Coupeville Sports

Ally Roberts saves an errant shot. (John Fisken photos)

McKenzie Bailey goes low for a ball.

The stands were jammed for Miranda Engle Tuesday, and she responded.

As older brother Dalton bellowed “Go Randy!” and assorted family members filled up a chunk of one side of the bleachers, the Coupeville High School sophomore stalked the volleyball net like an uncaged lioness.

Slamming spikes from all directions, and even once making a shot with her shoulder instead of her hands, Engle powered the Wolf JV team through a strong showing against visiting Sultan.

But a couple of late calls that went against Coupeville derailed its momentum, allowing the Turks to slip away with a 25-27, 25-23, 25-17 win.

It wasn’t for a lack of effort from Engle and her teammates, however. With Engle and Monica Vidoni controlling the air above the net, the Wolves roared back from a 20-11 deficit to claim the first set, with Engle notching the final point with a precision tip between flailing Turks.

The second and third sets were even closer, with strong plays from the net enforcers being joined by skillful artistry from McKenzie Bailey, Ally Roberts, Tiffany Briscoe and Valen Trujillo.

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Madeline Strasburg takes a moment to catch her breath. (John Fisken photos)

Amanda Fabrizi was virtually flawless for two hours plus.

Remember the joy.

It was beauty. It was agony. It was amazing.

One team was two points away from losing the match and kept the thing going for another half hour. The other squad stared down four match points and somehow staggered away with the win.

A star left the game (and the gym) with complications from a possible concussion, while the other team’s best offensive weapon spent a great deal of time stalking the sideline, desperately trying to keep loose in between frequent rub downs on what seemed to be an extremely painful back.

By the time Tuesday night’s titanic volleyball match between Coupeville High School and visiting Sultan had ended, with the Turks leaving town with a season-making 19-25, 25-20, 25-23, 23-25, 18-16 victory, every trick in the book had been exhausted.

Maybe.

There’s still a chance Coupeville might be able to successfully protest a highly-disputed illegal substitution call late in the fifth set (with the score 14-14 after Sultan survived three straight match points).

As the Sultan coach rocked back and forth on his heels, aghast at his mistake, the Turks saw a point taken from their total for their foul-up, then returned after endless back-and-forth debate between the refs, coaches and captains.

Even after that, each team held off another match point apiece before the war of attrition finally ended on a Wolf shot into the net.

Afterwards, an exhausted CHS coach Kirsty Croghan looked at the bright side. While keeping her options open.

“It was a tough loss. However, I couldn’t be prouder of my girls,” Croghan said. “They really stepped up their game and played their hearts out. It was truly a team effort.

“As for the disputed illegal substitution call in the fifth set, I am contacting the head officials to find out if it was handled correctly and will possibly be protesting the call,” she added. “I don’t have an answer yet if it was the correct call or not.”

The disputed call couldn’t dim the magnificence of two virtually evenly-matched squads battling spike to spike, desperate dig to even more desperate, throw-your-body-into-the-stands-in-pursuit-of-the-ball dig.

The Wolves and the Turks waged a war that was more about big smiles and foot-stomping reaction to killer plays than the tears, of both happy and sad varieties, that stained a few faces at the end.

As they exited, both teams hailed each other, and it had a bit of the feeling of warriors honoring each others sacrifice.

For Coupeville, it was senior leader Breeanna Messner playing to absolute perfection (13 of 13 on serves, 27 of 27 on service returns) before being removed when she could no longer go on.

After taking a blow in the face at a select basketball game Sunday, there are concerns she may have lingering effects of a concussion.

In her absence, her teammates rallied down two sets to one and trailing 23-22 in the fourth. Hailey Hammer, who led Coupeville with 15 kills, punctuated the surge with a pair of booming winners that shook the rafters.

With Hammer and high-flying Madeline Strasburg (11 kills) rifling winners, the Wolves built a 14-11 lead in the final set (which goes to 15, not the normal 25).

But then, for one more time, Sultan’s superb Lalia Gonzalez, ignoring the pain she seemed to be playing with for the entire match, reached down and found a final gear Coupeville had no answer for.

Practically leaping out of the gym on each of her spikes, which sliced like daggers through the Wolves, she fired shot after shot all night, accompanied by a mega-watt grin each time one found the floor and skidded out of reach.

Then she, and the Turks, were out the door, emotional winners on a night when there truly were no losers.

Because you can’t look at the performances put out by an Amanda Fabrizi (17 of 17 on serves with three aces and flawless on serve returns while sacrificing her body) or a Sydney Autio (42 assists), or the unflagging hustle of a Megan Oakes or Kacie Kiel and see anything but a winner.

And that’s true no matter what the final score reads.

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The Wolf defense sets up and waits to receive serve. (David King photo)

Rough first set. Very close second and third sets.

That was the tale of the tape for the Coupeville High School JV volleyball squad Thursday night in Langley. A point here or there in the latter stages, and we’d be talking about a win.

Instead the Wolves absorbed a 25-11, 29-27, 25-17 loss to host South Whidbey, dropping their record to 1-3 on the season.

The highlight of the evening was the middle set, where the two teams went toe-to-toe.

“We had a lot of hustle plays,” said Wolf coach Amy King. “Girls all moving with the ball, sizing up the hitters and being ready for them as well as doing a much better job of taking care of the ball.

“The score was very even the entire game,” she added. “Nobody got ahead by more than a few, nobody got behind by more than a few and it came down to a missed serve. It was an exciting game.”

The one-two combo of big-hitting freshmen Tiffany Briscoe and Valen Trujillo powered Coupeville in the set. Briscoe laid down 10 serves, with three aces, while Trujillo connected on eight, twice jamming aces past the Falcon receivers.

The opening and closing sets were more hit-and-miss. With very few serves, the Wolves struggled through the start of the match, but did get nice kills from Miranda Engle and Monica Vidoni (two kills), as well as “two nice tips” from sophomore sensation McKenzie Bailey.

In the final set of the evening, the action was closer than the final score, King said.

Briscoe knocked home two more service aces, and the Wolves support crew came through with big plays.

Emily Coulter put together a nice run of serves, Lauren Grove soared to collect the first block of her short volleyball career and foreign exchange student Merle Fitzenhagen played strongly in the back row.

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