Adie Maynes, a three-sport star with a strong work ethic. (Lara Maynes photo)
Longer than a Taylor Swift movie, and with more hits.
Tuesday’s Coupeville Middle School volleyball home finale clocked in at three hours and 24 minutes, with 334 points spread across nine sets.
And while next-door neighbor South Whidbey made off with three victories, the Cougars had to work for the W’s, with the scrappy Wolves putting up a strong fight.
How the day played out:
Varsity:
The first match of the day featured the most points — 117 for those keeping track — with South Whidbey eking out a 25-20, 23-25, 15-9 victory.
The deciding third set was tied three times, the last at 4-4 after CMS 8th grader Willow Leedy-Bonifas sliced a winner through the defense, but then the Cougars pulled away.
South Whidbey had skill, it had grit, and it had luck.
Case in point, a late play in which the Cougars bounced a serve return off a light lashed to the gym roof, eventually winning the rally even as the light bucked and bobbed like it was trapped in an earthquake.
While no glass hit the gym floor below, a fair share of spikes did make contact with the hardwood as the two teams pummeled each other.
Coupeville trailed the entirety of the first set but did manage to fight off three set points as Adie Maynes sprayed bombs from the service stripe.
Tenley Stuurmans unleashed a knee-buckler of a kill to put the ball into Maynes hands, and the Wolves played their best under stress.
Inconsistent serving beforehand, however, put them in the position of chasing the Cougars.
Sydney Van Dyke and Leedy-Bonifas were the only Wolves to score on their serve in the opening frame until Maynes put together her torrid run at the end.
The second set was a different story, however, as this time it was CMS leading start to finish.
Van Dyke and precocious 6th grader Rhylee Inman scorched South Whidbey with nasty aces, while Maynes was a wild woman, sprinting from side to side, tracking down balls, and delivering several flips which froze multiple defenders.
“Adie has been the backbone for our team,” said Wolf coach Cris Matochi.
“I’ll bet she ran five miles today; she ran everywhere and was always trying to get our passing going.”
Inman, the lone 6th grader to see varsity time, also impressed her mentor.
“For a younger player, Rhylee is not intimidated at all,” Matochi said. “So good to see.”
South Whidbey refused to buckle, forcing several ties in the latter stages of set two, but Coupeville had the magic touch when it mattered most.
A Cougar serve went wide at 23-23, with Matochi bellowing “OUT!!” then eyeballing the ref, who hesitated for the briefest of seconds before confirming he agreed.
That set up Stuurmans, who flipped the set winner into the narrowest of available cracks during the next rally, knotting things up at a set apiece and setting the stage for the frantic finale.
JV – Level A:
The only match South Whidbey swept, as it came out on top 25-19, 25-19, 15-8 in a match closer than the score might seem at first glance.
While the Wolves dropped the opening set, they were poppin’ from the service line.
Cami Van Dyke, Emma Leavitt, Zoe Winstead, Cheyanne Attebury, and the Energizer Rabbit of Wolf Nation — the fist-swinging, lung-busting whirlwind of destruction known as Olivia Martin — all scored while firing BB’s.
Martin, rocking back and forth, then flinging her entire body into every serve, cracked off a particularly impressive string of serves, punctuating her run with an ace which caused her to holler like a Viking laying waste to a hapless village.
Win, lose, or draw, the CMS 7th grader, younger sister of former Wolf volleyball ace Emma Mathusek, is very likely the most entertaining middle school athlete in Cow Town.
In this pic from last season, Olivia Martin contemplates 1,001 different ways she will destroy your hopes of winning the volleyball match. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
The second set was a lot like the first one, but this time around Brooklyn Pope was the one laying waste to any fools who dared to step into her path.
She scored twice on balls she flipped over her head, with her back to the net, and seemed to be in the thick of things on every other play.
And then there was Miss Martin again, this time crunching a service ace which soared over a Cougar head, then suddenly, violently crashed to the court, bit a chunk out of the floor, and skipped away for a winner.
While the Wolves top JV squad didn’t end the day with a win, they did end it with a great deal of hard-won respect.
The future is bright for these young women, who have grown each time I have seen them on the floor this season.
Their spirit is big, their fight is bigger.
JV – Level B:
So close.
Seeking their first win, Coupeville’s second JV squad staggered South Whidbey, winning the opening frame 25-19.
Sparked by a huge day from 6th grader Scarlett Spencer, and strong work from running mates like Emma Cushman and Mila Gesing, the Wolves brought the house down, and kept their fan club rocking even after rock-hard bleachers wore out even the most resilient of tired tushes.
While the Cougars rebounded to win the final two sets 25-12 and 15-10 to claim the match, CMS left coach Kristina Hooks smiling.
“They have improved so much!!” she said.
Samantha Howard and Finley Helm added service aces in the first set, while an exuberant Alexandra Lo cranked out a run of winners from the line in set #2.
The deciding set — a quicksilver race to score 15 points — was up for grabs, as Coupeville overcame a 9-5 deficit to seize the lead at 10-9.
Helm, a pedal-through-the-medal race car driver picking up a new sport, reeled off four straight service winners, with the Cougars bouncing one return off a low-hanging basketball backboard.
South Whidbey had a pack of dangerous underhanded servers at its disposal, however, and rode a variety of moonballs at the end, surging back to claim the victory.
Next up:
Coupeville wraps its season with a trip to Lakewood Monday, Oct. 23.
After that, middle school athletes transition to basketball, with the Wolf boys playing first, before the girls return to the court in early 2024.
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