Zoe Trujillo stepped up big Thursday night, helping Coupeville volleyball sweep South Whidbey in straight sets. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)
Emma Mathusek and friends are 11-1 heading into Senior Night.
The freight train keeps rumblin’ down the track, wrecking almost everything in its way.
Overcoming a young, but feisty South Whidbey squad Thursday, the Coupeville High School varsity volleyball team continues to match the best start in program history.
Pulling out a 25-20, 25-17, 25-23 win on the road in Langley, during a rumble in which they came back from a 10-1 deficit in the final set, the Wolves improve to 6-1 in North Sound Conference play, 11-1 overall.
Coupeville sits a game off of King’s (7-0, 11-0) in the race for a title, and is a win away from clinching at least second-place in league play.
The Wolves, who have three regular season bouts left, starting with Senior Night Tuesday against Granite Falls, have matched the 2004 CHS spikers for the best record through 12 matches.
But, while they won in straight sets Thursday, it wasn’t a walk-over.
The Falcons, led by freshman Morgan Batchelor, who was ferocious at the net all night, led in every set, but ultimately broke when the much-more experienced Wolves fully bared their teeth.
Eight of Coupeville’s 12 varsity players are seniors, and they are a pack which has played together through middle and high school.
Their CHS days have come under the guidance of coach Cory Whitmore, who took the helm of the program as the current seniors arrived on campus as freshmen.
Together, coach and players have produced four straight seasons of 11 or more wins, two league titles (so far), and a trip to state in 2017.
They may bend at times, but the Wolves rarely break, as South Whidbey was reminded once again.
With a hyped-up crowd behind them, the Falcons jumped out to an 8-5 lead in the first set, before Coupeville used its strong team-wide serving to take control.
Maya Toomey-Stout was the first Wolf to go off, putting together a run of four straight points, with a huge spike from Zoe Trujillo and a Hannah Davidson kill which caught the top of the net and flopped over, helping to spark things.
With the score knotted at 10-10, that brought Wolf captain Scout Smith to the line, and the Falcon faithful to their feet.
To their credit, the South Whidbey student section brought the hootin’, the hollerin’, and the good-natured harassin’, yet they forgot one thing.
Nothing ruffles Scout Smith. Nothing.
Perhaps her insides are a cauldron of bubbling anxiety, but, if so, she never, ever betrays it.
Instead, Smith, like her brothers before her, just placidly stares ahead, ignores the din, and unleashes winner after winner.
With her serves, and her flawless passes, paving the way, Scoutosaurus Rex set the table, and Trujillo and Maddie Vondrak dined out, lashing winners and leading group cheers afterwards.
Up 16-10 after Smith’s service run, the Wolves got a five-spot from Raven Vick, who was crackin’ off lasers on her serve, and Coupeville stretched the lead out.
Batchelor refused to bend the knee, however, crashing a pair of eye-popping kills off the back corner, including one which held off set point, at least for a moment.
But what was meant to be was meant to be, as Toomey-Stout, once herself a preternaturally-talented freshman, and now a battle-hardened senior, came flying in to finish off the set.
Exploding skyward, scanning the Falcons for a weakness, “The Gazelle” locked and loaded, her arm rearranging the molecules of the volleyball as she pounded a final kill, angling it off a rival’s arm and out of bounds.
The second set was more of the same, with Batchelor playing like a star, but Coupeville responding with danger from every angle.
Lucy Sandahl was a delight at the service stripe, while Toomey-Stout, Davidson, Trujillo and Vondrak brought the heat with a tantalizing variety of kills, stuffs, and tips.
Coupeville took the lead quicker in set two, never surrendering it once up 4-3.
Trujillo, playing in front of big sis Valen, herself a CHS volleyball all-timer, upheld family honor with an especially-strong performance.
A late service ace off of Zoe’s fingertips was a true marvel, diving and burrowing under a Falcon player’s arms.
The less said about the first third of the final set, probably the better, as the Wolves, for a few minutes, seemed to collectively forget how to play their chosen sport.
But, a few quiet words from Whitmore later, Coupeville righted the ship and did so in a hurry.
Sandahl started the comeback with a six-point run at the line, several big kills from Davidson pulled the Wolves closer, and then, bam, Trujillo was once again the woman on the spot, slamming a ball off of a Falcon’s chin to push CHS up 15-14.
Even then, Batchelor and Co. kept coming, yanking the lead back and going up as far as 23-19.
With the crowd noise surging, and momentum seemingly slipping away from the Wolves, Coupeville needed a big-time play to turn the tide a final time.
Enter Toomey-Stout, who forced a side-out with a floor-shaking kill, and Vondrak, who ended the match with a five-point run at the line.
And exit to the bus a happy Whitmore, who has guided Coupeville volleyball to a .730 winning percentage (46-17) during his time on the Wolf bench.
“It was good to come out on top versus an improved South Whidbey team,” he said.
If he scanned the stat sheet on the short jaunt back to Cow Town, Whitmore saw a very-balanced attack, with Smith (25 assists, seven digs, two aces, two kills) and Toomey-Stout (11 kills, 16 digs, two aces) leading the way.
Davidson (eight kills, two blocks), Trujillo (five kills, three aces, four digs), Vondrak (four kills, two aces), Vick (two digs), Sandahl (two aces, four digs), Emma Mathusek (seven digs) and Lucy Tenore also joined in on the fun.
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