Mikayla Elfrank, seen here last season, hit like a tornado Tuesday as Coupeville drilled Klahowya in a first-place battle. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
There are a lot of plays in a volleyball season, so it’s usually pretty hard to pick just one as a defining moment.
Until Mikayla Elfrank goes and breaks a girl’s face in half, reaches in and sucks her soul out, and a gym full of people react as if they all just got blasted in the nads.
Game. Set. Match. Play of the year.
When the Coupeville High School senior (accidentally?) crushed a spike off of a Klahowya rival’s skull Tuesday, it hit with so much force the ball almost shot back over the net.
It would be one of the few times the Eagles had a semi-legitimate shot at returning a Wolf volley, as CHS romped to a 25-14, 25-11, 25-15 win and moved into sole possession of first place in the Olympic League.
Intent on defending its title, Coupeville improved to a flawless 2-0 in league play, 4-1 overall.
That puts the Wolves a half game up on Klahowya (2-1, 3-3), while Chimacum (1-2, 1-4) and Port Townsend (0-2, 1-3), which hosts CHS Thursday, are stuck in neutral.
Frankly, there’s a much bigger gap between the Wolves and the Eagles than that half-game margin.
A senior-dominated Wolf squad waited three weeks for its first home match (and then an extra hour-plus, after Klahowya missed its ferry) and came out hyped-up and ready to go on a rampage.
Coupeville has big hitters galore (Elfrank, Katrina McGranahan, Emma Smith, Payton Aparicio and Kyla Briscoe to name a few) and they spent most of Tuesday peppering the Eagles.
Shots zinged off of arms, legs and the floor, and then, late in the second set, Elfrank got nasty.
Now I’ve seen volleyball players get hit in the face before.
I’ve seen Chelsea Prescott explode a girl’s nose with a spike in a middle school game, forcing Coupeville AD Willie Smith to bring out the extra-big roll of blood-absorbing paper towels.
But this? This was a once-in-a-lifetime display of raw power and unrelenting fury.
Sort of like last year when a Wolf softball slugger named Mikayla Elfrank cranked a home-run to straight-away center at Sequim which dented a carnival ride beyond the fence.
In other words, don’t mess with Mikayla. Cause she will mess you up.
Launching herself skyward, Elfrank swung her fist like Thor dropping his hammer on Loki’s head, giving the hapless Eagle in front of her .00001 of a second to blink before her world view exploded into a pretty, pretty fireworks display.
A boom (more like a BOOOOOOOOOOOM) cracked through the gym, the Klahowya player took a tentative step to her right, one to her left, then simply sat down (while her brain told her not to stand back up ever again) and started to laugh.
That not a single drop of blood was shed was remarkable, and to her credit, the Eagle played the remainder of the match, after her teammates gave her an impromptu concussion test.
While she might have been able to follow their fingers with her eyeballs, those peepers also remained wide open the rest of the match, perpetually scanning for any movement from the panther-like Elfrank.
Coupeville and Klahowya play twice more this season, but it was very evident Tuesday the Wolves have the upper hand.
Exactly as CHS coach Cory Whitmore planned it.
“It was a very nice execution of our game plan,” he said. “We were very aggressive on our serving, and very clean with our hits.
“We had a nice balance, low on errors and high on termination.”
The Wolves put many points away without a rally, averaging almost seven service aces a set.
Aparicio led the way, ripping off six, while Lauren Rose (5), Hope Lodell (4) and McGranahan (4) were hot on her heels.
Lodell, who has willingly adjusted her game to fill the considerable gap left by the graduated Valen Trujillo, was the first Wolf to put a serious crimp in the Eagles style.
The senior slugger, operating as “The Surgeon,” ripped off two aces, packaged around a point won by a gorgeous tip from McGranahan, to crack open a semi-close first set.
CHS never trailed by more than a single point at any time in the match, and with Lodell staking them to a 10-7 lead in the first set, the rout was on.
Super sophomore Scout Smith delivered the first set’s most emphatic point, slicing a winner which slid past two defenders and bit the line as it skidded off for a date with the back wall.
After that it was pretty much all winners, all the time, with Emma Smith shredding a girl’s elbow with a laser shot, Briscoe flying forward and poking a ball into a two-inch gap between a pair of Eagles for a point and Elfrank spraying cannon shots in all directions.
The big hits get the headlines, but Rose (10 assists) and Ashley Menges (8) did the dirty work, setting up their teammates, while Maya Toomey-Stout (four digs) and Allison Wenzel chipped in as all 11 Wolves had an impact.
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