Mikayla Elfrank and her fellow CHS spikers are flying high at 10-3. (John Fisken photo)
It wasn’t flawless, but it didn’t need to be.
The high-flying Coupeville High School volleyball squad let visiting Chimacum hang around a bit longer than anticipated Tuesday, but still was able to drop the hammer when it mattered most.
Closing out the night with a bang, the Wolves made off with a 25-19, 25-21, 18-25, 25-12 decision, their eighth win in their last nine matches.
The victory lifts Coupeville to 7-0 in 1A Olympic League play, 10-3 overall.
It’s the most wins in a single season for the CHS spikers since the 2004 team set the school record with 13 victories.
The Wolves have two more league matches — Thursday at Klahowya and Saturday at Port Townsend — then host the district playoffs Nov. 5.
Win twice that day and they punch their ticket to the state tourney.
Playing on Senior Night (Coupeville honored Tiffany Briscoe, Ally Roberts, Valen Trujillo and long-time manager Kailey Kellner), the Wolves took a bit to get warmed up.
CHS trailed at some point in all four sets, but was able to use strong runs at the service stripe from Hope Lodell — who threw down a match-high 12 aces — and big hits from a number of players to pull away.
While he’s always happy to pocket a win, Wolf coach Cory Whitmore sees plenty of room for growth.
“We’re going to ramp up our work in practice and get back to basics,” he said. “If we want to go to state, we need to be more consistent.”
Still, Whitmore liked how his squad bounced right back from dropping the third set, closing the match with conviction.
“I’m extremely happy with the way we responded in set four,” he said. “We really ramped up the pressure and ended things on a strong note.”
Coupeville grabbed the lead for good at 7-5 in the fourth set when Briscoe rifled a winner off of a Chimacum defender’s arm, lighting the fuse on the coming explosion.
From that point on, the Wolves finally found their lock-down mode, spraying winners left and right.
Lodell went on a tear at the service stripe, firing off three consecutive aces, before Katrina McGranahan closed the night with winners on six straight serves.
Sarah Wright, bouncing around giddily on the right side, delivered three of those winners, cracking balls that scattered Cowboys and made the grin on her own face grow larger with each passing moment.
The coup de grâce came from sophomore sensation Emma Smith, who took an elevator up to the top floor of the penthouse, hung motionless in the air for an eternity, waiting for the ball to arrive, then hit it with so much force she may have left a permanent dent.
Smith’s kill may have been just one point of many on the night, but it was the type that scars the psyches of rival players for years to come.
Coupeville controlled the net all match, with Lodell using her killer hops to elevate for some putaways that were hit with enough force to blow the back doors on the gym open.
As they have done all season, the Wolves came away with a very balanced attack.
Lodell had seven kills to go with her dozen aces, while Payton Aparicio collected five aces and seven digs.
McGranahan tattooed the ball for a team-high nine kills, with Briscoe (5), Mikayla Elfrank (4) and Wright (4) all joining in on the fun.
Meanwhile, Trujillo (20 digs), Lauren Rose (15 assists) and Ashley Menges (11 assists) also scribbled their names firmly on the stat sheet.
As he basked in the win and looked at the road ahead, Whitmore, who is in his first season as a head coach, paid tribute to his veterans.
“This is my first senior group and they have trusted in me and formed the backbone of the team for us,” he said. “They have supported us emotionally and on the floor, and that’s huge.”
And while a 10-3 record looks pretty dang good, it’s not the final stop for these Wolves.
“We’re very happy to have won the league title, but we’re not satisfied to stop there,” Whitmore said. “That’s not where we think we can peak.”
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