Hannah Davidson collected 10 kills and five blocks Tuesday as the undefeated CHS varsity volleyball team won a four-set thriller. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
It was a thriller and a chiller and a killer.
It was a four-set, two-hour battle royal, with two very good teams slugging it out for volleyball supremacy.
And, in the end, it was a win for the home team, which left Coupeville High School coach Cory Whitmore with a frazzled, but happy, smile on his face as the gym emptied out Tuesday night.
Having survived the best visiting Cedar Park Christian could throw at his team, he and his Wolves emerged with a 25-22, 25-23, 23-25, 25-23 victory, ensuring CHS would remain undefeated on the season.
With the win, the Wolves sit at 1-0 in North Sound Conference play, 4-0 overall.
Coupeville is in a three-way tie atop the league with King’s (1-0, 4-0) and South Whidbey (1-0, 2-1), while Cedar Park (0-1, 3-2), Granite Falls (0-1, 2-2), and Sultan (0-1, 2-3) sit a game off the lead.
The Wolves are off to the seven-team South Whidbey Invite this Saturday, Sept. 28, then return to match play Oct. 1, when they host South Whidbey.
As he scanned the stat sheet and reflected on what he had just witnessed — a night full of electrifying plays, but also a few stumbles, mainly in the third set — Whitmore was philosophical.
“It’s good to learn some lessons … but also to be able to pull out a win,” he said. “People really stepped up when they needed to, and that was nice to see.”
While he liked the grit and desire all of his players demonstrated under fire, Whitmore gave a special bit of praise to setter Scout Smith, who, as usual, was a calming influence on her squad.
The senior captain had herself a night, racking up 39 assists to go with four kills, five service aces, eight digs, and a solo block.
Coupeville would need every single stat Smith etched into the book, and big-time plays from all of her teammates, to fend off a hot-hitting Cedar Park team.
The opening set began as a back-and-forth affair, with four ties in the early moments, before Lucy Sandahl popped onto the floor and sprinkled some magic everywhere.
Coming in to serve, the senior spark-plug turned a 6-5 lead into an 11-5 advantage, delivering two crisp aces wrapped around a pair of sweet plays from running mate Hannah Davidson.
Showing she can kill you with power and kill you with subtlety, Coupeville’s main woman at the net rejected one CPC shot right back in the face of an Eagle, then nimbly tip-toed in and flicked a tip for another winner.
Cedar Park wouldn’t go away in the opening set, hanging around within 2-3 points most of the way, but the visitors also couldn’t get over the hump to retake the lead after Sandahl’s run at the line.
Two winners from Zoe Trujillo, one on a running tip, the other on a strong spike back up the middle, staked Coupeville to a lead it wouldn’t lose, then Maya Toomey-Stout went to work.
“The Gazelle” came flying in from the right side to lash a winner, rose up and blasted a hardwood-denting kill on the next play, then capped things with a service ace a play later.
With a set in hand, the Wolves went for a 2-0 lead and got it, but not without some effort.
After jumping out to a 3-0 lead thanks to strong serving from Smith, and an eardrum-rattling kill off the fiery fingers of Maddie Vondrak, CHS let things slip away for a bit.
The Wolves eventually found themselves down 16-11, but got back in stride thanks to stellar serving from Smith and Chelsea Prescott.
Even then, Coupeville didn’t actually reclaim the lead until 19-18, then had to endure five ties which pushed the set out to 23-23.
Needing a big-time play to seize the momentum, the Wolves found it, thanks to Prescott.
With a furious rally going on, the Wolf junior slipped through a crowd, bounded airborne and dropped a tip which was so pretty it froze three CPC players in place as they watched it arc past them, then splash down and skip away.
Up two sets to none, Coupeville seemed almost untouchable, but the third set brought the Wolves back down to Earth a bit.
It’s best to look at the frame as two separate pieces.
In the first, the Wolves seemed to forget completely what had worked for them, falling behind 17-6 and frustrating Whitmore enough he almost bent his clipboard in half.
But, after their coach delivered a terse, passionate call to arms, the real Wolves reappeared, closing the set on a torrid 17-8 run which came within a hair of completely reversing things.
The Wolves got back within a single point twice, at 23-22 after Toomey-Stout roughed up the ball on a smash, and 24-23 after a put-away from Davidson.
While Coupeville never made it all the way back in the third set, the resolve they displayed in staging the comeback was a major plus, and fueled them through the fourth, and final, frame.
Once again, the Wolves had to come from behind, but this time from just 7-3.
A tip winner from Vondrak put CHS back ahead at 9-8, then another big-time play from Prescott, on which she smoked a kill which hit the net at full speed, debated for a second, then flopped over for a winner, really got things hopping.
Cedar Park refused to leave the joint quietly, however, forcing ties at 20-20, 21-21, and 23-23, before the Wolves prevailed.
The final two points of the night were artful, inspired, and very satisfying for an enthusiastic, pro-Coupeville crowd.
At 23-23, Vondrak and Trujillo united to stuff a would-be CPC kill, then at 24-23, Prescott kept the play alive with a lightning-fast save in which she threw up both fists just in time to deflect the ball before it hit her in the chest.
With the play kept alive, the teams rallied for a moment, until Davidson flicked one final dagger through the heart of the Eagles, using the very end of her fingertips to redirect the ball just past the outstretched hands of a rival player who could only swing and miss.
That capped a game in which all nine Wolves who saw floor time chipped in to the cause.
Toomey-Stout blasted a team-high 17 kills and went low for 20 digs, while Davidson (10 kills, five blocks), Prescott (eight kills, 10 digs), and Emma Mathusek (18 digs and a billion hustle plays) all had solid nights.
Also joining in the fun were Raven Vick (two aces), Vondrak (three kills), Trujillo (four kills), and Sandahl (four aces, two digs), while Lucy Tenore, Willow Vick, and Kylie Chernikoff provided huge vocal support for their teammates.
