Chelsea Prescott delivered a big-time performance Thursday, leading Coupeville to a straight-sets win at Darrington. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)
Ryanne Knoblich scrapes a ball off the floor.
Back in a groove.
A match after being roughed-up by two-time defending state champ La Conner, the Coupeville High School varsity volleyball squad was ready to rumble Thursday night.
Invading Darrington, the fired-up Wolves chopped down the Loggers, felling their foes 25-20, 25-14, 25-16.
The straight-sets victory, Coupeville’s second-straight on the road, lifts it to 2-1 on the season heading into a home clash Saturday with Mount Vernon Christian.
With a day of practice in between the La Conner and Darrington tilts, the Wolves were able to refocus, said coach Cory Whitmore.
“Much, much better showing last night against Darrington,” he said. “After a very focused and productive practice on Wednesday, I was very pleased to see our response in the immediate game following, and on the road no less.
“The goal was to keep control of the game’s energy and tempo, and remain focused from warmups through the final point, and this team did just that.”
Coupeville got something of value from everyone on the floor, but senior Chelsea Prescott was the undeniable focal point of the evening.
Combining grace with savage power, she whacked 13 kills, delivered six service aces, went low for 10 digs, and even found time to climb high for an emphatic block.
“Chelsea had herself a game,” Whitmore said. “She was as focused as I’ve ever seen her and contributed basically in each statistical category.
“The game seemed to unfold out as exactly as she wanted it to,” he added. “Adding six aces to a double-double is a dominating performance.”
Strong work came from everyone in a CHS uniform, with sophomore setter Maddie Georges kick-starting the offense with nimble passing.
“Maddie G. did a great job of getting Chelsea the ball on her fluid hitting routes,” Whitmore said. “But then just as impressive, Chels moved the ball around with her shots.
“Both outside attackers did a great job with Kylie (Chernikoff) also taking a lot of the serve receptions and pulling in a team-high 11 digs,” he added.
“This allowed Maddie G. to find the best available hitter in transition. Maddie Vondrak’s .308 hitting efficiency was important as well, and, as always, she sparked the team with each kill.”
Chernikoff finished with eight kills and a team-high 11 digs, while Vondrak mashed six kills of her own.
Georges doled out a season-high 27 assists to go with four digs, with Lucy Tenore (six service aces, two kills), Jill Prince (two kills), Jaimee Masters (seven digs, three aces), Abby Mulholland (two aces), and Ryanne Knoblich (four digs) all piling up stats.
Coupeville was very-efficient at the service stripe, with 17 aces (including three in a row from Masters), with just six service errors.
“I’m very happy to see that as a team, we remained fairly low-error. But, almost more importantly, we grew in our knowledge of what it meant to be focused and execute a game plan, in addition to keeping the energy high internally,” Whitmore said.
“Our leaders were big tonight in that regard, and then each player to see the court contributed about exactly what we needed from them.
“With a condensed season, it is important to have a group of quick learners, and so we will keep pushing this energy.”
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