Chelsea Prescott was on fire Tuesday as the undefeated Coupeville High School varsity volleyball team swatted arch-rival South Whidbey in straight sets. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
Raven Vick (left) and Maddie Vondrak, key components on a 5-0 Wolf squad which sits atop the North Sound Conference standings. (Brian Vick photo)
The future is bright for South Whidbey, but the present is even brighter for Coupeville.
While the Falcon volleyball squad has tons of young talent, led by big-hitting, sweet-serving freshman Morgan Batchelor, the Wolves have earned their moment in the spotlight.
Eight of the 12 players on Coupeville’s varsity roster are seniors, with three juniors and one freshman rounding out the team.
Those veterans have gone all the way with Wolf coach Cory Whitmore, now in his fourth season at the helm of the program, and they’re primed to make a run at returning to state for the second time in three seasons.
Tuesday night Coupeville took another step down that path, sending their next-door neighbors back home after blistering them 25-16, 25-17, 25-17.
The victory lifts the Wolves to 2-0 in North Sound Conference play, 5-0 overall.
It’s the second-straight season CHS has opened with five wins in as many matches, and the Island rivalry triumph was a milestone for Whitmore, who is now 40-16 while working in Cow Town.
Coupeville sits atop the league standings, in a dead-heat with King’s (2-0, 5-0), a game up on Cedar Park Christian (1-1, 6-2) and South Whidbey (1-1, 2-3).
Granite Falls (0-2, 3-3), which hosts the Wolves Thursday, and Sultan (0-2, 3-4) are currently in the basement.
What is shaping up as a contender for match-of-the-year arrives next Monday, Oct. 7, when King’s travels to Whidbey Island to face Coupeville.
For now, though, Whitmore and his squad, having stayed perfect through the first third of the regular season, are content to remain locked in the moment.
Against South Whidbey, that meant attacking as a unit, all players firing as one.
“I was very excited with our consistency tonight, keeping almost the same scores set to set, and staying focused start to finish,” Whitmore said.
“We had very few errors, and a balanced attack, and that goes to Scout (Smith’s) distribution and just good sets,” he added. “It was a solid team effort; we were throwing the ball around and staying ahead of the game.”
Coupeville controlled play from first serve to last smash, and only trailed by more than a single point just once during the match, at 8-6 early in the second set.
It was the smallest of burps, though, as the Wolves promptly reeled off a 10-1 surge to quell any Falcon hopes of stretching the match out.
The night’s first big blow came from junior Chelsea Prescott, who launched a titanic evening by crushing an ear-popping spike to knot the first set up at 2-2.
That launched a run of different Wolves stepping up big at the net, with Maya Toomey-Stout, Zoe Trujillo, and Hannah Davidson all connecting on ferocious putaways in the opening set.
In between, Prescott bobbed and weaved, artfully spinning little tips for winners, before flexing her guns and erupting with pure power.
“Chelsea was on her game tonight,” Whitmore said as he scanned the stat sheet. “28 swings and just one error!
“Every one of our hitters came in above average, and that’s the payoff of good team passing.”
The Wolves closed the first set with two beautiful plays.
On the first, Smith won a tip war at the net, skying up, then out-muscling a rival player who made a play for the same ball.
Then Trujillo, who put an extra little zing on all of her kills Tuesday, walloped a smash that scattered a pack of Falcon players who could only watch in frustration as it ripped past.
Keeping alive the team first, team last, team always concept, the Wolves opened the second set with yet another player rising to the moment.
This time it was the Mad Masher herself, junior Maddie Vondrak, who cracked a huge spike to buckle the knees of the Falcon players.
There were longer rallies in the middle set, but almost every time Coupeville came up with something special, whether it was Davidson smoking a kill or Smith twirling like a ballerina while looking one way and dropping a tip winner the other.
Prescott was a whiz kid who couldn’t be stopped, blasting one shot with enough sizzle on it to completely bowl over a Falcon player, who tried, and failed, to stop it with her chest.
Batchelor did her best to keep South Whidbey in the mix, and made an often-impenetrable wall at the net, but the well-seasoned Wolves had too many weapons.
Whether it was Trujillo roaring up the middle of the court like a runaway freight train, Toomey-Stout trying to pop the volleyball through sheer brute strength, or Vondrak slicin’ ‘n dicin’, Coupeville had an answer for everything South Whidbey could offer this time around.
The match ended, appropriately, with one final eruption of power from Toomey-Stout, which pleased her coaches, and the rockin’, rollin’, and floor-thumpin’ CHS student section.
It also came to a close with a remarkably well-balanced stat sheet, led off by Prescott, who delivered 11 kills, seven digs and six aces.
Smith tossed in 25 assists, four kills, and nine digs, Toomey-Stout collected 10 kills, eight digs, and two aces, and that was just the start.
Trujillo (five kills), Emma Mathusek (nine digs and a million floor burns), Vondrak (four kills and a solo block), Davidson (four kills, three aces), Raven Vick (three aces), and Lucy Sandahl (three digs and an ace) all delivered strong work as well.
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