Emma Leavitt delivers a winner at the net. (Julie Wheat photo)
This one got away.
Five points away from victory, the Coupeville High School JV volleyball squad hit a rough patch Saturday, eventually falling to visiting East Jefferson in three torrid sets.
The 21-25, 25-21, 25-17 non-conference loss drops the Wolves to 4-8 on the season, with three matches left to play starting with a trip October 20 to La Conner.
Saturday’s rumble, coming hot on the heels of a come-from behind victory against Mount Vernon Christian less than 24 hours before, looked to be headed towards the win column for Alita Blouin’s young spikers.
Up a set, with a 20-17 lead in the second and having led all frame, things seemed destined for greatness. But then the visiting Rivals found a second wind and pulled off their own match-winning rally.
The matinee started with a hotly-contested first set, and with Coupeville scraping for points.
The Wolves failed to get a win on their serve until Annabelle Cundiff, #6 in the rotation, finally broke through, but it took three more trips to the line, and the arrival there of Olivia Martin, for CHS to finally grab the lead.
Emily Rains and Emma Leavitt had operated with precision at the net, delivering kills to force crucial side-outs, but a three-point run on serve from Martin, including a laser of an ace, pushed Coupeville in front at 13-11.
East Jefferson fought back to knot things up at 18-18 and again at 21-21, despite a gorgeous spike off the back line from Rains, a sweet flip winner from Scarlett Spencer, and a fireball of an ace off the fingertips of Leavitt.
The Wolves made their stand, however, with Rains going on a one-woman rampage to ice the set.
A running tip which split the defense put Coupeville back in front, followed by a pair of aces from the same hard-hitting freshman and Blouin’s squad waltzed back to the bench, set in hand.
The Wolves build each other up. (Jacob Lujan photo)
By contrast, the Wolves led from start to (almost) finish in the second frame, bolting out to a 5-0 lead as Leavitt unloaded on the Rivals from the service line.
Spencer bounced a tip winner off a girl’s head, then made her own strong run on serve, before Addison Jacobson scored back-to-back points on a deep smash and a ball dug off the ground at the last second.
With Cundiff and Sabrina Judnich scrambling to make plays, and Rains making girls run to escape her incoming hot ‘n nasty spikes, things were well in hand.
Until they weren’t.
Coupeville didn’t really crumble, but East Jefferson most assuredly grabbed all the momentum for a few moments, tearing off an 8-1 run to close the frame, turning a three-point deficit into a four-point win and tying things at a set apiece.
The Wolves regained some of their mojo in the third set, battling through five ties, the last one coming at 11-11.
Spencer, putting together her best performance of the season, came up big both on serve and at the net, but East Jefferson found a groove, turning a 14-13 mini-lead into a 23-13 maxi-lead seemingly in the blink of an eye.
The Wolves final surge came thanks to a three-point service run from Leavitt, but time ran out on the young guns as the visitors escaped with a hard-fought win.
Saturday stats:
Annabelle Cundiff — 1 kill, 3 digs
Addison Jacobson — 1 kill, 4 digs, 2 aces
Emma Leavitt— 2 kills, 6 digs, 9 assists, 6 aces
Olivia Martin — 15 digs, 2 aces
Emily Rains — 7 kills, 4 digs, 4 aces
Scarlett Spencer — 6 kills, 1 dig, 4 aces
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