Cameron Van Dyke, seen here during softball season, is also a top volleyball player.
It was super-sized.
Coupeville Middle School volleyball made its home debut Monday, in an event which lasted 193 minutes, featured exactly 300 points (seriously), and contained roughly 107,451 screams unleashed by hyped-up teen girls.
And a few hundred more from their male counterparts, at least until a Lakewood coach plopped herself down in the midst of the Wolf support crew and lectured them for chafing her servers with their grunts and psychological warfare.
While Coupeville lost all three matches to their visitors, who hail from a much-larger school which funnels students to a 2A high school, there were bright moments for the hometown spikers, and promise of success to come.
How the day played out:
Team A:
The Wolves played their best ball in the middle set, eventually falling 25-3, 26-24, 15-7.
Of that opening frame, the best to say was that it was over quickly.
Little went right for CMS, though both Cameron Van Dyke and Rhylee Inman made superb saves on wayward balls in the late going.
The former pulled the ball back out of the net with a flick of her wrist, while the latter launched the ball back over her shoulder while scrambling towards the gym wall at warp speed.
Things got much, much better in set #2, however.
Riding strong service runs from Van Dyke and Emma Leavitt, the Wolves broke out to a 10-2 lead, completely changing the mood in the gym.
While Lakewood fought back hard from its deficit, Coupeville held the advantage almost all the way to the finish line.
There were three ties along the way, at 15-15, 17-17, and 22-22, but the visitors didn’t pull ahead until very late, finally going up at 23-22.
Inman launched an impressive winner from the back row at one point, while Cassie Powers dropped a pretty lil’ tip that split the defense to knot things back up at 23-23.
CMS fought off one set point, but Lakewood wasn’t to be denied in the end.
While the match was decided, the two squads played a third set for practice, which was highlighted by Leavitt ripping off a string of winners on her serve in the early going.
Team B:
The middle match of the day went a lot like the first rumble, with Lakewood claiming a 25-6, 25-18, 15-8 victory.
While the first set was over too fast, the Wolves did get a service ace from Savannah Niewald, solid hustle from Annabelle Cundiff, and a picture-perfect winner off the fingertips of Scarlett Spencer.
Spearing a ball out of the air, Spencer flipped a return which caressed the net as it went back over, then plunged to the floor and skidded away for a winner as Lakewood’s players all froze in place.
Once again, the second set was Coupeville’s strongest, as the Wolves hung tough, staying within a handful of points most of the way.
The final frame was a back-and-forth affair, with the best moment coming when CMS pulled off a huge save on a ball which had winner written all over it.
Three different Wolves combined to keep the play alive, with Cundiff, punching like she was in the middle of the boxing ring, knocking the ball back over the net to catch Lakewood by surprise.
Team C:
Coupeville’s more inexperienced players put up a fight, before Lakewood slipped away with a 25-14, 25-14, 15-10 triumph.
Maja Govorcin delivered Coupeville’s best effort at the service stripe in the first set, including cracking an ace which skipped off a Lakewood arm, while Bella Sandlin and Emma Green delivered key hustle plays in support.
Ultimately, the match was the most dangerous of the day, as two different players, one from each team, absorbed a volleyball to the face.
Both spikers laughed it off, however, with no one, thankfully, recreating that moment several years back when Wolf-legend-in-the-making Chelsea Prescott accidently exploded her rival’s face with a spike.
Up next:
Coupeville hosts its next two matches, starting with Sultan visiting Cow Town this Wednesday, Oct. 2.
After that, King’s comes to Whidbey Oct. 7.
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