Hailey Hammer, seen here hustling to hit a ball over her head in an earlier match, has been a rock for CHS for four seasons. (John Fisken photos)
Departing seniors (l to r) McKayla Bailey, Monica Vidoni, Kacie Kiel, Hammer and Madeline Strasburg.
The record is deceptive.
A quick look at the final Olympic League standings paints a dire portrait for Coupeville High School volleyball. But you shouldn’t stop with a quick look.
True, a 25-16, 14-25, 25-19, 25-19 loss to Port Townsend at home Thursday ended the Wolves season at 1-11 overall, 1-5 in league play.
A fourth-place finish in the four-team league leaves them on the outside looking in as Klahowya (6-0), Port Townsend (3-3) and Chimacum (2-4) head to the playoffs.
But the season was more than the won-loss record.
Playing under their third head coach in as many seasons, the Wolves, who often started two ninth graders and carried a combined six freshmen and sophomores on their final varsity roster, were a work in progress.
And they showed substantial growth as their first year under Breanne Smedley played out.
Coupeville played up to the level of their opponents at times, pushing undefeated Klahowya hard and rarely, if ever, being blown out.
Numerous matches could have swung their way with a point here, a point there.
Freshman Lauren Rose, thrust into being the starting setter after Sydney Autio was lost for the season with an injury, blossomed, while sophomore Valen Trujillo cemented herself as the team’s star of the future.
From the top of the roster to the end of the bench, the Wolves scrapped impressively from opening night through the final moments of the season.
“They fought really hard and I am proud of how much they improved,” Smedley said. “We have a good future ahead of us. I will miss the seniors, but am proud of them all.
“I’m happy with how much progress they all made, how they made it so easy to learn and really bought in to the culture,” she added. “They have made the job fun.”
Coming off of a first go-round with Port Townsend in which they struggled mightily to get on track at the beginning, Coupeville came out with a much more fiery attitude.
Madeline Strasburg, one of five seniors trying to keep their high school spiker careers going past the evening, jumped out of her shoes on her first several spikes.
Exploding like a rocket into the heavens, she crushed a pair of winners, then ceded the spotlight to Hailey Hammer, who blistered a spike off of a Redhawk player’s toes.
The Wolves might have been too amped up, however, as a number of spikes went long, derailing Coupeville’s momentum.
CHS fought off four set points, culminating with a pair of winners from Kacie Kiel — the first a sound barrier-busting spike, the second a tip that froze multiple Port Townsend players in place as it slid through a sliver of space and found pay dirt — before finally falling.
The second set was more of the same, with the big three slamming crisp shot after crisper shot, only this time they all stayed in for winners.
Young guns Katrina McGranahan and Kyla Briscoe teamed for a key block at the net and Hammer, Strasburg and Trujillo all ran off impressive strings at the service stripe.
The final two sets were bitterly contested affairs, with six ties in each and moments midway through when Coupeville clung to the lead.
Ultimately, though, a few errors and a couple of nice hustle plays from the Redhawks, who contested everything, killed hopes of a comeback.
Coupeville went down fighting until the end, as McGranahan held off one match point with a beautifully-placed shot.
Hammer (15 kills, two blocks), Strasburg (eight kills, five aces and 22 digs) and Kiel (seven kills, three aces and 18 digs) paced the offense. Rose collected 27 assists and Trujillo went low for 31 digs.
The match marked the end of the run for Wolf seniors Hammer, Kiel, Strasburg, Monica Vidoni and McKayla Bailey.
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