Halle Black (left) and Reagan Green (7) both delivered strong performances on the volleyball court Tuesday. (Photo courtesy Mandi Black)
It was the big break-through.
The Coupeville Middle School volleyball squads have played strongly all season, shown growth, desire, and improvement.
But the Wolves were still looking for that elusive first win.
Until Tuesday, that is, when CMS bounced visiting Northshore Christian Academy not once, but twice, setting off the kind of celebration unique to a pack of tween girls screaming loud and long in a small gym, their joy echoing off the walls and across the prairie.
It made for a great return to the court for the Wolf spikers and their classmates, their parents, and Coupeville coaches Shaloma Allen and Katie Rohrbach.
How the day played out:
Varsity:
It was a tense, back-and-forth affair that ended, technically, in a tie, as both teams won 61 points.
But because volleyball is decided by sets, Coupeville’s young stars shimmied off the floor with a come-from-behind 20-25, 25-22, 16-14 victory.
To get there, the Wolves had to hold off a match point while trailing 14-13 in the final set, before closing on a 3-0 run.
Northshore misfired on a serve that might have won things, and with the ball back in their hands, Wolf snipers Cameron Van Dyke and Zariyah Allen sealed the win.
Van Dyke fired off a pair of precision serves to get things underway, while closing out point #15 with a tip winner, while Allen ended the match with a sensational flip of the ball over her shoulder, catching the line for a final winner as the visitors watched in frozen horror.
That capped off a furious frame in which there were eight ties and seven lead changes.
Tip winners from Rhylee Inman, Kaleigha Millison, Zariyah Allen, and Van Dyke kept the Wolves in the thick of things, with Inman and Reina Rivers each delivering crucial three-point runs at the service stripe.
The match was a brawl all the way from the first serve to the last tip, with neither team able to pull away.
Inman was on a roll in the opening set, mixing strong work on her serve with inspired play at the net, while both Reina Rivers and Faith Rivers peppered Northshore from the service stripe.
But while Coupeville held off two set points and got a picture-perfect tip winner off the fingers of the gracefully soaring Jade Peabody, it couldn’t quite deny its rivals, falling a set behind.
The Wolves didn’t miss a beat, however, seizing the second-set lead for good at 7-6 and never giving it back.
Reagan Green put together a four-point run on her serve to stretch the margin out to 11-6, punctuating things with an ace which split a pair of defenders as it skidded by.
Inman and Zariyah Allen formed a deadly duo at the net, with Van Dyke madly bouncing around to loft sets for her heavy hitters.
Basking in the afterglow of victory, Shaloma Allen praised her squad, which also included Emily Rains and Addy Jacobson, while giving some extra props to Peabody who “really stepped up at the net.”
The Wolf head coach was also justifiably beaming over the play of her own offspring.
“I am just super proud of Zariyah and how we have been able to rely on her encouraging the whole team.”
JV:
Coupeville rolled in the first set, made a major comeback in the second, then coasted in for a 25-16, 25-23, 7-15 win.
The Wolves were actually trailing 4-1 in the very early going but got the spark they needed when Emma Green came sliding in to force a side-out with a major hustle play.
From there, CMS heated up at the line, with Halle Black, Josie McColl, Emma Green, and Addy Jacobson smacking serves Northshore had no answers for on this day.
The second set took a dangerous turn, with the Wolves falling behind 17-10, but once again the hometown heroes had an answer.
This time her name was Annabelle Cundiff, who followed up a side-out by running off five straight points on her serve — the maximum allowed in middle school play before a team has to swap out servers.
Northshore only managed to get one of those five offerings back into play, but hit it straight into the net, while Cundiff cracked off the day’s nastiest ace on her second serve.
Coupeville finally reclaimed the lead at 21-20 on a Reina Rivers ace, fell back behind 22-21, then clinched the win with a 4-1 surge.
Shaloma Allen praised Halle Black, who “is doing a great job with her leadership, which is really cool to see,” and Reina Rivers, “who stepped out of her shell and really stepped up in both the varsity and JV matches today.”
Rounding out the Wolf roster in the win were Amira Anunciado, Sabrina Judnich, Maja Govorcin, Mia Goers, Arley Bosler, and Jasmine Allen.
C-Team:
Northshore only has two teams, not three, so Coupeville’s third unit had the day off.
Up Next:
The Wolves host Sultan Thursday, before finishing the season with back-to-back road trips to Lakewood and South Whidbey Oct. 21-22.
Coupeville Sports 