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Posts Tagged ‘home finale’

All the fight, all the heart

Posted in Middle School, Volleyball, tagged , , , , on October 17, 2023| Leave a Comment »

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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Home hoops finale a wild one

Posted in Boys Basketball, Middle School, tagged , , , , on December 13, 2021| Leave a Comment »

Aiden O’Neill pushes the ball. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

It was a home finale full of wild mood swings.

The Coupeville Middle School boys basketball teams played their final games in the CMS gym Monday — there are two road tilts left on the schedule — and gave everyone their money’s worth.

Even if fans don’t have to actually pony up cold, hard cash for middle school games.

But you get the point.

Anyways, here’s how the day played out:

 

Varsity:

The best game of the season, regardless of the final score.

Bouncing back after losing by 15 the first time the teams played, the Wolves stormed from behind Monday, forced overtime, then fell 62-56 to visiting Sultan.

The defeat drops CMS to 2-4 on the season, but coaches Craig Anderson and Jon Roberts came away pleased with what they saw.

“We played like we expected to win, which we did not do the first time,” Roberts said. “This was us taking that next, big step.”

Sultan is perennially a middle school power, and they had at least three players who already look ready to make an impact on the high school court.

Toss in teammates who make smart passes, hit the boards with intensity, and play in-your-face defense, and it’s no surprise the Skyhawks can soar.

But give Coupeville major credit, as the Wolves never backed down — even when the Sultan coach, whipped up into a lather, got himself a technical foul and, later, a stern warning.

“You can sit down, or you can go home,” barked the ref, followed by a stare-off, and then the Skyhawk head man choosing to mute himself.

On the court, the action was intense from the get-go, with two talented teams punching and counterpunching from opening tip to wild finale.

Chase Anderson ended the first quarter by splashing home a pullup jumper, but Coupeville went to the break down 15-11.

A quick three-ball from the Skyhawks to open the second frame stretched the deficit out to seven, before the Wolves came alive.

Camden Glover, standing tall in the paint for CMS, kick-started things by rippling the net with a sweet jumper, and Coupeville brought its fans to their feet with a 12-0 run.

Four different Wolves scored during the surge, with Anderson and Aiden O’Neill knocking down three-balls, and Malachi Somes netting a jumper off of an inbounds pass.

CMS had its first lead of the game, only to see Sultan turn the tables almost as quickly.

The Skyhawks ripped off their own 9-0 rally to momentarily blunt Coupeville’s mojo, escaping to the halftime break back in front 27-23.

But this had become a game of runs, and the Wolves burst out of the locker room ready to rumble.

Glover couldn’t be stopped in the second half, scoring off of rebound put-backs and power moves in the paint, then droppin’ jumpers to keep the defense honest.

Two of his third-quarter buckets were set up by hustle work from Somes, who used fast hands and a go-go motor to always be in the right place at the right time.

First he pilfered the ball — setting up a Glover layup — then Somes corralled a loose ball and fired a beauty of a kick-out pass, hitting his teammate in stride.

The lead changed six times in the third frame, though Coupeville couldn’t stay in front and still trailed 39-36 heading into the fourth.

The (supposedly) final quarter featured the Wolves at their grittiest, as they never led over the seven-minute span, but never let Sultan escape.

Glover snatched a rebound, then powered up through three defenders for a second-chance bucket to knot things at 42-42, but time and again the Skyhawks seemed to hold the upper hand.

A pair of Sultan three-balls were deadly, and the visitors, with their coach melting down in real time, were still clinging to a 50-46 advantage with under a minute to play.

So, time for a little magic.

Anderson split the defense, faked a pass, and dropped in a roller to get the Wolves within two, before coming back around to hit two pressure-packed free throws to tie things up.

The trip to the charity stripe was courtesy the mad dog frothing at the end of the Sultan bench, who looked like he might have a stroke when one of his players missed a potential go-ahead free throw with just seven ticks on the clock.

That set up Coupeville with a chance to win things outright, but a stern Skyhawks defense made life tough for Anderson and his buzzer-beater slid off the rim.

The good times continued through two minutes of the extra period. Only problem — middle school overtime is three minutes.

Back-to-back three-balls from Anderson, with both shots kissing the glass before plopping through the net, staked CMS to its last lead at 56-55.

Unfortunately for the Wolves, that was where their offensive attack ended for the afternoon, with Sultan closing on a 7-0 spurt over the final 58 seconds.

The scorebook will tell you it was a loss. The feeling in the gym, however, was that of a win.

Anderson and Glover paced the Wolves, hitting for 21 and 20 points, respectively, while O’Neill banked in eight and kept alive a new, and intriguing, tradition.

The sweet-shooting guard has lost a shoe during action in every game I’ve seen him play during his 8th grade year. So, three.

Is O’Neill simply too fast for conventional footwear to be able to constrain him, or does someone need to start double-tying their laces? Debate.

Playing with both shoes on at all times, Jayden McManus added five points for Coupeville, Somes netted a bucket, and Easton Green and Riley Lawless also saw floor time.

 

JV:

Coupeville’s second squad, largely comprised of players new to the game, fell 48-11, dropping their record to 0-6.

But there were bright spots along the way, and proof that the work being put in by coaches and players is starting to pay off.

The Wolves were able to run more offensive sets than normal, and player’s willingness to sacrifice their bodies by setting screens for teammates was at an all-time high.

Jackson Waterbury came around the corner on one play, rumbling like a freight train going down a steep incline with no brakes.

The CMS 7th grader was intent on setting a screen, and for one beautiful second it looked like he was going to dislodge all the brain matter from the Sultan player in his way.

Veering off at the last second, Waterbury didn’t deliver the full-on crunch, opting to screech to a halt and show benevolence with a well-timed hip check instead.

Googly-eyed and content to stay down and enjoy the floor’s sweet embrace, his rival had a story to tell his parents when he got home.

“Yeah, mom, I almost died today! That dude was going to destroy me!! So yes, I think I will have seconds on dessert, and no, there won’t be any discussion on the matter!!!”

Also coming up big in the down ‘n dirty world of setting (or almost setting) screens was Wolf 6th grader Jonah Weyl, who went toe-to-toe with a kid three times his size and never blinked.

“You love to see it!” said Roberts with a note of pride in his voice.

Coupeville got its primary scoring boost from a rampaging Matthew Kuzma, who tallied his first five points of the season.

He banked in a three-ball, right after teammate Captain Teuscher made off with a steal, then came back around to get a bucket in the paint.

Lawless chipped in with four points, all set up by cleaning the offensive glass, while Joshua Stockdale made off with a steal, then went coast-to-coast for a cartwheeling layup.

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A final kick, a final bow

Posted in Boys Soccer, Middle School, tagged , , , , on October 23, 2019| Leave a Comment »

Preston Epp and the first-ever CMS boys soccer squad finished 2-8. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)

Logan Downes led the Wolves with five goals.

Tavan Hughes (10) and Nick Guay (13) helped lead the Wolves into a new world.

The first season is in the books.

The Coupeville Middle School boys soccer program, which launched this fall, reached the end of the trail Wednesday, falling 4-0 to visiting Northshore Christian Academy.

The Wolves finished 2-8 in their first go-around on the pitch, with Logan Downes (5) and Andrew Williams (2) combining to rattle home Coupeville’s goals this season.

Wednesday’s game remained scoreless until the 11th minute, when Northshore got on the board thanks to a fairly spectacular goal.

One of the visitors lofted a long ball from the right side, off of a corner kick, with a teammate springing airborne to use his head to deflect the shot past Wolf goalie William Davidson.

A second score, coming on a penalty kick, put NSA up 2-0 at the halftime break, then the private school booters tacked on two more goals in the second half.

Coupeville’s defense played strongly in the loss, with especially nice work from Mason Butler, who took over in goal midway through the first half.

A newcomer to the net, he pulled off several nice saves, including making back-to-back denials as Northshore’s high-powered offense kept up a steady barrage of in-close shots.

The debut season was a learning experience for CMS coach Reese Cernick and his players, with the soccer guru witnessing improvement as the campaign played out.

In his post-season assessment, Cernick praised players such as Quinten Simpson-Pilgrim, who entered the season with little experience, but exited having shown great growth and a desire to keep improving.

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Wild, weird, wacky, and a win

Posted in Girls Tennis, tagged , , , , , on April 30, 2019| Leave a Comment »

Coupeville’s Avalon Renninger – a scary, scary woman on the tennis court. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

Second time around, things got a little crazy.

Four days ago, the Coupeville High School girls tennis team swept Friday Harbor 5-0 while on a tour of the outer islands.

Jump forward to Tuesday, the Wolves were back at home, it was Senior Night for foreign exchange student Bruna Moratori, and everything spun off in new, and sometimes, exciting, directions.

Coupeville still won the rematch, but this time it was 4-0 as #1 singles, against all odds, ended in a tie.

Yes, a tie, and not even on the soccer field.

There were a lot of contributing factors.

Friday Harbor showed up a bit later than expected, and when you live in the outer islands, there comes a time when you have to sprint for the last ferry or forever be stuck on Whidbey to deal with rogue wandering bears.

But mainly it was because Coupeville’s Genna Wright and Friday Harbor’s Aida Must waged a war of attrition, mixing up styles of play, swapping power for precision, and refusing to give an inch.

Wright won the first set, Must the second, then the Wolf sophomore dug down deep to save herself in the final frame, roaring back from 5-3 down to knot things up at 5-5.

The only players still on the court as the sun dipped, and, far off, a ferry tooted a plaintive horn, the duo would have stayed out there all night if allowed.

But it wasn’t to be, as reality intruded and the Friday Harbor van screamed out of the Coupeville parking lot on two wheels, the last player diving through the open door on a dead sprint.

It capped a wild afternoon in which three of five varsity matches went the full three sets.

While Wright’s rumble didn’t quite reach the finish line, the Wolf duos of Moratori/Jaimee Masters and Eryn Wood/Emily Fiedler both rallied to pull out wins in a third frame.

The only two matches which went (fairly) quickly were Jillian Mayne at #2 singles, who was last on the court and yet still beat Wright off, winning in straight sets, and #1 doubles duo Avalon Renninger and Tia Wurzrainer.

The warriors in white (tennis dresses) demolished their foes, pounding the snot out of the ball, and leaving a notable impression on the players on the other side of the net.

“I’m not built to play that blonde girl!,” whispered one Friday Harbor netter as she marveled at Renninger’s wicked power. “She scared me sometimes!”

“And that other girl … zip, zip, zip, every shot,” murmured her partner as Wurzrainer walked away, twirling her racket like a sword.

With the back-to-back wins over Friday Harbor, the Wolves improve to 2-4 in North Sound Conference play.

Coupeville hits the road the next two days, traveling to Chimacum Wednesday, then Granite Falls Thursday.

The first of those matches is the team’s only non-conference tilt this spring, while the latter will be a doubleheader, as the North Sound Conference rivals finish a rained-out match, then play the regularly-scheduled finale.

The Wolves return to Granite May 7-8, taking two singles players and two doubles teams along for the district tourney.

 

Complete Tuesday results (varsity only):

1st Singles — Genna Wright tied Aida Must 6-3, 5-7, 5-5 (ferry)

2nd Singles — Jillian Mayne beat Alli Benz 6-3, 6-3

1st Doubles — Tia Wurzrainer/Avalon Renninger beat Katy Kulseth/Tori Polda 6-0, 6-1

2nd Doubles — Eryn Wood/Emily Fiedler beat Joely Loucks/Lucy Urbach 6-3, 4-6, 7-5

3rd Doubles — Jaimee Masters/Bruna Moratori beat Ayla Ridwan/Kai Di Bona 6-1, 4-6, 6-3

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Home hoops finale offers wild ride

Posted in Girls Basketball, Middle School, tagged , , , , on March 14, 2019| Leave a Comment »

Carolyn Lhamon (11), seen here in an earlier game, was a one-woman wrecking crew Thursday as Coupeville’s 8th graders improved to 8-0. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

Some good, some bad, all covered in a solid slathering of germs.

Thursday night offered up the home finales for the Coupeville Middle School girls basketball teams, and the Wolves emerged with a split against pesky Sultan.

Or, at least the girls semi-healthy enough to play did.

There was no JV game, as the visiting Turks, also dealing with flu and cold season, couldn’t field enough bodies for a contest.

How the varsity games played out:

 

8th grade:

Alex Evans played with fire, and didn’t get burned.

Trying to achieve two missions – to give a chunk of JV players valuable floor time since their game was cancelled, while still getting a win to keep his team undefeated – the Wolf hoops guru succeeded admirably in a 33-20 victory.

Coupeville, which is 8-0 with one road game left on the schedule, blew Sultan off the floor the first time around.

This time, the Wolves showed the same dominance, but just in spurts, and when it mattered most.

The prime example came in the fourth quarter, as Evans‘ two missions collided.

With all of his starters on the bench, the coach watched a 12-point lead shrink to four, but showed only calmness to the folks in the stands, and, most importantly, his own players.

Evans allowed his more inexperienced players a chance to discover what it’s like to play under pressure, holding a lead against a rival which was greatly-improved from the two teams first meeting.

Then, when the Turks had a brief moment of hope, Coupeville’s coach slid his starting five – Maddie Georges, Nezi Keiper, Gwen Gustafson, Alita Blouin, and Carolyn Lhamon – back into the game, and let them put the hammer down.

And they did, closing the game on a 9-0 run, started by Keiper pounding down low and utterly annihilating her defender in the paint.

After that, her buddy in the post, Lhamon, snatched the spotlight, throwing down five of the game’s final seven points.

One bucket came on a nice roll to the hoop, set up by a pinpoint pass off the fingers of Georges, while another showcased Lhamon’s skills in the open court.

Leading a one-woman charge down the floor, Lhamon broke every bone in her defender’s body, faking left, then slashing hard to the right, all while on the move.

As the backpedaling Turk went down in a crumpled pile of misery and regret, the Wolf ace pulled the ball back into her body to keep it away from a different defender, then banged home the layup.

The run, one unbroken charge from coast to coast, was a thing of beauty, even more so coming from a player who gets the majority of her points working with her back to the basket.

Coupeville used sustained runs like that 9-0 swan song to set the pace all afternoon.

The Wolves closed the first quarter on an 8-2 surge, punctuated by Hayley Fiedler drilling the bottom of the bucket out with a long-range bomb.

In the second quarter, it was a 6-0 run to close the half, then, in the third, CMS capped the quarter with an 8-0 tear.

The one constant through it all was “The Assassin,” zippy guard Alita Blouin, who blew by the Turks for buckets, then jumped outside to nail a three-ball from the top of the arc.

Coupeville spread its offensive attack out nicely, with Blouin topping the scoring chart with nine points, while Lhamon banked home seven, and Keiper popped for five.

Georges (4), Gustafson (4), Fiedler (2), and Ryanne Knoblich (2), who looked deathly ill, yet hit the boards with her usual ferocity, rounded out the scoring.

Mixing and matching his lineups, Evans was able to get a whopping 16 players floor time.

Mercedes Kalwies-Anderson, Melanie Navarro, Jill Prince, Jordyn Rogers, Claire Mayne, Jessenia Camarena, Cristine McGrath, Abigail Ramirez, and Adrian Burrows all saw action.

Camarena was a particular standout on this day, ripping down rebounds and playing an enforcer role.

In the midst of another Wolf win, this one coming in the final home game, the game’s enduring moment was crafted by a ref, however.

Coming out of halftime, one of the two officials was late to return to the floor. When he did, he turned and blindly lobbed the ball cross-court to his partner, only to drill a hapless Sultan player in the back of the head.

 

7th grade:

The Wolves were missing four players, including leading scorer Brionna Blouin, and fell 21-9.

The loss drops the young guns to 2-7 on the season.

Take away the first quarter, when Sultan romped to a 12-0 lead as the basket displayed a harsh, unforgiving nature whenever a Coupeville shot came its way, and the game was a tie.

Sparked by Lauren Marrs, who pumped in seven of her team’s points, the Wolves put up a strong fight over the game’s final 21 minutes.

Desi Ramirez finally got CMS on the board when she plucked a rebound free, then swished a fall-away shot over a sea of Turk arms with 2:30 left to play in the opening half.

Marrs immediately followed by gunning it up-court on Coupeville’s next possession, weaving through a pack of defenders jammed together in the paint, and slapping home a running layup.

But, just as quickly as the Wolves hit those back-to-back buckets, the basket went back to being a jerk, spitting out any and all offerings from CMS.

Other than a Marrs free throw right before halftime, Coupeville couldn’t get anything to drop until midway through the fourth quarter.

By that time the Wolves trailed 20-5, thanks to a couple of offensive rebound put-backs by the Turks, and a glaring lack of traveling calls being whistled on a Sultan team which seemed to have studied with James “I’ll take five steps, thanks” Harden.

Marrs finally broke the drought, with a pair of sweetly-crafted buckets.

On the first, she curled around the defense, then slashed through a tiny gap for a layup. The second, a breakaway bucket, was set up by a strong outlet pass from Mayne.

Each Wolf to see action chipped in with something, from Reese Wilkinson playing strongly on the boards, to Kaitlyn Leavell streaking down floor, ahead of the play, almost every single time.

Allison Nastali, Skylar Parker, Karyme Castro, and Erica McGrath rounded out the active roster, with all four fighting until the final buzzer for coach Megan Smith.

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