Payton Aparicio had nine service aces and six kills Tuesday, sparking Coupeville to a straight-sets win over Klahowya. (John Fisken photo)
There’s a new boss in volleyball land.
The first two years of the 1A Olympic League Klahowya went a combined 12-0 in league play and won back-to-back titles.
That time is done.
Playing inspired, extremely balanced ball on its home court Tuesday night, the Coupeville High School spikers roared to a convincing straight-sets win over the Eagles, moving within a win of clinching the 2016 crown.
The 25-13, 27-25, 25-18 victory lifts the Wolves to 5-0 in league play, 8-3 overall.
CHS is three games up on Chimacum and Klahowya, who are both 3-3 in conference action.
Since the Wolves already own the tiebreaker over both those schools, a win Thursday at Port Townsend (0-5) will clinch Coupeville’s first volleyball league title since 2001.
Win the crown and CHS gets a boost come playoff time, as the #1 seed from the Olympic League starts the postseason in the double-elimination round of districts.
Win twice (while playing on its home court, as Coupeville hosts districts Nov. 5) and the Wolves are state-bound.
To see the bracket, pop over to: http://www.olympicleague.com/tournament.php?tournament_id=2069&sport=10
And, while they continue to take it one match at a time, the Wolves, who have four regular-season bouts left, now have the most wins by a CHS varsity squad since the 2009 team went 9-6.
If the Wolves continue to play like they did Tuesday, they might make some serious inroads on the school single-season mark of 13 victories, set in 2004.
Coupeville, after a brief hiccup to start the match, lit Klahowya up with a mix of dazzling serves and bone-crunching hits.
Hope Lodell kicked things off, unleashing three straight scorching serves to spark the Wolves to their first lead of the night at 4-3, then Payton Aparicio got nasty and really blew the hinges off the door.
After dropping in a tip for a winner at 8-6, the Wolf junior strolled to the service line and ripped off nine straight winners.
The first eight balls never came back over the net, as the Eagles struggled mightily to solve Aparicio, before Emma Smith dropped a huge spike to push the lead to 17-6.
While Smith’s winner was a crowd-pleaser, it was probably only her third-hardest-hit ball of the evening, as the sophomore slugger opened a can of whup-ass on Klahowya that had no end in sight.
Maybe feeling a bit left out, Wolf teammate Mikayla Elfrank came swinging into the spotlight, capping the opening set with a pair of emphatic winners.
One was on a ferocious spike that tore off a rival girl’s arm, the other on a tip in which Elfrank tiptoed up a staircase to heaven before delicately redirecting the ball into the only open space on the floor.
To give Klahowya credit, the Eagles refused to bend easily, running out to a 17-10 lead in the second set.
While Katrina McGranahan lashed a noisy winner off of linesman Steve Kiel’s ankle and Aparicio put together another strong run on serve, things seemed to be headed towards split sets.
Except Coupeville wasn’t having any of that.
Rallying behind the steady serving of unflappable Lauren Rose, the Wolves came all the way back to take the lead, then surrendered it just as suddenly, then pulled the set win out with a bang.
Suffice it to say, it was a wild ride, especially for hyperventilating parents in the stands.
Elfrank went airborne like a ballerina with serious hops to drop in a tip, McGranahan peeled three layers of paint off the floor with a spike which exploded loud enough to wake up the dead and suddenly CHS was up 24-22 and on a 12-5 run.
Cue the sucker-punch, as a couple of mishits put Klahowya back up 25-24.
Enter Aparicio, silent as a ninja, slapping teammate Valen Trujillo’s hand for good luck, then delivering a knockout one-two punch.
First she dropped a note-perfect tip, perfectly angling it so it bounced off the posterior of a fallen foe, then she elevated and ripped a slicing spike down the line for another winner.
With CHS back in front by a point, Ashley Menges put the set away, ripping a service winner off of a Klahowya returner’s arm and letting the crowd breathe again.
There was still a set to play, but the Eagles were done, shoulders sagging, the fight ebbing from their bodies.
They tried to pull it together for a few nice rallies, but Coupeville could see the finish line and was surging.
Winners came from every direction, both expected — Smith and Elfrank mashing winners at 110 MPH — and unexpected — Lodell throwing out a balled-up fist at the last second and not only saving the ball, but redirecting it for a winner.
Appropriately on a night when she could seem to do little wrong, the final point of the match came from Aparicio, who let loose with one final service winner and then jumped into her teammate’s arms.
The resounding victory, coming on a night when the CHS spikers honored those fighting breast cancer, brought a smile to their coach’s face.
“I was very happy with our composure all night,” said Cory Whitmore. “Even when we were trailing, we chipped away and focused on fixing any issues on our side of the net instead of worrying about what the other team was doing.”
The stat sheet was exactly the way the volleyball guru likes to see it — balanced in the extreme.
Aparicio led the way with nine service aces and six kills, while Lodell (nine digs, five aces, four kills), Menges (11 assists, four aces) and Rose (nine assists, four aces) all chipped in.
Trujillo went low for nine digs, while McGranahan (7), Smith (4) and Elfrank (4) all soared for key kills.
