Freshman Izzy Wells reeled off 16 straight points on her serve Thursday as the Wolf JV volleyball squad crushed Port Townsend. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
Torched. Burnt to a crisp. Annihilated.
Choose any of the above, because they all apply to the Port Townsend High School JV volleyball team after the whuppin’ applied Thursday by Coupeville.
Using 13 different players, and getting big performances from all of them, the Wolves cruised in with a 25-6, 25-11, 25-5 win in front of their home fans.
The non-league victory snaps a three-game losing skid for the CHS young guns — two of those losses came in three-set nail-biters — and lifts them to 3-4 on the season.
In a match where pretty much everything went right for the Wolves, the spiker with the hottest hand was Izzy Wells.
Making her second trip of the night to the service line, the freshman turned a 2-1 third-set deficit into a 17-2 advantage, running off 16 straight points, with few of her serves even put back into play.
Wells ripped an ace off of a Port Townsend player’s chest, then promptly mixed things up by dropping her next serve right at the feet of the same gobsmacked RedHawk.
That second serve skipped merrily away for another ace, while fellow frosh Kylie Van Velkinburgh buried a winner from mid-court on one of the relatively few times PT got the ball back over the net during the streak.
By the time she was done, Wells had put together Coupeville’s longest run on serve since Lauren Rose rolled off 20 straight points in a varsity win over Chimacum in 2016.
In stark contrast to the note-perfect run of serves, Port Townsend’s defining moment of the night came when a RedHawk picked up a ball after a play, whirled to throw it back to Coupeville’s side of the net and instead buried it right into the stomach of a wide-eyed teammate.
It was that kind of night for the visitors, as the Wolves pounced early, stayed hot and coasted home, while mixing and matching players as fast as coach Chris Smith could sub them in and out.
In the early stages, it was all about Coupeville’s power, as Zoe Trujillo, Maddie Vondrak and the rampaging Vick sisters, Willow and Raven, crushed the ball anytime it was in the air.
Port Townsend failed to score a single point on its serve in the opening set, while Wolves Lucy Sandahl, Jaimee Masters and Co. peppered the RedHawks with superb serves when they were towing the line.
Willow Vick, in a stirring set-up to Wells later exploits, put together a seven-point run on her serve which featured a bit of everything.
She tore apart the defense with one ace that scorched the middle of the court, then artfully slipped another winner barely over the net.
It was a low, dangerous hummer which caught the top of the net and flopped over, hitting Port Townsend’s side of the floor before promptly dying.
Her twin sister chipped in, with Raven hammering a spike which ended a brief rally on one of Willow’s serves.
The response from one frustrated (and now highly-nervous) RedHawk?
A low, strained whimper of “OH … MY … GOD!!!”
Moments later, Trujillo went airborne and lashed a laser shot which cracked off a Port Townsend player’s arm, sending her staggering off in search of somewhere, anywhere to hide.
She never found that safe haven.
The second set was more of the same, just with a handful of Coupeville errors scattered among the big plays.
Vondrak, dancing above the net, used the very end of her fingertips to twice stuff RedHawk shots, while the Wolves dominated on serve yet again.
Masters scorched aces, Raven Vick zinged aces, Trujillo fired aces and Vondrak mashed aces in the middle set. Sense a trend, do you?
While Wells one-woman ballet of death and destruction grabbed the biggest chunk of the spotlight in the final frame, Noelle Daigneault also dropped in a gorgeous ace and Masters closed the night firing BB’s at the line.
Along the way, Abby Meyers, Ivy Leedy, Abby Mulholland and Eryn Wood all saw quality floor time, with Mulholland skying high to slam home an especially impressive spike.
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