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Posts Tagged ‘first win’

Scratch, claw, fight, win

Posted in Volleyball, tagged , , , , , on September 18, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Haylee Armstrong and her Wolf teammates came up big at crunch time Friday night. (Michelle Armstrong photos)

Tenley Stuurmans is a closer.

Delivering the knockout punch on set point in all three frames Friday night, the Coupeville High School junior sparked the Wolf varsity volleyball squad to its first victory of the young season.

With all nine players in uniform filling up the stat sheet, CHS held off a feisty Orcas Island team to capture a 25-22, 26-24, 25-23 home win, moving into a tie for first place in the Northwest 2B/1B League.

Now sitting at 1-0 in conference play, 1-2 overall, Scout Smith’s kill-happy spikers are tied with Darrington (1-0, 5-0) and La Conner (1-0, 3-0) atop the seven-team league.

After competitive four-set losses to 4A Mariner and 1A South Whidbey in their opening matches, the Wolves rocked the gym Friday, much to the delight of a vocal hometown crowd.

Not that Orcas went down easy, as the Vikings pushed CHS every step of the way.

The opening set was a classic example of that, as Coupeville built a 20-9 lead, then had to weather a 12-3 run by the visitors before closing things out.

Stuurmans and Arianna Cunningham paced the Wolves at the service stripe in the early going, while fab frosh Rhylee Inman made her mom scream in joy after elevating to stuff an Orcas shot at the net.

Lexis Drake and Zariyah Allen joined Inman in delivering big-time hits at close range, both slicing winners as CHS seemed to be running away with the match.

Cue a big rally from the Vikings, however, as Orcas turned an 11-point deficit into just two at 23-21.

Coupeville had the answer and her name was Tenley, as she smoked a set-ending winner that tore a fiery path as the ball ripped wood off the floor and skidded away while her teammates whooped and hollered.

Set #2 was almost a flipped version of set #1, as this time Orcas snatched the early lead, before Coupeville stormed back.

Big winners from young guns Inman, Allen, and Kennedy O’Neill kept CHS close, while Cunningham danced a ballet while airborne, artfully dropping tips where the Viking defenders weren’t.

Still, even with Willow Leedy-Bonifas making a one-armed save on a runaway ball and killer cousins Haylee Armstrong and Capri Anter providing a jolt of maximum energy, the Wolves had to hold off a set point to keep Orcas from tying the match at a set apiece.

Coupeville closed on a 6-3 run, with Drake firing off well-placed serves and Stuurmans stuffing the Vikings for the set-winning point.

CHS seniors (l to r) Armstrong, Lexis Drake, and Capri Anter are riveted by the action.

All the momentum belonged to the Wolves, it seemed, up two sets to none, and yet Orcas led from 1-0 all the way to 23-22 in the third frame.

The freshman played like seasoned pros, with Allen slicing and dicing and Inman reaching back over her head to pop a winner, while grizzled vet Cunningham went on a rampage.

At one point she connected on winners four times in a five-point run, hitting each ball in a unique style, while also finding time later to rip off a couple service aces just to keep everyone nervous.

And yet, even with Stuurmans sprawling on the floor to revive a seemingly dead rally, leading to a push winner from Armstrong, Orcas had an answer for every Wolf surge.

At least for a while.

CHS fell behind 5-0, finally tied things up at 13-13, 17-17, and 19-19, yet couldn’t pull ahead until Armstrong got artful in the very late going.

With the Wolves trailing 23-21, the senior ended a long rally by flicking a winner into a small crack in the defense, then immediately followed it up with a resounding service ace to knot things at 23-23.

An Orcas spike that missed the endline by about 10 feet gave Coupeville its first lead of the set, and on match point, it was Tenley Time once again.

Stuuurmans, making it three-for-three, closed the set and the match by swinging the hammer of the gods, unleashing a hot ‘n spicy spike winner which hit with such fury even the feistiest of Vikings couldn’t dream of returning it.

 

Friday stats:

Zariyah Allen — 3 kills, 1 dig, 1 block assist
Capri Anter — 14 digs, 3 aces
Haylee Armstrong — 2 kills, 3 digs, 3 assists, 2 aces
Arianna Cunningham — 7 kills, 5 digs, 2 assists, 3 aces
Lexis Drake — 2 kills, 2 aces
Rhylee Inman — 3 kills, 1 solo block
Willow Leedy-Bonifas — 22 digs, 1 assist, 1 ace
Kennedy O’Neill — 2 kills
Tenley Stuurmans — 4 kills, 10 digs, 11 assists, 1 solo block, 1 block assist, 4 aces

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Furious finishes, first wins

Posted in Middle School, Volleyball, tagged , , , , , on October 14, 2025| Leave a Comment »

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.

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Young guns firing on all cylinders

Posted in Girls Soccer, tagged , , , , on September 17, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Coupeville 8th grader Finley Helm scored her first high school goal in a win over Orcas Island. (Photo courtesy Jerry Helm)

Chalk one up in the win column.

After a modest 1,058-day gap between victories, the Coupeville High School girls’ soccer team was back on top of the world Tuesday after crunching visiting Orcas Island 6-0.

The Wolves, whose 15-woman roster features eight 8th graders and five freshmen, are back after the program was sidelined two years due to a shortage of players.

Jasmine Ader’s squad was competitive in its first three games, but rumble #4 electrified the home crowd at Mickey Clark Field.

Tamsin Ward is on a tear. (Coupeville High School Yearbook staff photo)

Fab frosh Tamsin Ward continued to rain down goals, leading the charge and recording a hat trick en route to pushing her season total to seven scores.

Joining her in finding the back of the net was a pack of those precocious 8th graders.

Lyla Grose punched in her second goal of the season, while Finley Helm and Ariella Lee-Spaulding rounded out the offensive attack with their first high school goals.

Orcas Island had little chance to counter, as a fired-up Wolf defense sparked by Frankie Tenore, Lillian Ketterling, Ward, and Sophia Greene effectively shut everything down.

Coming off the win, the Wolves will carry their 1-3 record into another home tilt Friday, when they host Mount Vernon Christian.

That game kicks off at 4:00 PM and is the opener of a doubleheader, with the CHS and MVC boys playing at 6:00. Admission is free.

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Hurricanes fizzle, Wolves howl

Posted in Volleyball, tagged , , , , on September 19, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Lyla Stuurmans, destroyer of universes. (Jackie Saia photos)

Off the schneid, with a vengeance.

After opening the season with a pair of ultra-competitive losses against strong foes, the Coupeville High School varsity volleyball squad thrashed previously unbeaten Mount Vernon Christian Tuesday night.

Drilling the host Hurricanes 25-22, 25-15, 25-17 in a non-conference match against a league rival, the Wolves get to 1-2 and make a serious statement.

MVC entered the night at 2-0, having won all six sets it had played against Friday Harbor and Lake Quinault.

Enter Coupeville, coming off a heartbreaking five-set defeat to next-door neighbor South Whidbey and a tense tussle with juggernaut Neah Bay.

On the road for the first time this season, and with a few more practices under their belts, the Wolves hit the floor in a groove, and never let up, shushing the pro-Hurricane crowd in a hurry.

“Really fun game to be a part of and guide this team through,” said CHS coach Cory Whitmore.

“MVC is much improved from some previous seasons and so we really had to earn our points, and it was done in a very connected and energetic way.”

Coupeville heavy hitters (l to r) Madison McMillan, Issabel Johnson, and Jada Heaton launch a celebration.

Coupeville got contributions from across the board, with junior setter Katie Marti unleashing perhaps the best match of her varsity career.

“Katie was especially phenomenal tonight,” Whitmore said. “She made really strong decisions; whether she was in-system or pulled off the net a bit, she found and led hitters to success.

“She served tough and consistent, and collected a large number of digs.”

Whitmore cautions that the stat sheet — seen below — is a bit of a work in progress, with several young players learning the complex, often frantic job of keeping stats while under fire.

Even if the numbers aren’t flawless, however, they showcase multiple Wolves shining brightly.

Whether it was Lyla Stuurmans with a double-double (14 kills and 10 digs), or birthday girl Madison McMillan ably filling whatever role she is handed, things were clicking.

“Lyla looked really at-ease out there, in addition to some really smart attacking decisions,” Whitmore said.

“Madison did a great job as our libero, and commanded the space around her – she played with energy but also looked very settled in.”

Teagan Calkins channels The Karate Kid.

Praise flowed from the Wolf spiker guru to every girl in uniform, with sophomore supernova Teagan Calkins continuing to earn playing time with her hustle and skill.

“Teagan also received a lot of attacking attempts and took care of the ball,” Whitmore said. “I was impressed that she seemed to get better as the night went on.

“Honestly, I could give them all shoutouts because every player on the team really gave a lot to this win.”

After two tough losses, Tuesday’s victory was a two-for-one deal, counting both in the win/loss column and in helping the psyche of the Wolf players.

“It wasn’t just the win, it was the fashion in which they took control of the space and management of the game,” Whitmore said.

“Very excited for them and what this could mean for moving forward.”

 

Match added:

Earlier in the day, Coupeville got a bonus, as CHS Athletic Director Willie Smith locked in another non-conference match to help fill out the schedule.

The Wolves will host Providence Classical Christian Oct. 16, with both varsity and JV playing that night.

Tipoff is 5:00 PM for the young guns, with the headliners set to take the floor at 6:30.

 

Tuesday stats:

Taylor Brotemarkle — 3 digs, 2 assists
Teagan Calkins — 6 kills, 3 aces
Mia Farris — 6 kills, 10 digs, 2 aces
Jada Heaton — 1 kill
Katie Marti — 2 kills, 3 digs, 21 assists, 4 aces
Madison McMillan — 1 kill, 10 digs, 4 assists, 3 aces
Grey Peabody — 5 kills
Lyla Stuurmans — 14 kills, 10 digs, 1 assist, 2 aces

Coming to torch a gym near you.

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Winner, winner, lobster dinner

Posted in Baseball, Wolves in college, tagged , , , , on May 10, 2021| Leave a Comment »

Joey Lippo

They’re off the schneid.

It took them 18 games, but Monday, in the final rumble of the season, the University of Maine at Presque Isle baseball squad got that elusive first W.

Beating the University of Maine at Farmington 7-3, the Owls, who include Coupeville grad Joey Lippo, finished a pandemic-altered season on a high note.

It was the first win for UMPI since March 29, 2019 — breaking a 39-game losing streak.

Lippo wasn’t around for the first 22 of those losses, and he’s been one of the few bright spots for this year’s 1-17 team.

The former Wolf collected five hits across four games in a pair of season-ending doubleheaders Sunday and Monday, and finishes in the team’s top three in multiple offensive categories.

Lippo ends the season first in at-bats (57), and tied for second in hits (15), RBI (7), and stolen bases (2).

He was third in total bases (17), runs (8), and batting average (.263) among regulars.

Toss in two doubles, five walks — including being plunked once — and strong defensive play in the outfield, and Lippo’s first go-round in NCAA D-III baseball was a successful one.

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