Maya Toomey-Stout lashed a team-high 15 kills Tuesday as Coupeville volleyball pulled out a five-set win at South Whidbey. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
18 years to the day she was born, Emma Smith committed cold-blooded murder.
And her mom loved every freakin’ second of it.
When you go to carve the tombstone, include the name of every South Whidbey High School volleyball fan, who all went deathly quiet at the end of Tuesday night’s varsity volleyball match against visiting Coupeville.
The Falcon faithful hooted and hollered, and sported some classic Hawaiian shirts, but even the brightly-colored duds couldn’t save their team, because when Smith’s final, artful tip dropped to the floor and skidded away, it capped a five-set war and a major win for the Wolves.
Winning a battle of undefeated teams, CHS clambered back on the bus for the short, joyous ride home wearing grins, carrying birthday cupcakes and celebrating a 19-25, 25-20, 25-21, 24-26, 15-12 win.
The victory lifts the Wolves to 2-0 in North Sound Conference play, keeping them in a first-place tie with defending 1A state champs King’s, and 4-0 overall.
It also leaves them as the only fall sports team in the new six-team league, in any sport, to still be undefeated.
“I’m thrilled for the girls and this hard-fought win,” said Coupeville coach Cory Whitmore. “They have been putting in an incredible amount of work and preparation, so to earn a win on the road is very exciting.
“I thought that mentally we handled what they threw at us very well, able to turn around and come back at them with an attack of our own,” he added. “We did strong and smart work from the service line, attacking weakness and difficult areas, helping us to limit their attacks at the net.”
Coming on the heels of an epic JV match which left a buzz lingering in the gym, the teams came out fired up and ready to rumble from the first serve.
Back-to-back big plays, one a missile of a spike off the fingertips of Maya Toomey-Stout, the other a scorching service ace from Ashley Menges, helped stake Coupeville to an early lead.
But after Chelsea Prescott came rumbling in from the side to pound home a put-away to stretch the margin to 10-7, the Falcons regained control.
A long, successful run at the service stripe, and some teeth-rattling kills from South Whidbey senior Emma Leggett, fired up the local student section, and once the Falcons retook the lead, they never gave it back.
Menges, operating as her alter ego, “Smashley,” did her best to keep the Wolves in the set, thrashing and slicing the ball, while Emma Smith froze the defense with a note-perfect tip, but it wasn’t quite enough.
Coupeville only dropped one set across its first three matches, but if losing the first set hurt, it never showed on the faces of the Wolves.
Instead, they immediately went to work, with big winners from Emma Smith, Toomey-Stout and Prescott, all off of flawless sets from the nimble Scout Smith, who was everywhere at once.
A back-and-forth second set hung in the balance, with CHS up just 19-18, when the birthday girl made her presence felt.
Stopping a South Whidbey rally cold, Emma Smith rose up above the net with a mighty bound and pasted the ball off the back line for a winner, then strolled away, casually flicking a loose strand of hair over her ear, eyes blazing with fury and joy as Menges rushed to bear-hug her.
That play set off Coupeville’s most sustained run of the night, as it closed out the second set (on a knee-shredding spike from an exuberant Toomey-Stout), then surged to take a tight third frame.
Hannah Davidson was a key player in that third set, rising up to help turn away several would-be Falcon winners with key stuffs.
With both teams coming full tilt, punching, counter-punching, then finding a little more gas to swing from the heels, the fourth set was brutal, and beautiful.
The lead flipped back and forth while Emma Smith and Menges tried to out-do each other in the ferocity of their kills, only to have Toomey-Stout literally go and tattoo a ball off a rival’s forehead, dropping the Falcon to her knees.
Not to be outdone, Prescott, who overcame a wayward contact lens, dropped in a quirky hook shot that crawled through the air at the speed Matthew McConaughey drawls his words, before skipping away for a point.
Her next winner? A spike that, like Toomey-Stout’s bullet, bounced off a Falcon noggin and knocked some brain cells loose.
Even with all that, however, South Whidbey eked out a set win, even if it took them three ties to nab the deciding point against the pesky Wolves.
If the fifth and deciding set was the shortest, as the high school mercy rule dictated it only go to 15 and not 25, it still managed to pack in just as many plot twists and stunning reversals as the first four frames.
At first, the Falcons, riding a high coming out of the fourth set, seemed like they would run away with things, jumping out to a quick 5-2 lead.
The SWHS student section was rockin’.
But “Smashley” was … smashing.
Menges laced a winner that sliced off a few fingers as it carved its path of destruction, before Davidson and Scout Smith teamed up on a stuff, and the Wolves were on the comeback trail.
Cue the angina and the fingernail-chewin’, as the two squads fought through five ties down the final stretch run.
The last stalemate came at 11-11, and it came courtesy Emma Smith, who buried a huge spike that tore up the right corner, exploding at the feet of a volunteer lineman who had been super-enthusiastic on pro-Falcon calls all night.
This time, not so happy.
Nice.
As good as her teammates had been around her all night — and they were very good, from Scout Smith doling out 27 assists to Emma Mathusek scraping 17 digs off the floor — in the final moments, it was time for the birthday girl to blow out all the candles by snuffing every last Falcon hope and dream.
She followed the spike with a stuff at the net to give CHS a lead it would never relinquish, and then came about as perfect a moment as you can get without operating off a script.
South Whidbey, down 14-12, put the ball into play, and the rally went on, and then on some more, 12 players fighting to their last drop of sweat.
In the stands, Konni Smith, her voice strained by a night of screaming for her daughter, suddenly found one final holler.
Because, out there on the court, Emma Smith, twirling into the air, arms above her, fingertips quivering with anticipation, found the ball in mid-flight, stopped time, and flicked the biggest shot she’s nailed in a career full of nailing big shots.
The ball hit the ground, the Falcons whiffed, Konni and associates lost their minds and Emma’s cool as a cucumber younger sister, Savannah, almost looked up from her phone.
Almost.
Down on the court, after the celebration, the hugs, the screams, and a few words from their busting-with-pride coach, the Wolves exited the gym the way they entered.
As a tightly-knit group of strong young women who are buying into their roles, sacrificing for each other and enjoying the ride, a win and a cupcake at a time.
Coupeville Sports 