to fill out the roster will be an intense one.

“We’re really excited about the players that will fight to fill the vacant roles on the varsity squad,” Whitmore said. “Many players — upper and underclassmen alike — had a great off-season.

“They worked really hard to not only set themselves up for a great chance to fill empty positions and roles, but also to keep and raise the standard and lofty goals we have for the season.”

While this year’s squad should be a largely senior-dominated one, Whitmore and assistant coach Chris Smith won’t be left with a completely bare cupboard. The future is here, and it’s already ready to contribute.

“As a coaching staff, we have been very impressed with this incoming freshman class,” Whitmore said. “Not just here as practices have started, but early on in the summer.

“It has been our highest-attending group of freshman to summer functions (practices, camps, fundraisers, volunteer opportunities, etc.) and this dedication and hard work early on will pay off.”

As always, the Wolves are aiming high, with plans to fight for the league title and earn a return to the state tourney.

Defending league champ King’s, which claimed 3rd place at state last year, is the mountain in their way, but the North Sound Conference offers no easy matches.

“The both exciting and frustrating thing about this particular league is we will have to bring our best effort night-in and night-out,” Whitmore said. “We will have to respect every team in order to finish in the top tier, and, having had some success last season, teams will be wary of what we can do as well.”

Breaking down the opponents, he notes King’s is “always strong and will return key players from their very successful team” while Cedar Park Christian “returns many of their players that we battled with in numerous five-set matches last year.”

“South Whidbey always reloads and is well-prepared,” Whitmore added. “Sultan and Granite Falls put together scrappy teams that don’t seem to go away.

“We can’t look past anyone, but we also talk about how we will focus primarily on our side of the net, and that right there is a strong foundation to build upon toward our goals.”

One of those primary targets is to play progressively stronger as a team as the season unfolds.

“It is always our goal to be playing our best, most cohesive volleyball, peaking at the end of the season and this goal is very much on our mind, even as we’ve just started practices,” Whitmore said.

Another area Coupeville will stress is attacking efficiency, controlling how points are scored and pushing the action hard at any opponent, regardless of record.

“We will need to focus on our ability to put the ball away,” Whitmore said. “While every opponent will have to earn their points against our aggressive defense, we will have to generate our own high-powered offense to respond.

“Again, we openly discuss our lack of height and just see this as another challenge that will take hard work and creativity to overcome,” he added.

“We will need to be efficient passing the ball in order to allow Scout to set a consistent attack coming from various places along the net. We talk about how this is built up over time and will take patience and a group effort in order to achieve.”

While the Wolves don’t have a ton of tree toppers patrolling the net, they have smart, tough, springy players who have been playing with each other over the course of multiple seasons in multiple sports.

“One of our strengths that we will rely upon this season will be our ability to rely on productive communication,” Whitmore said. “This group has a strong rapport with each other through years of familiarity, as well as experience playing with each other on various competitive sports teams.

“This experience and ability to communicate will be essential as we push toward our goals and need to make in-match adjustments against tough opponents,” he added.

Of Coupeville’s core five players, four have been to state in more than one sport, with Smith, Prescott, and Mathusek playing key roles for a Wolf softball squad which had a strong run in Richland last spring.

In addition to pegging spikes at the big dance during her sophomore volleyball campaign, Toomey-Stout has competed at the state track and field meet three years running.

That kind of experience should hopefully pay off big time when the Wolves find themselves in tense, back-and-forth brawls on the court this season.

“We will also fall back on a strong level of experience,” Whitmore said. “This group has had to compete with each other in trying situations and, like with communication, the experience will allow us to settle in during high-pressure moments.

“These competitive characteristics, matched with a strong serve, tenacious defense and a high volleyball-IQ, should allow us to be competitive no matter the team across the net.”