Sophomore Chelsea Prescott, seen in an earlier match, was one of many Wolves who played strongly Tuesday in a loss to defending state champ King’s. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
Champions respond.
Coupeville knocked King’s down, but not out, Tuesday, as the top two volleyball squads in the North Sound Conference waged a brawl on Whidbey.
And, while the Wolves became just the third team to take a set from the defending 1A state champs this season, the Knights responded with fire and fury, holding off CHS 21-25, 25-15, 25-19, 25-19.
With the win, King’s (9-0 in league play, 12-1 overall) clinches the conference crown and a #1 seed heading into the district playoffs.
CHS (6-3, 9-3) closes the regular season at home Wednesday, when it hosts Sultan (1-8, 4-9) on Senior Night.
A South Whidbey (5-4, 8-6) win over Cedar Park Christian (5-4, 9-6) Tuesday cleared the field for the Wolves. Crush the Turks behind 12th graders Emma Smith and Ashley Menges, and Coupeville finishes second in the six-team league.
As the #2 seed from the NSC, Coupeville travels to Lynden Christian High School Saturday, Oct. 27, where it opens the double-elimination tourney against the #3 seed from the Northwest Conference, likely Meridian (3-11).
Facing off with the best team 1A has to offer Tuesday, the Wolves pushed the big-hitting, high-flying Knights hard.
Menges smoked an early ace off the back line, and that seemed to jam an IV full of adrenaline right into the collective chest of her teammates.
Flying up the middle, then rising with a majestic bound to inflict great pain and suffering on those who dared to face her wrath, Maya Toomey-Stout lashed a winner that left a scorched mark down the center of the court.
That set off her partner in the big hit business, as Emma Smith soared above the net, using her long reach and deadly fingertips to deny back-to-back King’s kills.
Not content with merely stuffing her rivals, something she did four times during the match, she promptly mashed her own winner to cap her mini-run o’ success.
Up 15-11 after Menges floated past the net and flicked a tip between two Knights for a point, the Wolves were cruising.
As much as you can cruise against a team where every one of its players can launch nuclear strikes.
King’s ripped off a few eye-popping, and knee-quaking, kills to even things back at 15-15, but Coupeville didn’t flinch or pull back.
Instead, the Wolves immediately struck, with Scout Smith flicking a sweet sky-hook for a winner, followed by Emma Smith launching a rocket that exploded a King’s players knee when it hit pay-dirt.
Emma Smith put Coupeville on set point with a gorgeous serve which looped through the air over the heads of the Knights, only to drop like an anvil and bite the line at the very last millisecond.
King’s, even with its back to the wall, didn’t back down, holding off two set points, before Toomey-Stout, flying in from the left side, thunked the set-clinching point right down the line where no one had a chance to return it.
You don’t win a state title, though, and contend for the same every year, without being resilient.
The Knights responded with a roar, sweeping the next three sets without trailing once after the opening frame.
King’s made few mistakes, took advantage of every small error, blistered the ball and approached each point with a confidence born of repeated winning.
Not that Coupeville made it easy, however.
While the Wolves couldn’t quite recapture the magic of the opening set, they fought like the dickens, constantly keeping plays alive long after they seemed dead.
Emma Mathusek, Chelsea Prescott and Toomey-Stout made an art out of chasing down booming spikes into the far corners of the court, and beyond, getting an arm, or a fist, or an elbow, on the runaway orb and spinning the ball back into play.
Once the ball was propelled skyward, Wolf setter Scout Smith made smart passing choices, giving her hitters a fighting chance.
Toomey-Stout, seemingly much-recovered from battling a fall croup which has ripped through the CHS squad, made sure King’s will remember her.
Mashing the ball from all angles, “The Gazelle” delivered a team-high 11 kills, none more impressive than when she caved in the forehead of an unlucky Knight caught transfixed like a deer in the headlights.
Even while dropping the final three sets, Coupeville continued to nip at King’s heels, something their coach appreciated.
“I’m excited we competed the way we did,” Cory Whitmore said. “We wanted to show we had improved, that we weren’t scared of a very good team, one of the benchmark teams in the state.
“We want to be playing our best volleyball at the end of the season,” he added. “We did a good job of focusing on that tonight.”
Mathusek, who sacrifices her body as Coupeville’s libero, and often doesn’t get a chance to show up in the stat spotlight while doing the dirty work, earned big praise from Whitmore.
“Emma had fire in her game tonight,” he said. “They actively avoided her on the service return, hitting away from her.”
Her teammates played with passion, as well, as Scout Smith (20 assists, three aces), Emma Smith (six kills, four blocks), Menges (four digs, three aces), Prescott (10 digs) and Hannah Davidson (two aces) helped keep stat keeper Heidi Meyers busy.
Toomey-Stout went low for 16 digs to go with her 11 kills, while Mathusek paced the Wolves with 20 digs.
Rounding out a solid team-wide effort was swing player Lucy Sandahl, who, after huggin’ and smoochin’ parents Jeannie and Michael pre-match, ripped off aces on two of her three serve attempts.
JV falls:
King’s second unit, a highly-polished group with its own assortment of big-time hitters, could beat a lot of varsity teams.
So, while Coupeville put up a brave effort, its 25-13, 25-11, 25-8 loss wasn’t totally unexpected.
The defeat dropped the young Wolves to 3-6 in league play, 5-7 overall.
CHS kept things close for half a set, battling to a 12-11 lead in the opening frame, with Abby Mulholland and Izzy Wells dropping in winners while Raven Vick crushed a service ace off of a girl’s chest.
It was there that King’s flipped a switch, however, rolling off nine straight points, and 14 of the next 15, to close out the opening set.
Coupeville’s lone point during the onslaught came from Sandahl, who moved in to deliver a set, only to catch the defense by surprise by flicking a winner over her shoulder instead.
Vick and Maddie Vondrak hammered winners in the second set, while Abby Meyers spent much of the third frame somersaulting and lunging, selling out on every play as she did her best to keep the ball alive and stem the Knights big-play offense.
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