Kylie Chernikoff brings the thunder and the lightning. (Brian Vick photo)
It helps when you have the best player on the floor.
Thursday night’s JV volleyball match-up between South Whidbey and visiting Coupeville was competitive, tense, a back-and-forth rumble.
And then Kylie Chernikoff went off, plucking every last feather off the Falcons.
Paced by their stellar star, who rocketed her way to a 13 kill, eight dig, three service ace performance, the Wolves came out on top 25-21, 21-25, 25-15.
With the win, Coupeville rises to 6-1 in North Sound Conference play, 9-2 overall.
To get to the finish line and take a season sweep from their next door neighbors, the Wolves had to overcome a few rough moments along the way.
All of that faded into the mist which hung over the SWHS parking lot, as Coupeville exited on a major high, riding big-time serving and bigger-time kills to run wild in the third, and deciding set.
Every Wolf to step to the line in the final set went off on a run, with Jaimee Masters and Taygin Jump leading the way with four straight points on their serve.
Jump lashed back-to-back aces to bust open the set, but it was Chernikoff, lurking, waiting, anticipating, then exploding and decimating, who put the fear of God into her rivals.
One spike tore off a Falcon player’s arm, leaving it flopping uselessly on the floor (maybe I’m slightly exaggerating, but just slightly…), while another Chernikoff masterpiece was delivered from her own back-court, yet still ripped a chunk out of South Whidbey’s back line.
A sweet little running tip for a winner from Jump sweetened the deal, before scorching serves from Maddie Georges, Heidi Meyers, and Abby Mulholland softened up the defense.
And then … oh, good sweet lord, hide the women and children … Kylie is trying to kill people again!!
Chernikoff’s final thunderous spike, which put Coupeville a point away from winning the match, erupted off of her hand like a bolt of lightning, made every hair on the back of Wolf coach Chris Smith’s neck stand up and salute, and almost broke the universe itself.
Six South Whidbey players saw the blast coming, and six South Whidbey players decided they’d rather stay out of the way and live to breathe another day.
After that, the final point of the match, a low, screaming, extremely nasty ace from Mulholland, was impressive, and yet almost an afterthought as the gym support beams continued to shake from Chernikoff’s spike.
The strong finish brought a positive ending to a match which went back-and-forth for much of the way.
Despite getting strong work at the net from Anya Leavell (slicing winners left and right) and Jill Prince (rejecting and stuffing would-be Falcon kills), the Wolves didn’t lead in the opening set until 10-9.
The frame was tied as late as 16-16, and each time CHS started to pull away, thanks to Georges winning a tip battle or Masters flicking a winner over the heads of a pulled-in defense, South Whidbey rallied.
Down by five points, back within two, and then, ladies and gentlemen, we have Ms. Chernikoff getting, as my notes put it, “freakin’ savage.”
With the set hanging in the balance, the JV’s most dangerous assassin crunched a mammoth shot which parted the fleeing Falcons like Moses doing his thing at the Red Sea.
The Wolves almost repeated the scenario in the second set, with Mulholland holding court at the service line, Leavell floating tip winners, and Chernikoff abusing every last volleyball which dared to enter her air space.
South Whidbey fought hard, though, and found a little something extra to take the set and send things to a deciding showdown.
Where Chernikoff was waiting to whack ’em.
She got plenty of support, with Georges (three aces, four assists), Jump (four kills, three aces), Mulholland (two kills, four aces), and Alita Blouin (three digs, two assists) also filling up the stat sheet.
Masters (two kills, one ace), Leavell (four kills), Prince (two kills) and Meyers (two digs) added to the strong team effort, with Ivy Leedy providing advice and support while in street clothes on the bench.
