Teagan Calkins played strongly in her varsity volleyball debut. (Jackie Saia photo)
Point by point, it slipped away.
Up two sets to none Wednesday, one point away from a straight-sets sweep, the Coupeville High School varsity volleyball squad couldn’t drive the last nail into South Whidbey’s coffin.
Instead, the visiting Falcons held off two match points and rallied to capture an improbable 24-26, 23-25, 26-24, 25-17, 15-10 non-conference win in the season opener for both teams.
A battle royale which lasted two-and-a-half hours in a stuffy gym, played out in front of a Wolf student section which struggled to get loud ‘n proud until late in the evening, it left players, coaches, and fans slightly stunned.
The Falcons fly home with the win, to the delight of a few fans who chose to camp out in the Coupeville side of the gym, while the Wolves head back to practice needing to work on developing a killer mentality.
CHS was the better team much of the night and got strong work from sophomore Teagan Calkins and junior Madison McMillan, but made too many unforced errors to earn the win.
In particular, the Wolves, who have a roster full of exciting servers, struggled at the stripe, launching way too many balls into the bottom of the net.
Coupeville is off for a week, returning to action September 13, when it hosts Neah Bay, which will give coach Cory Whitmore and his staff time to refine things.
The new-look Wolves, who lost five players to graduation, are a work in progress, and that was never more evident than in the opening set.
Powered by strong serving from seniors Issabel Johnson and Grey Peabody, and one particularly nasty spike off the fingertips of high-bounding Lyla Stuurmans, Coupeville built an 11-6 lead.
Then everything which could go wrong did, quickly, allowing South Whidbey to tear off a 15-2 run and reclaim the lead at 21-13.
The Wolves looked disorientated, and lost, until they didn’t.
Flipping the switch back to positive, Coupeville got a burst of energy from Mia Farris, who tore off a Falcon arm with a wicked ace.
With McMillan catching fire as she was everywhere and nowhere all at once, dancing from side to side while spraying winners, the Wolves closed the set on a 13-3 surge to come all the way back.
Farris rose up to the ceiling and cracked straight fire right down the middle of the floor to seal the 26-24 set win, and the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde evening was well underway.
The second set featured four ties, with neither team able to pull away.
In a preview of things to come, South Whidbey held off two set points before Farris ended things with a ferocious spike which caught the top of the net, skidded along it as the Falcons watched it go by, then flopped on the other side for a winner.
The Wolves built a 5-0 lead in the third set behind the serving of Katie Marti, only to see the plucky Falcons hang around, eventually forcing eight different ties, the last at 22-22.
Peabody slammed a winner to stake CHS to a 24-22 lead, putting the home team on the brink of ending things in time for everyone to enjoy dinner at a reasonable time.
But it wasn’t to be, as the Falcons scored the final four points of the set, pulling victory from the jaws of defeat and prolonging things.
That delay turned into another hour, however, with the action resembling a slow-motion wreck at times for the Wolves.
Calkins, making her varsity volleyball debut after a stellar summer of smacking big base knocks for her select softball squad, rustled up a series of big-time hits, raining down pain on the Falcons.
But even with their sophomore sniper hard at work, the Wolves never led in the fourth set, and only once, at 5-4, in the fifth.
That lead vanished as quickly as it arrived, with Coupeville falling behind 10-5, and never getting closer than two points the rest of the way.
Wednesday stats:
Taylor Brotemarkle — 7 digs
Teagan Calkins — 8 kills, 2 digs
Mia Farris — 8 kills, 4 digs, 5 aces
Issabel Johnson — 2 digs, 1 ace
Katie Marti — 1 kill, 7 digs, 25 assists, 1 ace, 1 block assist
Madison McMillan — 2 kills, 15 digs, 5 aces
Grey Peabody — 8 kills, 3 digs, 1 block assist, 1 solo block
Lyla Stuurmans — 5 kills, 10 digs, 1 ace
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