Rhylin Price and CMS volleyball finally got to play at home Monday, in their third try. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
Third time’s the charm.
Nearly three weeks after their first scheduled home match, the Coupeville Middle School volleyball team finally got to play in their own gym against another school.
The original season opener came up empty when Langley never showed, then a second home match — this time against Granite Falls — was bumped due to bus driver issues.
But Monday everything worked, and Northshore Christian Academy arrived ready to rumble with the Wolves.
And while the visitors won both matches, there were still plenty of highlights for Coupeville fans to enjoy.
The biggest came in the final set of the day, when the Wolves top team rode some big serves to a 15-10 win.
Jordaya Dowell got CMS started, smacking several lasers from the line, while Tenley Stuurmans, Haylee Armstrong, and Teagan Calkins also came up big on their serve.
Stuurmans and Dowell also had big hustle plays in the set, with the former diving to the floor and lifting a rapidly-falling ball back up and over the net for a point.
Her teammate delivered the back-breaker to NSA, as Dowell came flying in from the side to drop a perfectly-placed bump between two defenders to stake Coupeville to a lead it wouldn’t lose.
While Coupeville’s Level 1 squad dropped the first two sets, it was competitive with the visitors, who featured a couple of heavy hitters.
Northshore also got a lot of points off of underhand “pooch” serves, while the Wolves, to a player, went overhand each time out, better preparing themselves now for playing at the high school level.
Armstrong, Stuurmans, Dowell, and Heidi Lysene all launched aces on their serve, with Armstrong also connecting on a thunderous spike for a winner.
Calkins, who was lauded by CMS coach Cris Matochi for “really being good at bringing leadership today” also climbed an invisible ladder to the sky before delivering a graceful tip winner.
In the opener, Coupeville’s Level 2 team got strong work from several players.
Capri Anter let fly with a ferocious serve or two, while Willow Leedy-Bonifas bopped a pair of returns which hopped over the net and hit pay-dirt for Wolf points.
The best play in the opening match may have come courtesy the tandem of Stuurmans and Rhylin Price, who teamed up for a beauty.
Successfully holding off match point, Stuurmans went low to make a flawless set, while Price finished off the play with a nicely-angled shot.
For Matochi and fellow CMS volleyball guru Katie Kiel, seeing growth and ever-increasing confidence from their young players trumps the score on the board hanging above the floor.
“The whole team played really well today,” Matochi said. “We saw a lot of improvement, and they are understanding they can win.
“That’s what we want, is for them to show good volleyball skills, to play with solid fundamentals, and have good spirit. And that’s what we saw!”
