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   Coupeville’s small, but scrappy, middle school football team showed great growth this season. (Bob Martin photo)

“They done good.”

While the Coupeville Middle School football team couldn’t nab a win in its final game of the season Wednesday, the Wolves earned the approval of coach Bob Martin.

Chimacum used a punishing running game to pull away for a 33-16 win on its home turf, leaving Coupeville with a final record of 1-4.

Playing mostly against teams with much-larger rosters, the Wolves held their own this season. Even when they lost, there weren’t any blowouts.

In its finale, CMS got a couple of big offensive plays from Caleb Meyer, Xavier Murdy and Cody Roberts, and strong defensive play from Nezi Keiper and Scott Hilborn.

As they hang up their uniforms, a look back at those who made up the roster:

Mathias Anderson
Lucious Binnings
Isaiah Bittner
Brayden Coatney
Brawn Gadberry
Jesus Garcia-Partida
Ty Hamilton
Scott Hilborn
Nezi Keiper
Logan Martin
Caleb Meyer
Xavier Murdy
Kevin Partida
Michael Peterson
Cody Roberts
Gabe Shaw
Damon Stadler
Josh Upchurch
Logan Wertz
Hawthorne Wolfe
Kiara Contreras
(Team Manager)
Lucas Salazar (Team Manager)

Serve up success!!

   Gwen Gustafson and her Coupeville Middle School volleyball teammates close their season at home Thursday. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

They’re peaking at the right time.

Finishing the regular season with three home matches in one week, the last one which will go down Thursday, the Coupeville Middle School volleyball squads are going out in style.

Wednesday, both the 7th and 8th grade Wolves romped to wins against Blue Heron, each taking two of three sets from the visitors.

Coupeville will try to keep that momentum going when it hosts Sequim in its finale Thursday. First tip is 3:15 PM.

Facing off with Blue Heron, which hails from Port Townsend, the Wolf 7th graders cruised to the win thanks to strong serving.

They hit on 35 of 44 serves across the first two sets.

Brynn Schmidt kick-started things, nailing 10 serves in a row to start the first set, before Kaielle Bepler (seven serves) and Alita Blouin (6) carried the burden in the next set.

Since Blue Heron fields only one team for each grade, Coupeville mashed together its varsity and JV teams on the afternoon.

“Everyone played, so it was great to get the whole team on the court, even though it was only three games,” said CMS 7th grade co-coach Kimberly Bepler.

“We’ll be glad to play the full three games for JV and the full three games for varsity tomorrow (Thursday),” she added. “The girls are looking forward to playing our last match after a really fun season of learning and acquiring new skills.”

   Coupeville girls soccer coach Kyle Nelson and his senior captains, Lauren Bayne (left) and Sage Renninger. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

Goal one — score a goal.

Goal two — win a game.

While the Coupeville High School boys soccer team has been to state twice, in 2009 and 2010, the school’s female booters have yet to taste playoff victory.

At any level.

Some will argue that point, correctly stating that an Oak Harbor/Coupeville girls soccer team beat Curtis and North Kitsap in 1994, made the state semifinals and finished fourth in 3A.

But, while the top two players on that unified team, Marnie Bartelson and Amanda Allmer, were the only Wolves to play, everything else gives OHHS ample reason to claim the award as their own.

The squad wore Oak Harbor uniforms, played at Oak Harbor’s field, were coached by an Oak Harbor employee and all the bills were paid for by Oak Harbor Athletic Director Jeff Stone, as he is quick to remind us.

Since CHS started its own soccer program, footing its own bills and playing in red, white and black, and not Wildcat purple and gold, no playoff wins.

In fact, at least over the past eight seasons, the Wolves have yet to score a playoff goal.

Three losses to Meridian, two to Vashon Island, one each to Lynden Christian and Charles Wright Academy and one year with no postseason. Add it all up and Coupeville is staring at a 20-0 deficit.

The goal Saturday afternoon, when the Wolves kick off the 2017 postseason against Vashon, is to change that narrative.

As the #2 seed from the Olympic League, Coupeville will host its playoff opener, though the state’s requirements that postseason games be played on turf requires a short bus ride first.

The particulars:

What: District 3 girls soccer playoff game.

Where: Wildcat Memorial Stadium in Oak Harbor (1 Wildcat Way), which is covered and seats 3,000.

When: Saturday, Oct. 28 (1 PM kickoff)

Admission prices:

$8 Adults/Non-ASB
$5 Students with ASB
$5 Sr. Citizens (62+)
$4 Elementary

At stake: Winner advances to face Nisqually League champ Bellevue Christian (a team Coupeville beat earlier this season) Oct. 31.

That game starts the double-elimination round of districts, from which two of four teams qualify for state.

Lose Saturday and your season is done.

The bracket:

http://www.olympicleague.com/tournament.php?tournament_id=2402&sport=11

Records: Coupeville is 8-8, Vashon is 8-6-1

Rankings: Coupeville is #30 in 1A on MaxPreps, #164 in the state. Vashon is #19 and #108.

Goal differential: Coupeville has been outscored 54-43, while CWA outgunned its foes 47-23.

Coaches: Kyle Nelson (CHS) vs. Scott Nicolino (Vash)

Student body: In the 2016-2020 WIAA classification counts, Coupeville had 227 students, making it the sixth-smallest 1A school. Vashon had 429.13, making it the fourth-biggest.

Mascots: Wolves (CHS) vs. Pirates (Vash)

Seniors: Coupeville has two (Sage Renninger, Lauren Bayne) while Vashon carries three (Emme Osborne, Paris Crispin, Lizzy Sutherland)

Common foes: Three (Bellevue Christian, Chimacum, Port Townsend).

Coupeville is 7-0 against that trio, with a come-from-behind 3-2 win over BC their defining game of the season. Vashon is 2-2, having lost twice to BC in Nisqually League play.

Pray for mercy!!

   Lucy Sandahl played sensationally in all aspects of the game Wednesday, sparking the Wolf JV spikers to yet another win. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

Savannah Smith is having none of your shenanigans.

There was a moment Wednesday during the JV volleyball match between Coupeville and Klahowya when the visiting Eagles seemed to still have a shot.

Enter Smith, and exit all hope from the hearts of her rivals.

Rising skyward with a mighty spring, the fab frosh rejected a Klahowya shot, using the very tippy-top of her fingers to forcibly send the ball skidding downward for a winner.

Then, after pausing to roll her eyes at the mere thought that someone would try and slip a volleyball past her impeccable defense, Smith softly smiled.

But just a bit, and quickly, and then the mask o’ death dropped again across her face as she stared holes through the players on the other side of the net.

It was a look shared by her teammates as well, as the Wolf young guns continue to thrash virtually everyone who wander into their path.

A mixture of freshmen and sophomores with their eye on making the jump to varsity next year when the departure of seven seniors will open a huge hole in the roster, they are now 11-1 overall, 8-0 in Olympic League play.

Their only defeat came to ginormous 2A Port Angeles, while the JV beat the only two teams the Wolf varsity has lost to — 2A Sequim and 1A powerhouse Bellevue Christian.

The latest JV win was a 25-12, 25-22, 25-21 dismantling of Klahowya which, frankly, wasn’t as close as some of those set scores might sound.

The Eagles were scrappy and put up a fight, but when it came time to ending points with a bang, that was reserved almost solely for the Wolves.

Whether Zoe Trujillo was slicing winners at the net, Raven Vick was pounding the crud out of the ball on spikes or Emma Mathusek was setting up her teammates for success, every Wolf on the floor was clicking.

Coupeville roared out to an early lead behind pinpoint serving from Lucy Sandahl, then coasted home for the first set win behind a sparkling tip from Maddie Vondrak and Maya Toomey-Stout unleashing heck on Earth.

“The Gazelle,” who is fond of climbing in the air, then breaking the laws of gravity by hanging for an eternity, before delivering crippling kills, was in fine form.

Toomey-Stout smoked the Eagles several times, but one kill in the first set, when she bounced a winner off of not one, not two, but three different players, was a thing of particular beauty.

For a moment, she was like a pool player ricocheting the ball around, leaving a little sting on the skin of every player whose body parts conflicted with the route of her shot.

While Coupeville dominated at the net — Chelsea Prescott joined her companions in regularly tattooing winners — the best play of the night came not on an outright winner, but on a sheer hustle play.

With the score knotted up midway through the second set, Klahowya appeared to have a winner, but Kylie Chernikoff had other ideas.

The Wolf frosh was down on the floor, but threw up her hand above her head while prone, somehow redirecting the ball back into play a millisecond before it skidded away into the crowd.

That gave Chernikoff’s teammates a chance to rally on a play which should have been dead, and, when the Wolves turned it into a point several hits later, all the momentum was on their side.

   Wolf netters Joey Lippo (left) and William Nelson, chasing a trip to state, won their opening match at districts Wednesday. (Connie Lippo photo)

There was a little something for everyone.

A broken string, a quick racket swap, rain (what a surprise), even some actual tennis being played.

After enduring the trip to Tacoma Wednesday, the Coupeville High School netters opened districts with a win, two losses and a match suspended due to moisture.

The best news came from senior doubles duo William Nelson and Joey Lippo, who overcame a disabled racket to wax Mason Rice and Hank Rogers of Vashon Island 6-4, 6-3.

Nelson borrowed teammate Nick Etzell’s stick to finish the match (his racket has since been restrung), but he might not have needed it, as Lippo promptly went on a run of service aces.

With the win, the duo advance to the semifinals Thursday, chasing their first berth at the state tourney next spring.

The top two finishers at districts, which pits the four best from the Olympic League against the four best of the Nisqually League, earn tickets to the big dance.

It’ll be a harder climb for Coupeville’s other players through the modified double elimination bracket, though.

Jakobi Baumann fell 6-0, 6-0 to Raghav Agrawal of Charles Wright Academy, while Etzell and Mason Grove were tipped 6-2, 6-1 by Wyatt Kepler and JJ Bogaard of Vashon.

While the doubles matches were played indoors, the singles matches were started outside, and rain threw that into havoc.

Coupeville’s other singles ace, Pedro Gamarra, was at 2-2 in the first set of his match with Zain Mian of CWA when liquid sunshine brought an early end to their tussle.

The tourney returns to action at 8 AM Thursday.