Wolves (top to bottom) Haylee Armstrong, Lexis Drake, and Capri Anter will celebrate Senior Night next week. (Julie Wheat photo)
Well, that was an unfortunate plot twist.
A strong start on the road Tuesday evaporated, sending the Coupeville High School varsity volleyball squad to a four-set loss at La Conner.
The Wolves, now 5-4 in Northwest 2B/1B League play, 6-7 overall, opened the match on fire, taking set #1 by a tidy 25-13 score.
Then things got tricky, as the Braves (4-3) rallied to net the next three frames 25-18, 25-23, 25-13, earning a split in the season series after CHS won the first meeting in five sets.
Still, Coupeville, which has two regular season rumbles left, is virtually locked into a playoff berth, with the District 1/2 tourney slated to kick off November 2.
Before then the Wolves host non-conference foe Forks this Friday, October 23, before welcoming Friday Harbor to town October 27 on Senior Night.
Tuesday’s tilt looked like a rout, in the best sense possible, in the early going.
Tenley Stuurmans opened things by ripping off four straight points on her serve, before freshman Rhylee Inman erupted for a seven-point run as the Wolves kept the La Conner crowd nice and quiet.
Zariyah Allen and Arianna Cunningham mashed winners at the net to keep the Braves on their heels, with Lexis Drake crunching a kill which caught the last corner of the court before merrily skidding away.
Everything was going right, whether it was Cunningham pulling a ball back out of the net with her fingertips to set up Stuurmans for the kill, or Willow Leedy-Bonifas zipping service winners to every section of the floor.
Arianna Cunningham delivered some big blows once again. (Jacob Lujan photo)
Flush with success after a lightning-fast first set, the Wolves went up 7-4 in frame #2 … and then things took a disturbing turn.
La Conner doesn’t have a wham-bam-scare-the-children big hitter currently — Ellie Marble is long gone out the door — but the Braves scramble, and they keep balls in play, and they keep nipping at you.
And it began to work, as the hosts surged in front, dodged a run of big hits from fab frosh Inman and Allen, and polished off the frame with a closing run of 21-11.
Coupeville rebounded almost immediately, surging out to an 11-4 lead in the third set, and still led as late as 19-15 after Drake launched an explosive winner while popping in from the right side of the floor.
But it wasn’t to be, as La Conner ran off seven straight points to reclaim the lead and ultimately snuck away with the go-ahead win.
Down two sets to one, Coupeville faced the same uphill battle it did when the teams met on Whidbey, only this time the Wolves ran out of rallies.
A series of floor-cracking kills from Stuurmans kept CHS in it up until a 10-10 stalemate, then the floor fell out from beneath the visitors.
La Conner slowly, steadily pulled away with a 12-0 surge to build what proved to be an insurmountable lead, though Coupeville did hold off two match points at the very end.
Now, the playoffs beckon and likely a third meeting between the Wolves and Braves.
Tuesday stats:
Zariyah Allen — 4 kills, 2 digs
Capri Anter — 11 digs, 1 ace
Haylee Armstrong — 8 digs, 11 assists, 2 aces
Arianna Cunningham — 8 kills, 10 digs
Lexis Drake — 3 kills, 1 dig
Rhylee Inman — 7 kills, 7 digs, 3 block assists, 3 aces
Willow Leedy-Bonifas — 12 digs, 1 assist, 3 aces
Kennedy O’Neill — 1 kill, 1 dig, 1 block assist
Tenley Stuurmans — 7 kills, 8 digs, 18 assists, 2 block assists, 4 aces
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