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Posts Tagged ‘JV’

JV serves up another win!!

Posted in Volleyball, tagged , , , , , on October 11, 2018| Leave a Comment »

Jaimee Masters was electric at the service line Thursday, sparking the Coupeville JV volleyball squad to a comeback win. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

Give your foes a glimmer of hope, then crush their dreams.

Using every player on the roster Thursday, the Coupeville High School JV volleyball squad stormed back from down a set to blitz visiting Cedar Park Christian, turning a tense match into a runaway win.

While the Eagles slipped away with the opening set 26-24, after blowing a seven-point lead and wasting two set points, it was all Wolves, all day, as soon as the squads switched sides of the floor.

Coupeville blistered the visitors 25-16 in the second set, then took the third set, and the win, with a 25-19 frame in which the Wolf freshmen carried the load.

The win, the team’s third-straight, lifts the JV to 3-3 in North Sound Conference play, 5-4 overall.

CHS coach Chris Smith mixed up his lineup a bit more than normal Thursday, used all 13 of his players, and got big-time plays from everyone on the court.

While the Wolves ultimately dropped the opening set, they displayed an admirable scrappiness, battling back from an 11-4 deficit to knot the set up at 19-19, 22-22 and 24-24.

After failing to win a point through its first four servers, Coupeville finally broke through on the wicked hot arm of Willow Vick.

Her first serve set up a roundhouse spike from Zoe Trujillo, then Vick ripped off a knee-buckling ace to start the comeback.

The Wolves fought all the way back to tie the set at 19 when Lucy Sandahl spun a ball off of her fingertips while on the move, dropping a tip winner between two flailing rivals.

From there, the opening set became a war of attrition.

Maddie Vondrak bounded to the ceiling to pound home a winner, Raven Vick scorched a nasty ace, but a truly awful call by the ref swung things back to CPC, which closed out the set.

From their demeanor, it was tough to tell the Wolves were down a set, however, as they bounced around, full of energy and ready to bring the pain.

Sandahl started things off with a nice run at the service line, then Jaimee Masters took things to another level, ripping off seven straight winners, punctuated by a  low, screaming ace which tore a chunk out of a CPC player’s toe.

Inspired by her teammate’s serving prowess, Vondrak got funky, dancing this way and that, blocking two shots in a row with just the top of her fingertips, before swinging the hammer on a spike that sealed the deal.

Riding the wave of emotion, Coupeville’s freshmen (Izzy Wells, Noelle Daigneault, Eryn Wood, Abby Mulholland, Kylie Van Velkinburgh and Anya Leavell) teamed with sophomores Ivy Leedy and Abby Meyers to do most of the damage down the stretch.

Wells opened the final set with eight consecutive points on serve, then, after a nifty kill from the middle of the floor by Leavell, it was time for Daigneault to get down and dirty.

Back-to-back aces from the freshman Homecoming princess blew the lead out to 11-1, with the Wolves eventually stretching the margin all the way to 22-9.

Van Velkinburgh sprawled out on the floor to keep one crucial rally going, while Mulholland froze two rivals with a tip winner, and things looked to be about three seconds from ending.

Give CPC some credit, though, as they closed on a 10-2 run with at least two winners catching the last flake of paint on the back line.

Smith never panicked, however, and neither did his youngest players, as he left them on the floor to close out the win. Which they promptly did.

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Izzy Wells can’t be stopped!!

Posted in Volleyball, tagged , , , , , , on October 4, 2018| Leave a Comment »

Freshman Izzy Wells reeled off 16 straight points on her serve Thursday as the Wolf JV volleyball squad crushed Port Townsend. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

Torched. Burnt to a crisp. Annihilated.

Choose any of the above, because they all apply to the Port Townsend High School JV volleyball team after the whuppin’ applied Thursday by Coupeville.

Using 13 different players, and getting big performances from all of them, the Wolves cruised in with a 25-6, 25-11, 25-5 win in front of their home fans.

The non-league victory snaps a three-game losing skid for the CHS young guns — two of those losses came in three-set nail-biters — and lifts them to 3-4 on the season.

In a match where pretty much everything went right for the Wolves, the spiker with the hottest hand was Izzy Wells.

Making her second trip of the night to the service line, the freshman turned a 2-1 third-set deficit into a 17-2 advantage, running off 16 straight points, with few of her serves even put back into play.

Wells ripped an ace off of a Port Townsend player’s chest, then promptly mixed things up by dropping her next serve right at the feet of the same gobsmacked RedHawk.

That second serve skipped merrily away for another ace, while fellow frosh Kylie Van Velkinburgh buried a winner from mid-court on one of the relatively few times PT got the ball back over the net during the streak.

By the time she was done, Wells had put together Coupeville’s longest run on serve since Lauren Rose rolled off 20 straight points in a varsity win over Chimacum in 2016.

In stark contrast to the note-perfect run of serves, Port Townsend’s defining moment of the night came when a RedHawk picked up a ball after a play, whirled to throw it back to Coupeville’s side of the net and instead buried it right into the stomach of a wide-eyed teammate.

It was that kind of night for the visitors, as the Wolves pounced early, stayed hot and coasted home, while mixing and matching players as fast as coach Chris Smith could sub them in and out.

In the early stages, it was all about Coupeville’s power, as Zoe Trujillo, Maddie Vondrak and the rampaging Vick sisters, Willow and Raven, crushed the ball anytime it was in the air.

Port Townsend failed to score a single point on its serve in the opening set, while Wolves Lucy Sandahl, Jaimee Masters and Co. peppered the RedHawks with superb serves when they were towing the line.

Willow Vick, in a stirring set-up to Wells later exploits, put together a seven-point run on her serve which featured a bit of everything.

She tore apart the defense with one ace that scorched the middle of the court, then artfully slipped another winner barely over the net.

It was a low, dangerous hummer which caught the top of the net and flopped over, hitting Port Townsend’s side of the floor before promptly dying.

Her twin sister chipped in, with Raven hammering a spike which ended a brief rally on one of Willow’s serves.

The response from one frustrated (and now highly-nervous) RedHawk?

A low, strained whimper of “OH … MY … GOD!!!”

Moments later, Trujillo went airborne and lashed a laser shot which cracked off a Port Townsend player’s arm, sending her staggering off in search of somewhere, anywhere to hide.

She never found that safe haven.

The second set was more of the same, just with a handful of Coupeville errors scattered among the big plays.

Vondrak, dancing above the net, used the very end of her fingertips to twice stuff RedHawk shots, while the Wolves dominated on serve yet again.

Masters scorched aces, Raven Vick zinged aces, Trujillo fired aces and Vondrak mashed aces in the middle set. Sense a trend, do you?

While Wells one-woman ballet of death and destruction grabbed the biggest chunk of the spotlight in the final frame, Noelle Daigneault also dropped in a gorgeous ace and Masters closed the night firing BB’s at the line.

Along the way, Abby Meyers, Ivy Leedy, Abby Mulholland and Eryn Wood all saw quality floor time, with Mulholland skying high to slam home an especially impressive spike.

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Wolf JV spikes big schools!!

Posted in Volleyball, tagged , , , , on September 29, 2018| Leave a Comment »

Freshman Kylie Van Velkinburgh and the Coupeville JV volleyball squad played strongly Saturday at a tourney in Oak Harbor. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

No fear.

Playing against much-bigger schools Saturday, the Coupeville High School JV volleyball squad more than held its own at a tournament in Oak Harbor.

The Wolves, repping one of the smallest 1A schools in the state, went spike-to-spike with rivals from larger classifications, ultimately winning five of nine sets.

CHS finished second in pool play, sweeping two sets from 2A Cedarcrest, while splitting sets with 3A Marysville Pilchuck and 4A Mount Vernon.

Advancing on to the single-elimination championship bracket, the Wolves pushed 4A Kamiak to the brink before bowing out in a hard-fought three-set rumble.

“Good tournament for the JV,” said Coupeville coach Chris Smith. “Overall good play from our team.”

Lucy Sandahl, Zoe Trujillo, Maddie Vondrak and the rampaging Vick sisters, Raven and Willow, carried the team on their back, but Smith was able to give quality floor time to everyone in uniform.

Anya Leavell and Abby Mullholland split time at middle while Jaimee Masters and Abby Meyers shared time at libero.

Kylie Van Velkinburgh and Ivy Leedy pulled duty on the front row, with Noelle Daigneault firing away from the service stripe.

The stat sheet was fairly balanced, with Trujillo (16 kills, nine digs and seven aces), Sandahl (36 assists, 15 aces) and Vondrak (15 kills, 6 digs) topping the charts.

Raven Vick whacked seven kills and went low for eight digs, while Willow Vick accumulated four kills, three digs and six aces.

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Servin’ up a whuppin’!!

Posted in Volleyball, tagged , , , , on September 6, 2018| 1 Comment »

Put a volleyball in the hands of Willow Vick (or twin sister Raven) and they will unleash Hell on Earth. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

Don’t hurt ’em, Vick sisters! Whoops, too late.

Combining to win points on 19 serves, the twin terrors that are Raven and Willow Vick (friendly, artistic souls off the court, cold-blooded assassins between the lines) were on fire Thursday night.

Actually, so was everyone else in a Wolf uniform, as the Coupeville High School JV volleyball team mashed visiting Friday Harbor in a match where the word “rout” would be an understatement.

Kicking off their season with a 25-7, 25-9, 25-11 cakewalk, the Vick-powered wrecking crew left coach Chris Smith leaning back in his chair, contented grin on his face as his game plan came together flawlessly.

Coupeville controlled the match from the service stripe, with one player after another going off on sustained runs in which they peppered Friday Harbor receivers with balls which had no chance of ever coming back over the net.

Abby Mulholland, Maddie Vondrak, Ivy Leedy, Eryn Wood, Izzy Wells – didn’t matter who was spinning the ball and rocketing sweet, sweet missiles over the net. They all had the magic touch.

But it was the Vicks who put the final stamp on the night.

Willow ripped off four-straight aces at one point in the final set, with each serve kicking in a different direction (except for the one which tattooed a Friday Harbor player in the chest).

Her twin was even more lethal, as Raven went on a tear which netted 12 consecutive points as the Wolves cruised through the second set.

She got some help from Zoe Trujillo, who cranked a winner off a rival, unleashing a shot which just about tore the girl’s arm out of its socket.

Other than that brief rally, Friday Harbor could not get anything off of Raven Vick, however, as she dropped aces in front of them, then blasted aces to the deepest, darkest part of the court.

Picking up inspiration from her older teammate, Wood, a freshman making her high school debut, put together her own run of six straight points on serve.

Fellow frosh Mulholland bashed a serve off of a Friday Harbor player’s very-surprised face, while Lucy Sandahl got nasty with her own serves, launching bombs which dove and bit the court, spraying fragments everywhere.

With Coupeville’s service game firing on all cylinders, there weren’t a whole lot of sustained rallies, but buried in the midst of a series of one-off plays there was one majestic conflict.

After Jaimee Masters put the ball in play off of her serve midway through the second set, both teams pulled off unexpected last-ditch saves, keeping the ball in the air longer than at any other point in the match.

While Friday Harbor looked like they had a winner, Vondrak, roaring up the middle of the floor, stretched out, using every last inch of her frame to scrape the rapidly-descending ball off the floor.

Pushing it skyward, she not only kept the play alive, but popped it perfectly on to Trujillo’s fingertips, allowing the Wolf outside hitter to pound home a convincing winner.

With everything falling his way, Chris Smith was able to use all 14 players on his roster, with Kylie Van Velkinburgh, Abby Meyers, Anya Leavell and Noelle Daigneault also seeing solid floor time.

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More runs than stars in heaven!!

Posted in Softball, tagged , , , , , on May 9, 2018| Leave a Comment »

   Freshman Thora Iverson smacked three hits Wednesday, pulled off several defensive gems and helped propel Coupeville’s JV softball team to another win. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

It was jaw-dropping.

17 batters. 13 runs. 11 straight hitters reaching base safely. Eight base-knocks. One dazed opponent.

And that was just the first inning.

Closing their season with a mad flourish, the Coupeville High School JV softball team decked visiting Sequim Wednesday, then held on for the win when the visitors sprang off the mat throwing hay-makers of its own.

The 16-14 victory, sealed by the game’s only one-two-three inning, lifts the young guns final record to 4-1.

And what a win it was.

Coupeville fell behind 5-0, unleashed an inning they’ll be talking about for years, then weathered a late Sequim comeback, escaping thanks to key defensive plays from freshmen Chelsea Prescott, Thora Iverson and Mollie Bailey.

But what you really want to hear about is the bottom of the first, a frame for the historians to pore over and parse.

The Wolves could have been a bit down, after giving up a quick five-spot in the top of the first, but, if so, it was hard to tell as they hustled to grab their bats.

Energy crackled from the dugout, noise flowed out across the darkening prairie, Bailey flexed her biceps and … the impending tsunami of diamond destruction started with a mere walk.

A carefully-achieved walk, as Coral Caveness outlasted the Sequim hurler, using a precise eye to avoid swinging at anything bad, but a walk nonetheless.

It would be the last walk for some time.

Mackenzie Davis, swinging from her heels, bashed a single and the onslaught was under way.

Deep breath…

Prescott mashed a two-run double, Bailey crunched an RBI single, Chloe Wheeler smoked an RBI double that hit the edge of the outfield and shot crazily into the great beyond, Thora Iverson poked a single that slid between three players and … I’m hyperventilating.

Good thing the Sequim pitcher promptly plunked Nicole Laxton in the leg.

Maybe not so good for Nicole’s leg … but it kept the rally alive, caused varsity second-baseman Scout Smith to bellow “I love you in black and blue, kid!!!” and started a new streak.

The next three batters reached base on free passes, with walks to Marenna Rebischke-Smith and Caveness packaged around Jenna Dickson being righteously drilled by a wayward pitch.

This one hit flesh with an audible bang, causing even Smith to visibly wince for a moment before the best cheerleader in the Wolf softball program recovered, put her game face on and yelled “Way to wear it, Jenna!!”

There was a point, right after the Sequim catcher lost her mind and came dangerously close to throwing her face mask at her own teammates, where it looked like Coupeville would never make an out.

Like ever, ever.

Of course, the Wolves did, or I’d still be at the game and not writing this story.

But, even when that first out came, on the 12th batter of the inning, it brought another run home.

And then the hits started flying again, with Bailey, Iverson and Laxton smacking base-knocks that kept Sequim’s outfielders busy running this way, that way and every which way.

By the time the first inning came to a close, some seven or so hours after it started, the scorekeeper had carpal tunnel, sparks were flying off the over-heated scoreboard and the game looked like a knock-out.

Not so fast.

While CHS stretched the lead out to 15-6 after two innings, the Wolves were robbed of more when Sequim’s shortstop robbed Laxton, spearing a liner that left her bat like a 747 taking off.

Building off of their web gem, the visitors plated four in the third, then another four in the fourth, while Coupeville was forced to settle for a lonely run in the third and nada in the fourth.

Suddenly what had looked like a romp was a collar-tightener at 16-14.

Even getting there had gotten dangerous, as Iverson had to pull off a great play in front of the bag at second to help the Wolves escape danger.

A Sequim hitter topped a ball, sent it skyward, and when the orb plunged, it took a crazy skitter on the dirt.

Iverson was having none of these shenanigans, though, staying in front of the ball, snaring it, then flipping it over her shoulder to Caveness for a key force at second.

Prescott, helping herself from the pitcher’s circle, reached deep for a run of strikeouts, then nailed a rival foolish enough to run on her.

Making a perfect strike to Melia Welling at third, who slapped on the tag, Prescott lived for another day.

And then, when it mattered most, the freshman hurler slammed the door.

Up by two heading into the top of the fifth and final inning, Prescott opened the frame by throwing BB’s to Davis, who was set up behind the plate.

Down went one batter on strikes, down went a second batter swinging, and then the third popped the ball meekly into the air where Bailey, still flexing her biceps, calmly gathered it in for the final out of the JV season.

Coupeville rang up 10 hits in the finale, with Iverson and Bailey claiming three apiece.

Wheeler, Prescott and Laxton all doubled, while Davis rounded out the hit parade with a single.

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