“Rally Ally” Roberts floats like a butterfly and stings like a bee. (John Fisken photos)
Valen Trujillo (2) charges down the line.
It was a swan song, yes, but it was a beautifully played one.
It may be hard to tell just from the score, but Thursday night, deep in the heart of Puyallup, the very-young Coupeville High School volleyball squad put together its best match of the season.
The only problem is, host Cascade Christian gave them absolutely no margin for error, whatsoever.
The Cougars, a hard-hitting squad with a roster heavy in senior snipers, rallied from a late first-set deficit and eliminated the Wolves from the district playoffs in straight sets.
The 25-20, 25-11, 25-12 victory propels Cascade Christian into the double-elimination final four Saturday, a step away from the state tourney, while Coupeville wrapped its season at 6-10.
That’s a huge step forward from last season, when the Wolves went 1-11 and missed the playoffs.
This year, with nine of 14 players who saw varsity action being freshmen or sophomores, CHS made huge strides under the direction of Breanne Smedley, Heidi Wyman and Ashley Herndon.
That was evident from the start Thursday, as the Wolves easily shrugged off any early jitters from being on their biggest stage.
Opening with a service blast off of the fingertips of senior co-captain Sydney Autio, the Wolves launched into an epic rally with their private school foes on the very first point of the night.
Keeping the ball alive several times with lunging hustle plays, Coupeville forced the Cougars into a huge error — one of their players flat-out whiffed on a potential spike — and claimed the early 1-0 lead.
Unfortunately, that would be just about the only error Cascade Christian would make all evening.
A very-efficient, seasoned squad, the Cougars rarely missed on serves or put-aways, handing Coupeville virtually no free points.
What the Wolves got, they earned the hard way.
And they did earn a lot in the early going, using their own power show to stake themselves to a 17-15 lead late in the set.
Sophomore Katrina McGranahan was on fire, soaring gracefully into the clouds on a number of plays, her long arms forming an impenetrable defensive fence as she controlled the net.
Joining her was the freshman phenom, Emma Smith, who made her second straight playoff start and celebrated getting her braces off earlier in the day by launching one spike for a winner that cracked off the Cougar logo on the floor and chipped off some serious paint.
Cascade Christian was nearly flawless on service return, but crafty Valen Trujillo flummoxed them at one point, dropping in a service ace that dropped neatly between two Cougars and skipped away at the last second.
McGranahan stuffed a kill, Ally Roberts lopped off a few arms with a put-away of her own and Kyla Briscoe dropped the hammer to push Coupeville to its two-point margin.
But then that whole “let’s play practically perfect” mode switched on for Cascade Christian and the Cougars rolled off a 10-3 run to close the opening set.
The hosts power, which came from a number of players, surfaced during the run, as the Cougars launched knee-shaking spikes from all directions, with most of the hits coming from several steps back from the net.
The final two sets were not as close, at least in terms of points scored, but they did feature a break-out performance from sophomore Hope Lodell.
She flew around like a woman possessed all match and drew raised eyebrows of approval from her coaches, who were looking to the future, and liking what they saw.
Coupeville also, as it has all season long, refused to bend, even when down.
Trujillo ran out of the gym and halfway into the parking lot (or at least it seemed that way) to keep the ball alive at one point, and the Wolves ended up winning a point that a fraction of a second before had seemed all but over.
Time and again, CHS surprised the Cougars, who improved to 12-4 with the win, and, to their credit, the Cascade Christian fans and players responded with a show of respect to the Wolves.
Though, let’s just say it, the Coupeville student section, led by guys like Brenden Gilbert and Zane Bundy, was much noisier and a lot more creative this season than their private school counterparts were Thursday.
But, the Cougars were classy, so let’s give ’em that.
As the clock ticked down on the season, and the high school careers for seniors McKenzie Bailey and Autio reached an end, there were some tears.
But they were the tears of warriors, young women who truly left it all on the court this season and just wanted one more chance to show how far they have traveled from the first point of the season to the last.
Win or lose, the Wolf spikers played with fury and precision, and their future has rarely looked as bright as it sparkles right now.
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