Hope Lodell, seen here firing a serve in an earlier match, became the first Wolf to top 100 aces in a single season. (John Fisken photos)
At 11-6, this year’s varsity had the most wins by a CHS team since 2004.
In the moment, it’s rough.
Later, when a little time has passed, it will be easier to appreciate all that was accomplished.
The Coupeville High School volleyball squad, playing for first-year head coach Cory Whitmore, put together the best season the school has seen since 2004.
The Wolves went 11-6, ran away with the 1A Olympic League title at 8-1 and smashed several school records, both individual and team, at the service stripe.
With a JV which went 12-2 overall, 9-0 in league play and a C-Team which finished 3-1, Coupeville’s spikers combined to win nearly 75% of their matches, finishing 26-9 as a program.
The varsity can return 11 of 14 players next season, and the coaching trio of Whitmore, Kristin Bridges and Ashley Herndon seem to be sitting on the cusp of something special.
But the reality is it will take a bit for everyone involved to be able to sit back and fully enjoy the heights they reached in 2016.
That’s largely because they still want to be playing, and they came so close to making it a reality.
The Wolves, playing on their home court Saturday, pushed Charles Wright Academy to four sets in their district playoff opener, then lost a heart-breaker of a five-set war with Klahowya.
Had they been able to convert on their one match point and put the Eagles away, CHS would have moved on to play Cascade Christian.
Instead, Coupeville was left on the outside looking in, as the Cougars quickly drilled Klahowya to join district champ CWA in advancing to state.
Match One:
The Wolves pushed Charles Wright hard, splitting the first two sets and trailing just 14-13 in the third set, before the Tarriers rode the heavy hitting of sophomore Abbie Jackson to a 25-15, 22-25, 25-14, 25-18 victory.
Jackson, who stands five-foot-eleven and hits like she’s pounding spikes on the railroad, got her feet tangled at one point and crashed hard to the ground in the early going.
She stayed there for a bit, her face screwed up in pain as her coach checked her out, but she eventually got back up and then started inflicting the pain on the ball, rat-a-tatting winner after winner.
That allowed CWA to put together several substantial runs that stung the Wolves.
Charles Wright closed the first set on a 13-5 run and broke the match open by sealing the third set on a final 11-1 charge.
In between, Coupeville roared out to a big lead in the second set, then held off another of those late Tarrier charges.
After Mikayla Elfrank pasted a winner to force a side out, Hope Lodell stepped to the line and ripped off seven straight winners on her serve to stake CHS to an 8-0 lead.
The winners included her 100th ace of the season, making Lodell the first Wolf to reach that mark.
Coupeville continued to press the advantage, using the high-soaring Katrina McGranahan and Emma Smith, who were a super-effective tip machine duo all afternoon, to stretch the lead out further and further.
When Tiffany Briscoe bashed a winner down the line, the Wolves were up 18-8 and rockin’ and rollin’.
Then came a Tarrier charge, as they sliced the lead all the way back down to 23-21.
Smith was having none of it, however, blunting the charge with two big winners to seal the set.
The first came on a spike which skipped off several arms as it blew by, while the final was a beauty that caught the last flake of paint on the back line.
Even after the late collapse in the third set, the Wolves continued to stage a solid resistance. They were as close as 13-11 in the final set, but then Jackson went to work once again.
Match Two:
Moving across the hallway to the Coupeville Middle School gym, the Wolves stared down their 1A Olympic League rivals for the fourth time this season, and for the third time went the distance.
But, after winning two of three from Klahowya in the regular season, Coupeville got nipped at the worst possible moment, falling 15-25, 25-15, 25-18, 17-25, 16-14.
The two teams went after each other like boxers who mutually decide to stand in the middle of the ring and bash each other in the face until one finally falls.
The final set, played in front of a capacity, and very loud, crowd, had eight ties and saw Coupeville scrap back from a 9-5 deficit to put itself on match point at 14-13.
Lodell skipped several more aces past the Eagles, Payton Aparicio had a huge winner in the heart of the pressure cooker and the Wolf back line made save after save to prolong the day.
Valen Trujillo and Lauren Rose chased down balls that should have been Eagle winners and the biggest play of the day may have been delivered by Ally Roberts.
Throwing out her fist at the last second, the senior spark-plug punched a Klahowya spike an inch away from her face, and not only got the ball back over the net, but directed it through a wall of Eagles for a winner.
With both teams staggering, fans hyperventilating and the small gym getting steamy, KHS reached down deep and found a final miracle.
A picture-perfect tip split the Wolf defense, held off match point and knotted things at 14, before Coupeville misfired on the game’s final two rallies.
One ball caught the net, held for a second, then flopped back into CHS territory, before a Wolf spike went long on Klahowya’s first match point.
Coupeville dominated the first set, as Smith, playing in front of aunt, and former Wolf volleyball legend Joli (Smith) Bartell, was unstoppable at the net.
Tiredness seemed to hammer the Wolves hard in sets two and three (though Allison Wenzel came off the bench to give CHS a late boost with a run at the service stripe), but they got their mojo back in set four.
Ashley Menges grooved a gorgeous ace that left the Eagles standing around slack-jawed as it flew by and caught the back-line, then Smith unloaded a spike that was so vicious it made everyone think CWA’s Jackson might have taken possession of her soul for a play.
The district tourney brought an end to the stellar prep volleyball careers of Roberts, Briscoe and Trujillo, a trio who have played together since middle school.
