Arianna Cunningham gets low to keep a play alive. (Julie Wheat photo)
Long matches are a fickle mistress.
Coming off a five-set win over La Conner, the Coupeville High School varsity volleyball squad almost made it two epic victories in a row before falling just short at Darrington Thursday night.
The 23-25, 25-22, 25-15, 18-25, 15-9 win keeps the Loggers undefeated in Northwest 2B/1B League play at 3-0, trailing just Mount Vernon Christian (5-0) in the standings.
With the loss, Coupeville drops to 4-2 in conference action, 4-5 overall, and sits in third place in the seven-team league.
Up next is another road trip, this one to Orcas Island October 14, before Scout Smith’s spikers finish the regular season with four of five at home.
Thursday’s royal rumble was a match full of streaks, with the final one proving fatal for the Wolves.
Having rallied to capture the fourth set, Coupeville jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead in the final frame thanks to some pinpoint serving from Haylee Armstrong.
It didn’t hold up, however, as Darrington closed the match on a 15-5 run.
The Wolves kept things close, forcing a tie at 7-7 thanks to a Tenley Stuurmans kill that blew up the backline followed by an ace off the fingertips of Willow Leedy-Bonifas.
Capri Anter and Co. are a scrappy bunch. (Jacob Lujan photo)
But the Loggers proved golden after that, slipping away at the end as Coupeville had a run of shots which narrowly missed staying inside the court.
The teams opened the match with a ferocious first set which saw 11 ties and multiple lead changes, with neither squad able to pull away until Arianna Cunningham lashed a knee-buckling spike winner to bust a 23-23 tie.
Capri Anter and Cunningham led the way at the service line in the first set, while Stuurmans was an equal opportunity mashing machine, scalding every Logger player at one point or another with a series of wicked kills and elegant tips.
With the first set in hand, Coupeville was on the cusp of going up two sets to none, leading 21-15, only to go cold as the Loggers closed the frame on a torrid 10-1 run.
Before then, the Wolves got another batch of Stuurmans winners, along with Isa Mc Fetridge peppering Darrington with hard-to-hit serves.
Seemingly stunned a bit by losing its momentum, Coupeville struggled through much of the third set.
Down 10-4 early, the Wolves did rally to force a brief tie at 11-11, with Lexis Drake and Stuurmans playing strongly at the net, but Darrington once again proved to be the streak queens, using a 14-4 tear to push CHS to the brink.
Coupeville had an answer, fighting back from an early deficit in set #4 to keep the night hopping.
Drake pounded a kill off a Logger arm to stake the Wolves to their first lead at 7-6, the margin soared to 14-9 as Cunningham floated in mid-air and flicked a winner between bodies, and then … another Darrington streak.
Six straight points from the Loggers pushed them ahead 15-14, but Coupeville wasn’t having it.
Haylee Armstrong (1) and Kennedy O’Neill power up. (Jacob Lujan photo)
Kennedy O’Neill shoved the Wolves back in front, slicing off a winner from the side, before Leedy-Bonifas turned a 19-18 lead into a 25-18 set win with an impressive run of serves.
That set the stage for a grand finale, which, on this night, went to the team not wearing red and black.
Thursday stats:
Zariyah Allen — 3 digs, 1 assist, 1 block assist
Capri Anter — 12 digs, 1 ace
Haylee Armstrong — 12 digs, 25 assists, 6 aces
Arianna Cunningham — 12 kills, 17 digs, 1 assist
Lexis Drake — 3 kills, 1 assist, 1 block assist
Willow Leedy-Bonifas — 14 digs, 1 assist, 6 aces
Isa Mc Fetridge — 2 digs
Kennedy O’Neill — 4 kills, 3 digs
Tenley Stuurmans — 15 kills, 24 digs, 1 assist, 2 block assists, 3 aces
