Raven Vick had a very strong night at the service stripe Wednesday, helping power Coupeville to a big bounce-back win. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
Hannah Davidson delivered 11 kills, two aces, and two blocks in the home win over Sultan. (Brian Vick photo)
It wasn’t perfect, but it’ll do.
Two days after absorbing their only loss of the season — a brutal beat-down at the hands of state power King’s — the Coupeville High School varsity volleyball squad roared back to life.
Playing without explosive hitter Chelsea Prescott, who suffered a brutal ankle injury in the loss, the Wolves stuffed visiting Sultan Wednesday night 25-10, 25-9, 23-25, 25-15.
The win lifts Coupeville to 4-1 in North Sound Conference play, 8-1 overall.
The Wolves are a game back of King’s (5-0, 8-0) and a game up on Cedar Park Christian (3-2, 8-3), at the halfway point of the league season.
South Whidbey, Granite Falls, and Sultan are holding on to the bottom three slots currently.
Coupeville travels to Port Townsend Thursday for a non-conference tilt with the RedHawks (1-7), before playing four of its final five league games on the road.
With its eight seniors making their next-to-last regular-season appearance on their home floor, and both teams celebrating Dig Pink Night and the fight against breast cancer, Coupeville was looking for a bounce-back game.
And the Wolves got it, as they controlled play all night, even factoring in a brief slip-up in the third set.
“It was good to get back after it and get a win again,” said CHS coach Cory Whitmore. “We had a productive practice with a very productive team meeting and we went after making adjustments to not having Chelsea for the time being.
“We had a third set lull and relaxed too much but got it together for the fourth set and ultimately the win.”
While the Wolves wanted to wash away the bad taste from their King’s loss, they also wanted to honor those fighting against, and those lost to, cancer.
The event drew a large crowd, with money donated to the cause and attention drawn to the battle.
“The event was fantastic and the turn-out was great with incredible energy as we played for a very important cause,” Whitmore said.
With freshman Lucy Tenore replacing Prescott in the lineup, the Wolves came out firing from the start.
Scout Smith opened things up with a 5-0 run at the service stripe, and she got big-time help from her teammates.
Fellow senior Maya Toomey-Stout erupted for a big kill on the first rally, blasting a ball off the back line, then made an eye-popping one-handed save on a later ball few could have caught up with.
Sprinting in a way which reminded all the fans why they refer to her as “The Gazelle,” Toomey-Stout punched the ball skyward at the last second, angling it perfectly to a waiting Zoe Trujillo, who lashed an immediate winner, sending the Turks scurrying for cover.
There weren’t too many places for Sultan’s players to hide, however, as Hannah Davidson, stepping up and delivering her most complete performance of the season, was on the rampage.
Mixing up thunderous spikes with note-perfect tips, then tossing in some service aces and blocks at the net to complete her mid-week masterpiece, Davidson gave dad Micheal plenty to celebrate.
“That’s my girl right there!!!!!!!,” papa screamed, while Whitmore was a little more laid-back, yet just as appreciative, in his post-match dissection, smiling and nodding as he intoned, “Hannah was huge for us tonight.”
Coupeville led from start to finish in the opening frame, continuously stretching the lead out, before Toomey-Stout (with a spike off a rival’s arm) and Trujillo (with an artful tip winner) closed the set.
If big hits was the theme in set one, sizzlin’ serves dominated the conversation in the second frame.
Raven Vick ripped off three straight winners, before Toomey-Stout came around to pour gas on the fire with a 10-0 run helped out by Davidson delivering winners on four of five points during one part of the run.
Again, Sultan never led in the set, and seemed primed to accept a straight sets beatin’ and get back on the bus.
But something changed as the third set played out, from the Turks taking their first lead of the night at 2-1, then hanging tough all the way through.
Toomey-Stout, Davidson, and Trujillo were still savaging Sultan at the net, with Maddie Vondrak sliding in to deliver some soul-shaking hits of her own, but the visitors didn’t melt away the third time around.
With the set knotted at 15-15, Vick came bounding off the bench to finally, seemingly, slam the door on the Turks.
A 6-0 run on her serve, topped by a play on which Toomey-Stout went airborne while swinging one hand, then suddenly changed hands in midair and blasted a winner with arm #2, shoved the lead to 21-15.
It was over … and then it wasn’t.
Sultan got a side-out, put the ball in the hands of its best server, and threw down its own unexpected, and faintly disturbing, 8-0 run to regain the lead, while pushing Coupeville to the brink.
Vondrak finally stopped the bleeding, delivering a monstrous mash of a winner, but the damage was done, and, for only the fourth time in nine matches, the Wolves dropped a set.
If Whitmore was disturbed, he hid it well, keeping a poker face for the fans and assorted word scribblers in attendance, but leaning in close to talk to his players as they sat on the bench.
Whatever words of wisdom were passed on did the trick, as the Wolves played out the fourth set much more like sets #1 and #2 than #3.
Once again, they led the entire way, they dictated the action, and all the big blows were dealt by young women wearing black uniforms.
Vick and Trujillo added one more strong run at the line apiece, while Tenore rose up above the net to let the world know she’s coming, and the spikes will be deadly and plentiful.
But it was Toomey-Stout, as it has often been over these last four remarkable years, who provided the final punctuation.
Taking flawless sets from Smith, her close friend, “The Gazelle” attacked again and again, delivering a season-high 19 kills, each one more explosively dynamic than the previous one.
With twin brother Sean leading the student section, stomping and screaming, Maya played with a brutal beauty, daring the ball not to pop under her ferocious attacks.
Huge smile on her face, mom Lisa leaned back and whispered, “She is going to be one tired girl tonight.”
At which point her daughter, once again defying gravity, flew by and pasted a cross-court winner to end the match, then landed in a group hug as her teammates mobbed her in glee.
Port Townsend was right around the corner, with the stretch run of league play looming ahead.
But in the moment, as Emma Mathusek and Lucy Sandahl and Smith and all her teammates bounced up and down, all Toomey-Stout could do was smile the all-encompassing smile of a winner.
In the stands, her mom leaned back and smiled even bigger.
“I love it. I just love it.”
