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Posts Tagged ‘Darrington’

Long night, narrow loss

Posted in Volleyball, tagged , , , , on October 8, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Arianna Cunningham gets low to keep a play alive. (Julie Wheat photo)

Long matches are a fickle mistress.

Coming off a five-set win over La Conner, the Coupeville High School varsity volleyball squad almost made it two epic victories in a row before falling just short at Darrington Thursday night.

The 23-25, 25-22, 25-15, 18-25, 15-9 win keeps the Loggers undefeated in Northwest 2B/1B League play at 3-0, trailing just Mount Vernon Christian (5-0) in the standings.

With the loss, Coupeville drops to 4-2 in conference action, 4-5 overall, and sits in third place in the seven-team league.

Up next is another road trip, this one to Orcas Island October 14, before Scout Smith’s spikers finish the regular season with four of five at home.

Thursday’s royal rumble was a match full of streaks, with the final one proving fatal for the Wolves.

Having rallied to capture the fourth set, Coupeville jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead in the final frame thanks to some pinpoint serving from Haylee Armstrong.

It didn’t hold up, however, as Darrington closed the match on a 15-5 run.

The Wolves kept things close, forcing a tie at 7-7 thanks to a Tenley Stuurmans kill that blew up the backline followed by an ace off the fingertips of Willow Leedy-Bonifas.

Capri Anter and Co. are a scrappy bunch. (Jacob Lujan photo)

But the Loggers proved golden after that, slipping away at the end as Coupeville had a run of shots which narrowly missed staying inside the court.

The teams opened the match with a ferocious first set which saw 11 ties and multiple lead changes, with neither squad able to pull away until Arianna Cunningham lashed a knee-buckling spike winner to bust a 23-23 tie.

Capri Anter and Cunningham led the way at the service line in the first set, while Stuurmans was an equal opportunity mashing machine, scalding every Logger player at one point or another with a series of wicked kills and elegant tips.

With the first set in hand, Coupeville was on the cusp of going up two sets to none, leading 21-15, only to go cold as the Loggers closed the frame on a torrid 10-1 run.

Before then, the Wolves got another batch of Stuurmans winners, along with Isa Mc Fetridge peppering Darrington with hard-to-hit serves.

Seemingly stunned a bit by losing its momentum, Coupeville struggled through much of the third set.

Down 10-4 early, the Wolves did rally to force a brief tie at 11-11, with Lexis Drake and Stuurmans playing strongly at the net, but Darrington once again proved to be the streak queens, using a 14-4 tear to push CHS to the brink.

Coupeville had an answer, fighting back from an early deficit in set #4 to keep the night hopping.

Drake pounded a kill off a Logger arm to stake the Wolves to their first lead at 7-6, the margin soared to 14-9 as Cunningham floated in mid-air and flicked a winner between bodies, and then … another Darrington streak.

Six straight points from the Loggers pushed them ahead 15-14, but Coupeville wasn’t having it.

Haylee Armstrong (1) and Kennedy O’Neill power up. (Jacob Lujan photo)

Kennedy O’Neill shoved the Wolves back in front, slicing off a winner from the side, before Leedy-Bonifas turned a 19-18 lead into a 25-18 set win with an impressive run of serves.

That set the stage for a grand finale, which, on this night, went to the team not wearing red and black.

 

Thursday stats:

Zariyah Allen — 3 digs, 1 assist, 1 block assist
Capri Anter — 12 digs, 1 ace
Haylee Armstrong — 12 digs, 25 assists, 6 aces
Arianna Cunningham — 12 kills, 17 digs, 1 assist
Lexis Drake — 3 kills, 1 assist, 1 block assist
Willow Leedy-Bonifas — 14 digs, 1 assist, 6 aces
Isa Mc Fetridge — 2 digs
Kennedy O’Neill — 4 kills, 3 digs
Tenley Stuurmans — 15 kills, 24 digs, 1 assist, 2 block assists, 3 aces

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Rains, Leavitt serve up big win

Posted in Volleyball, tagged , , , , , on October 8, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Emily Rains plots your destruction. (Julie Wheat photos)

Ace, ace, in your face.

Wolf heavy hitters Emma Leavitt and Emily Rains were on point Thursday in Darrington, each firing off 10 unhittable serves, and a whole lot of other ones where the return ended up in the bleachers.

Powered by the wham-bam sisters, and a team-wide 26 aces, the Coupeville High School JV volleyball squad cruised to its third win in its last four matches.

Sweeping the host Loggers off the floor to a 25-18, 25-6, 25-12 tune, Alita Blouin’s spikers get to 3-3 in Northwest 2B/1B League play, 3-6 overall.

The afternoon began with a crack of thunder, as Leavitt savaged Darrington with a serve that screamed past the defenders, and ended on another point-winning laser off the arm of Olivia Martin.

In between those titanic blows the Wolves offered their rivals very few opportunities to stage long rallies.

Coupeville was in control from start to finish, jumping out to staggering leads in the first two sets.

Riding a run of 10 straight points on her serve from Rains, the Wolves built a 13-1 margin in the opening frame, gave some points back, then closed things out with another run of strong serves from the Wolf freshman.

Rains also had a beautiful tip winner to blunt a Darrington rally, while Addison Jacobson whacked a spike off the backline to keep everyone honest.

Annabelle Cundiff brings the thunder and the lightning.

If set #1 was a bit of a romp, most of the time at least, set #2 was a full-on bushwacking.

Leavitt torched the Loggers for eight points at the service stripe, before Rains added another run of six straight winners as Coupeville went up 16-1.

This time the Wolves gave very little back, with Martin, Scarlett Spencer, and Jacobson joining the duo in controlling things on their serve.

While the match was already decided in favor of the visitors, the Wolves continued to carve up the Loggers in a third set played to get everyone valuable floor time.

Spencer came flying in from the side to deliver a pair of tip winners, while Annabelle Cundiff inherited the role of assassin, putting together a six-point run at the service stripe to bust things open.

Sabrina Judnich chipped in with hustle plays, Amira Anunciado and Hannah Roberts provided strong vocal support to their teammates, and Martin closed things out with a final burst of liquid fire, sending the Loggers back to their rooms without supper or a win.

 

Thursday stats:

Annabelle Cundiff — 3 aces
Addison Jacobson — 3 kills
Emma Leavitt — 1 dig, 5 assists, 10 aces
Olivia Martin — 1 kill, 4 digs, 2 aces
Emily Rains — 2 kills, 1 dig, 10 aces
Scarlett Spencer — 2 kills, 1 dig, 1 ace

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Eagle-eyed Wolves walk to success

Posted in Baseball, tagged , , , , , on April 2, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Riley Lawless and friends sit atop the Northwest 2B/1B League standings. (Jackie Saia photo)

Why run, when you can walk?

Taking full advantage of 14 free passes Thursday, plus five Darrington errors, the Coupeville High School baseball squad kept its early season run of success going with a 6-2 win over the Loggers.

The victory, which came on a chilly, if relatively wind-free prairie, lifts the Wolves to 4-0 in Northwest 2B/1B League play, 5-2 overall.

Coupeville will cap a busy week Saturday with its fourth game in a six-day period, hosting non-conference foe East Jefferson.

First pitch is set for 2:30 PM, and the baseball action will be accompanied by a Coupeville vs. Cancer fundraiser, with proceeds going to WhidbeyHealth.

Thursday’s win, which gives CHS a season sweep of Darrington, featured a stellar pitching performance from sophomore hurler Carson Grove, who set down 13 Loggers on strikes across six innings of work.

Tack on a scoreless seventh from relief ace Trent Thule, and the visitors had few scoring opportunities.

Though, to be fair, the Loggers did score first, pushing across a run in the top of the second thanks to a single, a stolen base, and a passed ball.

Coupeville had its chances to get out in front big in the early going, only to see Darrington escape each time.

The Wolves loaded the bags in the first with no outs, only to strand all three runners, then came away with just a single tally in the second despite once again cramming the basepaths full.

Grove scored the tying run after reaching on an error, but a groundout back to the pitcher with the bases juiced ended things prematurely.

Not to worry, as Darrington’s pitching staff couldn’t keep the ball in the strike zone and kept giving Coupeville opportunities until the Wolves finally hit pay dirt.

A three-run third inning proved to be the difference, with walks to Coop Cooper, Aiden O’Neill, Grove, and Chris Zenz setting the table, and a Leo Rodriguez single cracking things open.

Up 4-1, Grove gave one run back in the fourth, before reverting into shut-down mode the rest of the way.

Coupeville closed out the top of the sixth with a slick double play, the ball going from Cooper to Grove to Glover, then tacked on two insurance runs in the bottom half of the frame.

Malachi Somes provided one of Coupeville’s two hits to start things up, but again it was a familiar story of Wolf walks and Logger errors.

With their softball counterparts in the stands for the seventh inning, the Darrington hardball hitters had hopes of a comeback, but it wasn’t to be.

Glover made a strong play to start the inning, charging in from shortstop to snag a bouncer and gun down the runner, and Thule slammed the door shut to move Coupeville back into a first-place tie atop the NWL standings with Mount Vernon Christian.

 

Thursday stats:

Coop Cooper — Two walks
Camden Glover — Two walks
Carson Grove — Two walks
Riley Lawless — One walk
Aiden O’Neill — Two walks
Leo Rodriguez — One single, two walks
Malachi Somes — One single
Trent Thule — Two walks
Chris Zenz — One walk

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Chilly prairie, sizzling sluggers

Posted in Softball, tagged , , , , on April 2, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Capri Anter has a big bat and she’s not afraid to use it. (Jackie Saia photo)

They’re always hunting for runs.

The Coupeville High School softball squad is jam-packed with fleet-footed, quick-thinking athletes, always looking to disrupt their foes on the basepaths.

That was showcased again Thursday, as the Wolves hammered the ball, then ran visiting Darrington ragged during a 15-0 win on the chilly prairie.

With the victory, Aaron Lucero’s sluggers get to a pristine 4-0 in Northwest 2B/1B League play, 7-0 overall, with a non-conference home game against East Jefferson (1-5) set for Saturday.

That tilt, slated to tip off at 2:30 PM, is also the annual Coupeville vs. Cancer fundraiser, with proceeds going to WhidbeyHealth.

Thursday’s matchup was a well-rounded beatdown, with the Wolves controlling every facet of the game.

Lucero went three deep with his pitching staff, as Adeline Maynes whiffed five across three innings of work before cousins Haylee Armstrong and Capri Anter each chucked a frame.

Armstrong picked up two K’s, before making a nice snag in center field in support of Anter, who also struck out a batter and got a defensive gem from backup third-baseman Emily Rains, as she snapped up a hot grounder and slapped on the game-ending tag on an incoming runner.

Coupeville pushed four runners across in the bottom of the first to get all the runs it would need but didn’t stop there.

The first rally was kicked off by back-to-back hits from Sydney Van Dyke and Teagan Calkins.

But it was Anter who made the heavens roar, delivering a thunderous RBI triple that bounced off the wall in left field, just a hair shy of earning her sweet, sweet cash from her dad for an out-of-the-park home run.

CHS did get a tater, but of the inside-the-park variety, when Maynes walloped a grand slam to highlight a nine-run second inning.

The sophomore sensation belted the ball deep to left, then trucked around the basepaths, almost running over her teammates in front of her as the Wolf bench urged the stragglers to get movin’.

Two batters after Maynes flexed her biceps, Emma Cushman laid down a beauty of a bunt.

With Olivia Martin motoring in front of her, the Wolf duo freaked out the Logger defense, which airmailed several throws on the play, allowing The Cushinator to turn an artful single into a round trip around the bags.

Up 13-0 at that point, Coupeville managed to get most of its bench into the game, with Zariyah Allen, Emma Leavitt, Rains, Zayne Roos, and Allie Powers all seeing field time.

The Wolves closed their scoring with hot-hitting 8th grader Cami Van Dyke lacing a two-run single to straightaway center in the third, before coasting in for the win, with their eyes already set on delivering their postgame sing-along.

While there’s been barely a hint of sun this spring, at least during home games, Coupeville remains red-hot, having outscored its foes 107-12, with five of the seven wins ending early thanks to the mercy rule.

 

Thursday stats:

Capri Anter — One triple, one walk
Teagan Calkins — One single, one double, one walk
Emma Cushman — One single
Olivia Martin — One walk
Adeline Maynes — One single, one home run, one walk
Chelsi Stevens — One single
Cami Van Dyke — Two singles
Sydney Van Dyke — Two singles, one walk

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Smash, bash, another foe down with a crash

Posted in Softball, tagged , , , , on March 31, 2026| 1 Comment »

Coupeville sophomore first-baseman Ava Lucero was flawless in the field Tuesday and deadly at the plate. (Jackie Saia photo)

Aim for the mountains.

Look out to center field at Darrington, and that’s what you’ll see peeking down on the Loggers softball field — a range of craggy targets.

So, the smash sisters took advantage Tuesday, as the Coupeville High School sluggers lashed liners to all fields, including a Chelsi Stevens moonshot which cleared the fences, en route to demolishing their hosts 21-2.

The lopsided win, in which CHS coach Aaron Lucero was able to get action for all 17 girls on his active roster, lifts the Wolves to 3-0 in Northwest 2B/1B League play, 6-0 overall.

Combined with an Orcas Island loss to Friday Harbor, it also moves Coupeville back into sole possession of first place in the conference, with a rematch against Darrington set for Thursday on Whidbey Island.

By that time, they may have found the ball Stevens launched into the stratosphere. Maybe.

It came just four batters into the game yet was already the fourth booming shot unleashed by a CHS squad which has outscored its foes 92-12 this season.

Lethal leadoff hitter Haylee Armstrong jumped on the first pitch of the afternoon, cracking a ball a Darrington outfielder couldn’t handle, while Teagan Calkins mashed a triple to left-center two batters later.

Up to the plate came Stevens, flexing her bat and eyeballing the Logger pitcher.

Boom! The sophomore cleanup hitter delivered with a clang, the ball arcing up, up, and still further up into the blue sky, while the Darrington outfielders watched helplessly as the two-run tater screamed its way halfway back to Whidbey before landing.

It was wash, rinse, and repeat from there for the Wolves, who tacked on another run in the first, thanks to an Ava Lucero RBI double, before pushing six across in the second frame.

Stevens again came up big her second time around, with a long RBI double, while Capri Anter, Lucero, and Emma Leavitt also connected on run-scoring hits.

Wolf hurler Adeline Maynes was unhittable in the early innings, throwing high, hard cheese and collecting strikeouts, with the game put on ice thanks to a 15-batter, nine-run third inning which lasted approximately 45 minutes and change.

Sydney Van Dyke, Calkins, and Stevens walloped back-to-back-to-back extra-base blows to start the frame, with Cami Van Dyke, Leavitt, and Allie Powers chipping in with key base knocks to keep the never-ending rally chugging along.

From midway through the third to the end of the fourth, Aaron Lucero kept his scorebook keeper hoppin’, mixing and matching players in the lineup to give his reserves crucial game action to build for the future while keeping the score from getting to 50-0.

Zariyah Allen, Olivia Martin, Allie Powers, Marina Jadwin, Arianna Vinson, Zayne Roos, and Emily Rains all earned plate appearances, while Emma Cushman (defense) and Emma Leavitt (offense) combined to form a dynamic duo in right field.

Darrington, a plucky team, did scrape out two runs in the fourth, but Calkins and Anter got them back with RBI singles in the fifth.

Flame-throwing Wolf hurlers Maynes and Armstrong combined to net eight strikeouts, while Ava Lucero, playing a spotless first base, pulled off three unassisted put-outs on grounders to highlight a top-flight defense.

 

Tuesday stats:

Capri Anter — Three singles
Haylee Armstrong — One triple
Teagan Calkins — One single, one triple, one walk
Emma Leavitt — One single, one double
Ava Lucero — One single, one double, one walk
Adeline Maynes — Two walks
Allie Powers — One single
Emily Rains — One walk
Chelsi Stevens — Two doubles, one home run
Cami Van Dyke — One single
Sydney Van Dyke — Two singles, one double, one triple

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