Maddie Georges, seen here during basketball season last year, had an impressive volleyball debut Tuesday afternoon. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
Everything is a little crazy on opening day.
That first game of the season offers a heady mix of emotions for young players, and Tuesday was all that and more for the Coupeville Middle School volleyball squads.
Playing visiting Sultan in a CMS gym packed to the rafters, the Wolf spikers picked up some valuable lessons, introduced the world to some new stars and got their first taste of action against someone wearing a different uniform.
While the Turks ultimately won three of four matches, dropping only the 8th grade JV tilt, the day was an important step forward on the way to future success for the Wolves.
8th grade varsity:
Coupeville led in two of three sets, but couldn’t keep its momentum going and fell 25-17, 25-12, 15-12.
The Wolves jumped out to a 5-2 lead in the opening frame, behind a pair of superb tips from Vivian Farris and a thunderous ace off the hand of Lucy Tenore.
But Sultan got lucky on the next play, when a return of another Tenore missile blooped over the heads of all six Wolves and bit the very last flake of paint off the back line.
That unexpected winner seemed to immediately change the flow of play, with the Turks taking advantage and rolling all the way out to a 22-12 lead before Tenore made it back to the service stripe.
Once she got there, the hard-hitting Wolf went back to dropping lasers, and aided by a Jordyn Rogers tip which froze the Turks on one play, ran off four straight points.
Sultan recovered, though, closing out the first set, then running away with the middle frame.
CMS fell behind early and could never get back in the set, despite the play of Taygin Jump and Alita Blouin, who both flew all around the court, trying to dig balls off the floor.
While the third set was merely for fun, with Sultan having already clinched the match, it featured strong serving from Tenore and Ryanne Knoblich.
Tenore rattled one ace off a Sultan player’s chin, while Knoblich lashed back-to-back frozen ropes for winners on her first two serves as a CMS spiker.
8th grade JV:
Coupeville’s brightest moment, as the Wolves rode wicked serving from the likes of Maddie Georges and the Battlin’ Lucero twins, Allie and Maya, and ran away with a 25-17, 25-20 victory.
Trailing 4-1 in the early going, CMS turned things around quickly after Hayley Fiedler smacked a serve which curved upward as it sailed over the net, catching a helpless Turk right under the chin.
The Sultan receiver staggered backward, almost went to the floor once, twice and then three times, but surprised the crowd (and herself) by staying on her feet.
Though, if we’re being honest, the Turks were a bit gun-shy after Fiedler’s KO, and probably more so after Georges zinged one of her serves off of the noggin of a different would-be returner.
“Mad Dog,” a standout basketball player for CMS, didn’t play volleyball as a 7th grader. One match into her first season of spikes, sets and kills, and it would be hard to picture her not playing varsity the rest of the way.
Just to make sure Sultan would be extra-twitchy on the bud ride home, Allie Lucero made it a three-pack, launching a serve off yet another Turk’s face, then bumping fists with her sister, both issuing a slight nod, one killer recognizing another.
With Coupeville’s service game clicking on all cylinders, Georges lashed an ace right down the middle of the court, to seal the deal on set one. The Turks, simply happy not to be plastered in the face again, seemed almost relieved.
They shouldn’t have been, because the beast which lurks in the heart of the easy-going Maya Lucero re-surfaced in the second set, as she tattooed a serve off of … yes, you guessed it, a rival player’s chin.
Throwing band-aids in the air for everyone to enjoy, the rabid Wolves gave Sultan no chance to get a rally going.
When the serves weren’t landing immediately for winners, and that was few and far between, CMS benefited from hustle plays from Trinity McGee and Cypress Socha.
7th grade varsity:
The day’s first match was also the most one-sided, as Sultan cruised to a 25-7, 25-6 win behind uncannily good serving for first-year middle school players.
While the Turks might be young, there is little doubt their 7th graders have been playing volleyball for some time now.
Every Sultan player who stepped to the service line did it with purpose and intent. The Turks, to a player, served overhand, and did so with speed, power, and accuracy, picking apart the Wolf receivers.
In a match with very few rallies, three Wolves did make their presence known, however.
Katie Buskala stopped one Sultan tear with a beautifully-placed return which split two Turks as it found pay-dirt, then she served up Coupeville’s lone ace a few plays later.
Grey Peabody consistently got her hands on the ball play after play, and lofted a nice hit at the net which skidded for a winner, while Ava Mitten stood tall during the longest rally of the match.
Playing in front of mom Aleshia (McFadyen) Mitten, herself a former Coupeville volleyball ace, Ava smashed one return to keep the rally alive, then lobbed a second shot over the net to win the point.
7th grade JV:
Peabody and Mitten were again front and center, as the two teams played a close set before Sultan eked out a 25-19 win.
Other Wolves who came through with big hits for winners included Brenna Silveira and Kaitlyn Leavell, while Peabody put together two strong runs at the service line.
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