Freshman Rhylee Inman is making an impact for Coupeville’s varsity. (Carissa Peters photo)
It was a brawl, with one bad bump in the road.
Toss out a miserable second set, when the Coupeville High School varsity volleyball squad got stung badly by a red-hot server, and Monday’s non-conference rumble with visiting Cedar Park Christian-Bothell was almost a dead heat.
In the end, however, the Eagles, repping a 1A private school, proved to be just a bit better (on this night), making off with a 23-25, 25-7, 25-23, 26-24 victory over their 2B hosts.
The loss drops Coupeville to 1-4 on the season, but Scout Smith’s spikers get right back at it with back-to-back contests later this week.
The Wolves travel to Friday Harbor Wednesday, before hosting Concrete Thursday, with both matches conference bouts.
If CHS can bring the heat, as it did for much of Monday’s match, things will likely end positively.
Squaring off with an athletic, often big-hitting Eagles squad, the Wolves opened strongly.
Capri Anter and Willow Leedy-Bonifas sparked Coupeville with strong runs at the service line, while Arianna Cunningham was feeling it, crashing in from the left side to deliver monumentous kills.
Once the Wolves snatched the lead at 2-1 in the opening frame, they never fell behind.
Cedar Park did briefly tie things up at 12-12, but an ace from Anter immediately pushed CHS back in front, and several winners flying off the fingers of Cunningham and Tenley Stuurmans pushed the hometown team to victory.
The best combo play came courtesy Haylee Armstrong, who flicked a note-perfect set to her younger teammate, then watched in joy as Stuurmans pasted the ball off the backline.
Not to be outdone, Cunningham delivered a screaming winner which tore a piece of the floor off as it skidded away to seal the deal on a win in set #1.
Ready to rumble. (Bettie Sifuentes-Hart photo)
Set #2 wasn’t nearly as fun.
Early winners from Zariyah Allen, Rhylee Inman, and Kennedy O’Neill kept Coupeville close, but things disintegrated when a madly hopping Eagle went off on a 16-point run at the service stripe.
Down 22-3, Coupeville refused to take the easy way out, though, putting together a brief run of success after finally getting the CPC ace off the line.
While they couldn’t turn the momentary comeback into an epic turnaround, the momentum carried over into the third set for the Wolves.
Cunningham, playing one of her best matches ever, was a lethal force both on her serve and at the net, while a tip winner from Allen staked CHS to a 13-10 lead at the midpoint of the set.
From there the teams battled through six ties, with the last one coming at 23-23 after the fab frosh teamed up on a sparkling play.
Inman pulled off a miracle recovery, poking a ball back out of the net and skyward after the play seemed done, followed almost immediately by Allen slicing a winner that caught the Eagle defense flat-footed.
Cedar Park quieted the hometown fans, however, pulling off back-to-back tip winners to steal the set away and claim a 2-1 lead.
Which brought us to set #4, where another server got scorching, but this time one in red and black.
Leedy-Bonifas, with some help from a booming spike winner to the back corner from best bud Cunningham, delivered seven consecutive points at the line, pushing Coupeville out to a 12-3 lead and the promise of a fifth and deciding set lingered in the air.
The Eagles, a much-better team than their won/loss record might indicate, never backed off, but could never quite push past the Wolves, who held the set lead from the start to the (almost) finish.
Inman and Allen played like seasoned pros at the net, while Cunningham was bounding around, swinging like a mighty masher.
Not too long after an innocent ball cart was blown up by a spiker sprinting after a runaway ball, CHS found itself on the verge of knotting things up at two sets apiece.
Up 24-21, the Wolves needed just a single point … but couldn’t find it.
Cedar Park, holding off three set points, closed the match abruptly on a 5-0 run, denying the Wolves and guaranteeing itself a happy drive back to Bothell.
Monday stats:
Zariyah Allen — 5 kills, 2 digs, 1 block assist
Capri Anter — 8 digs, 3 aces
Haylee Armstrong — 1 kill, 8 digs, 5 assists, 2 aces
Arianna Cunningham — 10 kills, 13 digs, 1 assist, 1 solo block, 3 aces
Lexis Drake — 1 solo block
Rhylee Inman — 3 kills, 1 solo block
Willow Leedy-Bonifas — 15 digs, 1 assist, 4 aces
Isa Mc Fetridge — 1 dig
Kennedy O’Neill — 2 kills
Tenley Stuurmans — 3 kills, 4 digs, 16 assists, 1 block assist, 2 aces
