Issabel Johnson and the Wolf JV spikers are 10-1 after sweeping Neah Bay Saturday. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
The victory express chugs on.
Racking up 25 service aces Saturday, the Coupeville High School JV volleyball team swept visiting Neah Bay off the floor, winning its eighth-straight match.
With the non-conference victory, the Wolf young guns soar to 10-1 on the season, best mark of any CHS fall sports team.
It was a competitive match, to be sure, but one which Coupeville largely controlled, coming out on top 25-23, 25-15, 25-19.
The first two sets played out to a similar tune — the Wolves jumped out to a large lead, the Red Devils rallied, then the Wolves put the hammer down.
Katie Marti got the day off to a strong start, peppering Neah Bay with nasty serves as she staked Coupeville to a quick 6-0 lead.
Teagan Calkins was a tipping machine, using her fingers to flick winners away from her rivals, while Jada Heaton smashed all the air out of the volleyball on a brutal kill as CHS pushed the margin to 13-5.
That seemed to light a fire under the feisty visitors, however, as they fought all the way back to force a tie at 18-18.
Bumping the intensity up just a notch or two, the Wolves broke the tie with five straight points, thanks to strong serving from Marti and a pair of big kills from Issabel Johnson — only to see Neah Bay respond with its own five-point tear.
Knotted at 23-23, the set could have gone either way, but the Red Devils kindly botched the next two points, allowing CHS coach Ashley Menges to exhale and call for a refill on her water from mom Jennifer.
Set two wasn’t as quite as collar-tightening, though it did have its escapades.
Marti again staked her squad to an early lead from the service stripe, this time at 5-0, before Neah Bay fought back to knot things at 10-10.
This time, Coupeville pulled away much faster, with Teagan Calkins, Heaton, and Johnson compiling sizzling runs on serve to pace a 15-5 finish.
Along the way, fab frosh Calkins, runnin’ and gunnin’ on the far side of the court, frequently went skyborne, bashing winners which scattered Neah Bay defenders in all directions.
With the match in hand, the third set was just for practice, but both squads took it quite seriously, continuing the back-and-forth battle.
While the Red Devils claimed the early lead, Coupeville snatched the advantage for good at 11-10 on another booming spike off of Johnson’s explosive fingertips.
Taylor Brotemarkle, spinning the ball and droppin’ aces, led the attack at the service line, while Marti ran off five straight points and Grier Mooney ended the match with a resounding ace down the middle of the floor.
Menges got strong work from all nine Wolves in uniform, with Carly Burt, Chloe Marzocca, and Aby Wood also aiding the stellar group effort.
Saturday stats:
Taylor Brotemarkle — 5 digs, 1 assist, 5 aces
Teagan Calkins — 4 kills, 4 aces
Jada Heaton — 4 kills, 1 dig, 3 aces
Issabel Johnson — 4 kills, 6 aces
Katie Marti — 1 kill, 11 assists, 6 aces
Grier Mooney — 1 ace
Aby Wood — 2 kills
Coupeville Sports 