Long day, big reward. (Jennifer Heaton photo)
In the end, one thing matters — they’re going to the state championships.
No matter how the Coupeville High School varsity volleyball squad got there, no matter how many ups and downs the Wolves experienced Wednesday, the end result trumps everything else.
In a season in which they started 1-4, they’ll step on the bus next Tuesday at 12-5, winners of 11 of their last 12.
And when they take to the courts at the Yakima SunDome Wednesday as one of 16 teams still in contention for a 2B state title, they’ll be the second squad led there by CHS coach Cory Whitmore.
“See how things work better when you hit it where I ask you to hit it?” (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
It’ll be a return trip for assistant coach Ashley Menges as well, since she was a player on the last Wolf volleyball team to make it to Yakima — the 2017 edition, which played Castle Rock and Lakeside (Nine Mile Falls) at the big dance.
This year’s team will find out their opening round foe Sunday, when the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association releases the full bracket for the double-elimination tourney, with schools seeded #1-#16.
Coupeville had two shots Wednesday to win one match at the 2B District 1/2 tourney in La Conner, and Cow Town’s spikers came through in crunch time.
The Wolves didn’t upend four-time defending state champ La Conner to claim the bi-district title, though they came within two points of doing so three times.
But they did crunch Northwest Christian of Lacey, the top seed from District 2, for the second time in three days, and that punched their ticket.
How Wednesday played out:
La Conner:
Coupeville had the champs on the ropes, dangerously close to winning its first volleyball district-level title since 2004.
But while the Braves are not the team they once were, their spikers are still dangerous — young women who have rarely lost and almost always play like they expect to bring home the W.
And they slipped away in the end, finding just enough pressure-packed winners to eke out a 22-25, 17-25, 25-23, 26-24, 15-12 win to get to 12-7 on the season.
Despite winning more points (109-105), the Wolves never got to match point, and have now split their four matches with La Conner this season.
Wins at the South Whidbey Invite and on Coupeville’s Senior Night — handing the Braves their first league loss in 12+ years — were huge.
A pair of five-set losses on La Conner’s home floor? Frustrating.
Will there be a fifth matchup in Yakima? Only time will tell.
For now, the Wolves can focus on what went right, which was a lot.
CHS opened the night by sweeping to wins in the first two sets, riding big kills from snipers Lyla Stuurmans — back on the floor after an ankle injury in Monday’s district playoff opener — and Mia Farris.
Jada Heaton won a tip war at the net, Katie Marti spanked a series of service winners, and Grey Peabody pasted a winner to give the Wolves the lead for good midway through the first frame.
Clinging to a 23-22 lead, Coupeville got two epic plays to seal the deal.
“Right there, that’s my favorite spot on the floor to hit.” (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
Marti, freezing everyone on both sides of the net, had the entire gym believing she was about to launch a set for one of her mad mashers.
Instead, at the very last second, the irrepressible one suddenly twisted her body into a pretzel in the kind of move which makes former dishwashers like myself cry out in pain, flipping the ball into a small hole in the defense.
Ball hit floor, the Braves whiffed, and Marti’s body snapped back into place, already going into celebration mode.
Try doing that when you’re middle-aged, missy. Ain’t gonna feel so good then, so enjoy being limber now.
With La Conner still in shock, Marti made a sensational running save on the next point, then flipped the ball skyward, setting up a rampaging Teagan Calkins.
Her right arm swinging like a scythe cutting grass, the sophomore sensation crushed the bejesus out of the ball, blasting home a kill to put set one into the win column.
Set two was more of the same sweet sauce, as Coupeville rallied from an early deficit, put the hammer down, then pulled away.
Lyla Stuurmans spent Halloween icing her ankle, with help from Nick Guay. (Sarah Stuurmans photo)
A stellar run at the service line from Stuurmans, followed by an even better one from Madison McMillan, was more than La Conner could deal with.
Back-to-back kills from Peabody and Stuurmans pushed Coupeville ahead 2-0, and things were looking peachy.
And they stayed positive for much of the third set, a battle royal with 11 ties and multiple lead changes.
Coupeville got to 23-23 on a McMillan ace, putting them two points away from lifting some hardware, only to have La Conner slip away at the very end.
The fourth set might have been the most frustrating, however, as the Wolves blew out to a 15-7 lead, with Farris floating in from above to nail a tip winner to push the lead to a full eight points.
The Braves refused to buckle, answering with a 10-2 run to knot things up at 17-17, before both squads went on 3-0 mini-runs to re-knot things at 20-20.
A pair of strong plays from Peabody at the net gave CHS a 22-20 lead, with the Wolves twice getting back within two points of ending things at 23-23 and 24-24.
That elusive match point still evaded the Wolves, though, with La Conner sending things to a fifth and deciding set.
Coupeville’s final lead in that frame came at 4-3, and the final tie at 7-7.
Farris launched three more winners in the waning moments, but La Conner, ever elusive, gave their student section something to scream about at the end.
Haylee Armstrong (left) celebrates with her future teammate, varsity ballhawk Taylor Brotemarkle. (Michelle Armstrong photo)
Northwest Christian:
With just minutes between the La Conner loss and a return to the court, the Wolves looked listless, in the extreme.
Their foes, who stayed alive by sweeping Auburn Adventist Academy earlier in the evening, came out with some fiery pop, while it took most of the first set for Coupeville to rediscover its mojo.
But the Wolves eventually did, holding off four set points in the opening frame before rallying for a 27-25, 25-12, 25-18 victory.
We’re not going to talk about most of the first set, as it would be super depressing.
Coupeville’s spikers made the kind of unforced errors they rarely make and looked like zombies with hangovers – understandable after the gut-wrenching loss to La Conner.
But then, something clicked deep inside, round about when the Wolves were looking at a 23-19 deficit.
Seniors Issabel Johnson (1) and Grey Peabody are front and center for a state-bound team. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
Peabody rose up over the net like a phoenix, unleashing one of the loudest kills of the night, and the splendid senior middle blocker seemed to wake up her team.
Farris went back to launching lasers, the Wolves started scrambling for balls again, holding off multiple Northwest Christian set points, and then Calkins ripped a hole in the floor once CHS finally had a set point of its own.
Coupeville’s rivals stayed chippy, but got a lot more gun-shy after that, and steadily, play by play, the Wolf team capable of making a solid run at state reemerged.
The second set was a non-stop parade of Wolf kills and service aces, with about the only thing capable of stopping Coupeville being a ref who froze in place and made like a tree as Farris tried in vain to get around her while chasing a ball.
The final frame was a romp, with Farris (two times), Calkins, and Marti raining down hot death on their serves.
The “we’re-going-to-state” point?
It came off the fist of Peabody, as she punched home a final kill, guaranteeing she and fellow senior Issabel Johnson will lead their squad onto the floor another time.
Wednesday stats:
Taylor Brotemarkle — 11 digs
Teagan Calkins — 14 kills, 6 digs, 1 ace, 3 block assists
Mia Farris — 40 kills, 38 digs, 10 aces, 1 solo block, 1 block assist
Jada Heaton — 2 kills, 1 dig, 1 assist
Issabel Johnson — 2 digs
Katie Marti — 5 kills, 25 digs, 81 assists, 5 aces, 1 solo block
Madison McMillan — 47 digs, 5 assists, 4 aces
Grey Peabody — 29 kills, 2 digs, 1 assist, 3 solo blocks, 4 block assists
Lyla Stuurmans — 18 kills, 25 digs, 1 ace, 1 block assist
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