Big hitter Lyla Stuurmans rang up a team-high 18 kills Thursday night. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
There is a fork in the road. Which route do you take?
The Coupeville High School volleyball squad has 10 matches left on the regular season schedule, with seven of those coming against Northwest 2B/1B League foes.
Which means the Wolf spikers still have plenty of time to pull together, find a killer finishing touch, and rack up a whole bunch of wins.
Or continue to frustrate themselves and their coaches by being unable to fully harness their talent while settling for middle of the road status.
Coming off a five-set loss to Orcas Island Thursday in the conference opener for both teams, Coupeville finds itself at 0-1 in league play, 1-3 overall.
Two of those losses have come in five sets, and in both of those matches the Wolves were poised to win but didn’t.
Thursday’s defeat, coming to the tune of 25-22, 18-25, 19-25, 25-14, 15-8, wasn’t quite as much of a knife to the heart as their earlier loss to South Whidbey.
In that match, the Wolves led two sets to none, with match point in set #3, only to see things slip away.
But the Orcas defeat stings in its own special way, as it’s the first time a CHS varsity volleyball team has lost to a NWL rival other than four-time defending state champ La Conner since rejoining the league in 2020.
With those Braves (1-0, 1-4) struggling at times during their own rebuilding year, the race for the league crown seems to be wide open.
Coupeville’s next match? It’s at La Conner Sept. 26, after an appearance at this weekend’s South Whidbey Invite.
Time to choose your path.
CHS coach Cory Whitmore stresses a point in an earlier match. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
Coming off an impressive three-set road sweep of Mount Vernon Christian in a match considered a non-league rumble, the Wolves hit their home floor, and promptly reverted to a work in progress.
Up 3-0 in the opening set after a couple nice serves from Katie Marti and a high-flying tip winner from Lyla Stuurmans, CHS then lost the lead and never got it back.
The last tie in the first frame came at 6-6, and while Orcas never really pulled away, the Vikings kept the Wolves at bay just long enough to net the set.
Stuurmans, who walloped a team-high 18 kills, smoked a couple of winners to keep things close, but the defining play was when two Wolves crashed through the bench in pursuit of a wayward ball.
The hustle was there, but the fact they had to go so far off course in an ultimately futile effort to prolong the play added to Coupeville’s frustration.
But then the Wolves started clicking, capturing the next two sets and playing more like the team which blew MVC off the floor.
Coupeville shot out to an 8-2 lead in the second set, with Mia Farris and Teagan Calkins racking up winners at the net, gave back the lead for a hot second, then flipped the offensive power show back on.
Grey Peabody and Stuurmans took turns torturing the Vikings, spraying winners and ripping off arms, while Madison McMillan brought the complete game, sparkling on serves and mid-range slicers which found openings in the Orcas defense.
With the match knotted at a set apiece, CHS stayed on the offensive, claiming the lead at 8-7 in the third and never giving the advantage back.
Katie Marti had a picture-perfect flip over her shoulder, the ball catching the Vikings flatfooted, while Stuurmans showed off the guns, mashing winners and flexing her biceps to crowd roars.
The biggest cheer came for fan favorite Jada Heaton, who clinched the third set by bounding skyward to crush a winner at set point after Orcas (barely) got a Stuurmans nuclear blast back into play.
Jada Heaton patrols the net. (Jackie Saia photo)
Things were looking peachy at that point, but unfortunately for home fans, it was deceptive.
As fast as the fun times arrived, they vanished for the Wolves, with Orcas riding its heavy hitter, senior Bethany Carter, who became a nearly flawless mash machine across the night’s final two sets.
The fourth set slipped away fast, a 9-3 deficit morphing into an 18-9 disadvantage for Coupeville.
One Orcas player airmailed a serve moments after accidentally hitting herself in the face while bouncing the ball at the service line, but that was small consolation for the Wolves.
All of which set up a fifth and deciding set, which looked like it would be a heavyweight brawl in the middle of the ring.
Until it suddenly wasn’t.
Three times in the final frame Coupeville players hit the floor and made one-handed saves to keep a point alive, with both Calkins and Marti doing it during the same rally.
But a 7-7 tie slipped away, with Orcas running off six straight points on its serve, and the Wolves never fully recovered.
In the aftermath of the loss, which leaves Coupeville winless at home this season, the quandary lingers.
The talent is there. The heart is there. But will these Wolves find their killer instinct?
Only time will tell.
Thursday stats:
Taylor Brotemarkle — 2 digs
Teagan Calkins — 4 kills, 5 digs, 1 block assist
Mia Farris — 5 kills, 20 digs, 2 aces
Jada Heaton — 2 kills, 3 digs, 1 block assist
Issabel Johnson — 1 assist, 3 aces
Katie Marti — 2 kills, 6 digs, 37 assists, 1 solo block, 1 ace
Madison McMillan — 1 kill, 20 digs, 2 assists, 5 aces
Grey Peabody — 10 kills, 2 digs
Lyla Stuurmans — 18 kills, 10 digs, 3 aces
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