Maddie Georges collected her 300th assist as a high school volleyball player Monday night. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)
Slip-sliding away.
For a half hour or more Monday night, the undefeated Coupeville High School varsity volleyball team looked very good.
Then, things splintered a bit, and now the Wolves have their first loss of the season.
It’s a non-conference defeat, and it came against Cedar Park Christian-Bothell, a solid private school foe — and former league rival — who exited with a 25-23, 25-14, 25-19 victory.
The loss drops Coupeville to 3-1, but the Wolves get a chance to bounce right back Wednesday when they travel to Darrington, where they’ll seek their fourth Northwest 2B/1B League win in as many matches.
Moving forward, CHS will try to avoid the pitfalls of Monday’s clash with the visiting Eagles, when it spent too much of the match playing from behind.
“Errors down the stretch hurt us a bit,” said Coupeville coach Cory Whitmore.
“When you’re climbing out of holes, and keep on having to do it, that’s always tough, especially against a team which takes care of the ball reasonably well.”
Coupeville battled CPC every step of the way in the opening set, with the two teams combining for 12 ties, the final one at 23-23.
The Wolves got to that last stalemate thanks to a nasty spike off the fingertips of Lucy Tenore, which came shortly after freshman Savina Wells blistered another winner.
Coupeville’s big hitters, which include Olivia Schaffeld and Jill Prince, were clicking, and the Wolves matched the Eagles kill for kill.
But CPC slipped away with the opening frame after Coupeville sent a serve long at 23-23, then muffed a play right on top of the net while facing set point.
Schaffeld had opened play with a spike which tore a chunk out of the floor in the back corner of the court, before fab frosh Lyla Stuurmans unleashed a collection of heat-seeking missiles of her own.
Freshman Lyla Stuurmans popped five kills against Cedar Park Christian.
The cousin of former Wolf MVP Payton Aparicio is already making a name for herself, thunking winners from the left side, then stamping her feet on the ground in joy as her squad celebrates around her.
Whitmore has a very-young team this time around, with two freshmen (Stuurmans and Wells) and a sophomore (Schaffeld) starting, with another sophomore, Grey Peabody, showing great promise.
Toss in a collection of juniors, who had a pandemic-shortened sophomore campaign, and no active seniors, and the Wolves are still a work in progress.
Case in point, the second set.
Coupeville came out strongly, with Wells and Prince spraying winners, while Schaffeld and Tenore teamed up to stuff a CPC gunner at the net.
But after trailing just 13-11, things went sideways for a bit, with the Eagles mounting a 12-3 surge to close out the frame.
That downward trend from the Wolves carried over to the start of the third set, with CPC blowing out to a 5-0 lead, then stretching it out to 18-10.
While Coupeville’s young guns couldn’t get all the way back, they did find some nice grit in their game, playing the Eagles straight-up the rest of the way.
Schaffeld collected back-to-back winners, Prince staggered CPC with some ferocious blows, and the Wolf role players came full-tilt in the final stages of the match.
“That one right there, she was an animal on the back row,” Whitmore said as Ryanne Knoblich stopped to say good night to her coach.
“She and (libero) Alita (Blouin) are really finding their niche,” he added. “And while it won’t necessarily show up in the stats, Lyla passed really well tonight.”
While he would have liked getting a win against a tough-nosed rival, Whitmore remains positive, already looking forward to a chance for his players to fine-tune their games.
“We’ll learn from this,” he said. “We’ll head back to practice tomorrow and focus on the importance of the first half of every set.”
While the Wolves lost the match, two of their juniors did reach personal milestones, which were hailed by team manager Abby Mulholland.
Georges collected her 300th career assist midway through the night, while Blouin passed 100 digs.
Monday stats:
Alita Blouin — 19 digs, 1 assist, 1 ace
Maddie Georges — 1 kill, 5 digs, 14 assists, 1 ace
Taygin Jump — 1 dig
Ryanne Knoblich — 4 digs
Jill Prince — 4 kills
Olivia Schaffeld — 5 kills, 1 dig, 2 block assists
Lyla Stuurmans — 5 kills, 4 digs
Lucy Tenore — 4 kills, 1 dig, 2 block assists
Savina Wells — 7 kills, 6 digs, 2 aces
Coupeville Sports 