Senior captain Valen Trujillo has helped lead Coupeville to sole possession of first-place in the 1A Olympic League. (John Fisken photos)
Payton Aparicio was lights out at the service stripe Thursday, sparking the Wolves to a three-set win.
Get in, get out.
Playing quick, brutal, efficient volleyball Thursday night, the Coupeville High School spikers firmly stepped on visiting Port Townsend and never gave the RedHawks the slightest chance to recover.
Coming off a huge emotional win at Klahowya earlier in the week, the Wolves entered play in sole possession of first-place in the 1A Olympic League.
They ended the night having vigorously reinforced that reality.
Rolling the RedHawks 25-11, 25-12, 25-8, Coupeville improves to 3-0 in league play, 5-2 overall.
That leaves the Wolves a game up on Klahowya (2-1), while Chimacum (1-2) and Port Townsend (0-3) are looking up from the basement.
Coupeville dominated every aspect of the match, something coach Cory Whitmore was thrilled to see.
“We got right in our flow and managed the pace of the game,” he said. “We focused on our focus and I was very pleased to see we didn’t peak and valley.
“We got better today.”
The Wolves trailed only twice on the night, very early in the first set, with their final deficit a modest 4-3.
Reclaiming the lead two points later on a nice put-away off the fingertips of sophomore Emma Smith, CHS never looked back.
Their service game was nearly impeccable, led by Hope Lodell’s eight aces (Payton Aparicio added six and Valen Trujillo had four), and their hitting game extra-crisp.
The big spikes and crowd-pleasing kills were nimbly set up by Lauren Rose (13 assists) and Ashley Menges (six).
“We had very balanced numbers hitting,” Whitmore said. “Nearly everyone was in the positive; that’s exciting.”
Katrina McGranahan paced the Wolves with five kills, while Ally Roberts, Smith and Sarah Wright chipped in with four apiece.
Any hopes Port Townsend might have had of rallying in the first set were immediately undone by the Wolf power game, with Tiffany Briscoe slicing a nasty winner that caught the right corner and Lodell pounding the snot out of the ball.
Roberts, soaring high on the right side of the net, then unleashing with her left hand, swatted a huge spike that shredded flesh as it ripped through the porous RedHawk defense.
In the midst of all the explosive hitting, the ever-calm Rose ripped off nine straight points on her serve with a variety of knuckle-balls, proving quiet winners can count just as much as loud ones.
The second set was highlighted by a slicing winner from the left corner from Allison Wenzel, a nice team-up from Wright and McGranahan to stuff a spike and Lodell carving up folks at the service line.
If Port Townsend at least put up some fight in the first two sets, the RedHawks spent much of the final set looking like they wanted to be back on the bus and headed to the ferry.
With Rose and Aparicio rolling off serve winners one after another, Coupeville soared out to a 15-1 lead, then coasted home.
The most exciting moment in the final set came when Port Townsend was penalized for staying too long on the sideline during a time-out, then ended up playing two points with just five players on the floor.
McGranahan put together a complete highlight reel around the RedHawk confusion, climbing an invisible ladder three times in a four-point stretch.
Each time she emphatically put the ball away, skipping winners off of assorted Port Townsend kneecaps as her personal fan section went happily bonkers two seats down from me.
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