Coupeville Sports

I laughed when I saw this. I’m easy.

Personally, I find this hilarious.

Wednesday, the Coupeville High School volleyball teams wrapped their seasons by getting together and carving Jack-O-Lanterns.

This? This is art.

Nicely done, ladies.

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Amanda Fabrizi and mom Fawn Gustafson. (John Fisken photos)

Breeanna Messner and family.

Allie Hanigan and mom.

Haley Sherman and family.

Sydney Aparicio and a smidgen of her huge family, who all wore special shirts in her honor.

Megan Oakes and parental units.

Foreign exchange student Aura Corredor (third from left) and her cheering section.

The tears started in the first minute, but not from the mom who everyone was betting on.

As seven Coupeville High School volleyball players and their families were honored before Tuesday’s season finale, there were speeches, flowers, photo ops (the pics above courtesy of traveling clicker John Fisken) and yes, tears.

Both an ending and the start of a new beginning, it was Wolf sports at its finest.

For more photos head over to http://www.cascadeathletics.com/index.php?act=view_gallery&gallery=4673&league=2&page=1&page_name=photo_store&school=24&sport=0.

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Valen Trujillo sells out completely in pursuit of the ball. (John Fisken photos)

Emily Coulter launches a ball skyward.

The Wolves celebrate a point.

The “accidental” coach enjoyed her season.

Bumped up from the middle school to take over the Coupeville High School JV volleyball squad at the last second after the first coach got a teaching position in another district, Amy King had to move quickly.

And she did, meshing her style with new varsity coach Kirsty Croghan and beginning the process of building a program in a new direction.

With a wide disparity in player skills — some of her girls could have played varsity in a year where that team wasn’t so senior-dominated, while others had never played the sport before — growth came first, then wins.

The Wolves got some of the latter, and a lot of the former.

“It’s been a great season with tons of improvements all around,” King said. “I was happy to get to coach this bunch of girls; they came together as a team and worked hard all season.

“I’m very proud of them all!”

In their final go-round Tuesday they faced a visiting King’s squad that could beat many varsity teams, but held their own through two sets, falling 25-15, 25-15, 25-6.

Monica Vidoni, Miranda Engle, Tiffany Briscoe and McKenzie Bailey came through with several strong plays apiece, while Valen Trujillo was a dynamo as usual, flying from one side of the court to the other to cover both her space and anything her less-experienced teammates left unpatrolled.

The shot of the night, however, came off the fists of Emily Coulter, who knocked a high, looping ball that hit an overhanging basketball backboard, rattled around, then dropped through the basket for two.

As it plummeted (still in play) the Wolves stopped watching the trick shot do its magic dance just long enough to knock it back over the net for a winner. Then the celebration started at mid-court as Coulter’s grin went ear to ear.

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Wolf seniors (l to r) Megan Oakes, Haley Sherman, Breeanna Messner, Amanda Fabrizi, Sydney Aparicio and Allie Hanigan prepare for player introductions. (John Fisken photos)

Departing star Messner and next year’s big gun, Hailey Hammer.

Outgoing setter Oakes and her successor, sophomore Sydney Autio.

They went out as a group, weathering a hellish storm of super-charged spikes to the end.

Facing a high-flying, big-hitting group from visiting King’s, the six seniors on this year’s Coupeville High School volleyball squad put up their typical fight-to-the-finish effort Tuesday night.

But, in the end, they had to accept a season-closing 25-19, 25-17, 25-14 loss to a team which is expected to make a long playoff run.

After the tears of the opening ceremonies had faded, the six-pack (Haley Sherman, Amanda Fabrizi, Megan Oakes, Allie Hanigan, Sydney Aparicio and Breeanna Messner) played valiantly.

Fabrizi (“A rock star on the back line” said CHS coach Kirsty Croghan) added some more floor burns to what has to be an already impressive collection, refusing to give in on even the hardest hit ball.

Her running mate, Messner, had a spectacular play where she went up into the stands to save a ball, setting up young gun Kacie Kiel, who slammed home the winner and made the sacrifice worth the effort.

It was a scenario repeated late in the match, when what looked like a sure-thing ace by a King’s server was blunted by three straight players getting a small portion of their outstretched arms on the ball at the last second.

Surprised to see the play still developing, the Knights popped up their return, at which point Sherman laid down a withering winner that hit the court loud enough to be heard out on the prairie her ancestors have farmed for decades.

Coupeville led for chunks of the first set and stayed close for much of the following two sets, but could never quite get on a roll the way King’s did from time to time.

The final point the Wolves won in 2013 came courtesy of junior Hailey Hammer, who unleashed the last of a season’s worth of kills, then walked away to prepare to lead this team next season.

The Wolves (3-12), playing under Croghan, a former CHS star in her first year as a head coach, finished strongly, nabbing two of their three wins in the final four matches of the season.

They also came inches away from upending traditional power Archbishop Thomas Murphy and showed tremendous growth.

The only downside is they got caught in a numbers game and won’t get to play on. After years of making the playoffs (where they would have scared some teams), the Wolves were denied this year when only two of the three 1A schools in the Cascade Conference advanced.

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