Wolf junior Ryanne Knoblich collected seven digs Monday (and one unexpected hustle play). (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)
It was not a magical night.
Monday’s rivalry rumble with visiting South Whidbey didn’t go the way the Coupeville High School varsity volleyball squad would have liked.
Run off the court by a hard-hitting, virtually error-free Falcon team, the Wolves fell 25-21, 25-8, 25-18.
The non-conference loss drops Coupeville to 4-2 heading into a road trip to Friday Harbor on Tuesday, and it showcases the current gap between the next-door neighbors.
South Whidbey, which was already pretty-solid, unexpectedly lucked into a major addition to its roster when Marianna Blanco arrived from Iowa.
As a junior in Ankeny, she popped for 62 kills for the state 5A champs, and she provides the Falcons with a raw burst of power and energy.
Now 6-1 after Monday’s straight-sets win, South Whidbey has beaten King’s and Cedar Park Christian already this season, with just a loss to undefeated Overlake marring its win/loss record.
Coupeville has a batch of promising young players, with two freshmen and a sophomore starting, but couldn’t quite gel against the confident Falcons.
With little consistency, the Wolves watched a great first five minutes turn into a sometimes-painful next hour.
CHS, coming off of a second-place finish at a weekend tournament in Sultan, came out on fire.
Sophomore Olivia Schaffeld made a great one-armed save to set up a teammate’s put-away, before freshmen Lyla Stuurmans and Savina Wells flashed signs of brilliance.
Wells ran off four straight points on her serve — with Stuurmans smashing a winner while almost jumping over the net — and Coupeville was up 8-3.
While South Whidbey began to methodically hack away at the Wolf lead, CHS was still in front as late as 11-10.
Once the Falcons pulled ahead, however, they remained ahead, though Coupeville did hang around.
Schaffeld poked a winner into the open court to get the Wolves within 23-21, only to have South Whidbey close the set with a pair of spikes which rattled the car windows out in the parking lot.
While the first set had been a donnybrook, with both student sections bringing the noise and the funk, the second frame turned ugly for Coupeville.
Little seemed to work, and other than a few moments here and there — Taygin Jump going to the floor to both save a falling ball and launch it for a winner, or big kills for Lucy Tenore and Jill Prince — it was extremely one-sided.
Down two sets to none, Coupeville got some of its mojo back in the third. Just not enough.
While the Wolves never led in the set, they did force ties at 12-12 and 14-14, before succumbing to the Falcon’s firepower.
There were two moments of note near the end, however, which speak well for the future.
Sprawling out on the floor, Stuurmans scraped a laser of a spike off the top of her shoes, not only returning the ball, but catching the already-celebrating Falcons by surprise, the ball plopping back over the net for a Wolf point.
Lyla Stuurmans was one of only two Wolves to have a positive hitting percentage in Coupeville’s loss.
The other highlight was far less obvious, but no less important.
As Wolf coaches Cory Whitmore and Ashley Menges surveyed the scene after the loss — and a wayward skateboarder got yanked off the floor by CHS officials — a collection of the team’s water bottles sat forlornly where the bench had once been.
If left there, the abandoned beverages would have likely added extra running to the team’s next practice.
But then, saving her teammates from themselves, Ryanne Knoblich, who had seven digs on the night, started to walk by, then came swooping back to remove the drinks.
Make that seven digs and one big assist for one of the hardest-working young women in Wolf Nation.
Monday stats:
Alita Blouin — 9 digs
Maddie Georges — 2 digs, 7 assists, 2 aces
Ryanne Knoblich — 7 digs
Grey Peabody — 2 assists
Jill Prince — 2 kills
Olivia Schaffeld — 2 kills, 2 digs
Lyla Stuurmans — 3 kills, 1 dig
Lucy Tenore — 2 kills
Savina Wells — 4 kills, 9 digs, 3 aces
Coupeville Sports 