Abby Mulholland and her teammates showed grace under fire Saturday, rallying for a five-set win over previously-undefeated Mount Vernon Christian. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
“It’s about heart.”
“No, it’s about conditioning.”
“Well, if you have the heart, you’re going to go get the conditioning.”
As we headed into that most pressure-packed of high school sports situations Saturday night — the fifth set of a varsity volleyball match, where two teams make a wild dash to get to 15 points first — the debate raged in the stands.
And then, to the delight of the hometown Coupeville fans, it turned out the Wolf spikers had both heart and conditioning.
Nice.
Capping a comeback from being down two sets to one, CHS pulled out a gut-wrenching 24-26, 25-21, 17-25, 25-11, 15-11 win over visiting Mount Vernon Christian, sending the faithful off to spend the rest of their weekend with smiles on their faces and an extra skip to their step.
Now 3-1 in Northwest 2B/1B League play, Coupeville sits solidly in second-place, a game off of two-time defending state champs La Conner, which is 4-0.
MVC, which entered the night unbeaten as well, left Whidbey at 2-1 after fading down the stretch.
The fifth and deciding set opened and closed exactly the same way — with Wolf senior Chelsea Prescott smacking the soul out of the ball for very-convincing winners.
In between those titanic spikes, she got a lot of help from her teammates, with Kylie Chernikoff, Lucy Tenore, and Abby Mulholland coming up big in the spotlight.
Chernikoff, who kept the positive chatter booming throughout the epically-long match, rose up once, twice, three times, tattooing the ball for winners as the Wolves surged.
The biggest roar, however, probably came when Mulholland stuffed Mount Vernon’s biggest hitter at the net, sending a would-be winner right back at her.
That staked the Wolves to a 13-5 lead, and all was well.
Until it almost wasn’t.
Finding their own inner spark, the tired but very-game Hurricanes put together a 5-0 run to get back within 13-10 and tighten the collar of everyone wearing red and black in the CHS gym.
But not to worry, as the aforementioned Prescott was flexing her biceps and taking names all evening, and she closed out things with two spikes which hit like the hammer of the gods.
The crunch-time theatrics capped a royal rumble where two pretty evenly matched squads went toe-to-toe and punched, jabbed, and parried in rapid succession.
The opening set seemed to belong to Coupeville, which led from 1-0 after a Chernikoff slicer, all the way up until 24-23, with Prescott giving the Wolves set point after blistering a spike off the back line.
But it wasn’t to be, as MVC won the final three points of the set, two of them thanks to CHS tips getting lost in the net.
If the Wolves were a bit nervous after that stumble, it didn’t show, however, as they basically repeated the first set in the second set — leading all the way — but this time clamping down at the end to close things out.
Prescott, Chernikoff, and Mulholland all came up big once again, with sophomore setter Maddie Georges alertly flicking passes from player to player, while Maddie Vondrak made her presence felt.
Playing in front of former Wolf volleyball greats such as Emma Smith and Valen Trujillo, Vondrak hit the ball so hard on one winner you could literally hear the ball scream “Mercy, Maddie!!” as all the air in the orb evaporated.
The third set started competitive, but then turned sour, as MVC went on an 11-4 tear to turn a one-point advantage into an eventual 25-17 win.
The highlights were few and far between in the set, but they were there.
Mulholland flicked a tip winner, after Prescott made a sensational running save to keep the ball alive, and sophomore Gwen Gustafson made her varsity debut.
But again, the Wolves showed a deep willingness to fight, and a refusal to give in, even when trailing.
Coupeville, after looking a bit disorganized in the third set, immediately jelled again in the fourth, with veteran leaders like Jaimee Masters and Chernikoff settling their team down.
Georges ripped off five straight points on her serve to get things flowing in the right direction, while Tenore and Vondrak were on-point as well when they rotated behind the stripe.
The biggest clue of what was to come in the finale came by watching the Hurricanes noticeably tiring, while the Wolves seemed to be growing stronger with each swing.
Young guns Gustafson and Ryanne Knoblich brought a big burst of energy to the floor during their shifts, while the grizzled seniors — Chernikoff, Masters, Vondrak, and Prescott — showed their protegees how to stay calm and cool under fire.
Coupeville’s previous wins — over Concrete and Darrington — came in straight sets.
Which is nice, but sometimes you need a five-set bar brawl like the Wolves faced Saturday to find out what kind of team you really are deep down.
If so, test passed.
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