Ashley Menges welcomes you to a new season. (John Fisken photos)
Maddy Hilkey steps onto the same gym floor her mom, Emrie McCauslin, once ruled.
The young guns have arrived.
A new volleyball season started Tuesday, and the first squad to take the court was the Coupeville High School JV spikers.
Boasting four freshmen, and a new coach in Heidi Wyman, the Wolves came out scrappy, and, while they lost 25-12, 25-9, 25-11 to visiting South Whidbey, they showed bursts of stellar play.
The ninth graders, all strong athletes who excel in multiple sports, made an immediate impact.
Maddy Hilkey, following in the footsteps of mom Emrie McCauslin, a former Wolf star, was the first to step up.
Literally, as she was directly responsible for the first CHS point of the 2015 season, knocking the ball off a Falcon, whose return kissed the net and then the floor.
With Hilkey in the thick of things early, Coupeville stayed close, battling to an 8-7 lead in the first set, before South Whidbey started to pull away.
While the more-experienced Falcons controlled much of the match, the young Wolves didn’t go down without a fight.
Sarah Wright ripped off a string of low, hard serves and one slicing spike that ripped most of the flesh off of the arm of the hapless Falcon who tried to block it.
Ashley Menges had a sparkling save on a ball she dug back off of the floor at the last second, while Nicole Lester crossed up South Whidbey, dropping a ball between three players who pulled back from a collision only to lose a chance to return the ball.
The frosh weren’t the only ones playing with style, as the best play of the night might have come from Allison Wenzel.
The Wolf sophomore launched a serve that took off like a rocket, seemingly headed for the back wall.
Then, at the very last possible second, it dove and burrowed into the last fleck of paint on the line, skidding away for an eyebrow-raising ace.
The play was a big enough shocker it caught Wolf varsity player Tiffany Briscoe, who was calling lines in the JV contest, by complete surprise.
She was leaning backward, anticipating the ball being out, before shooting forward to emphatically signal the ace, a huge grin suddenly enveloping her face.
In her first match at the helm, Wyman ran 10 players through the game, also getting hustle and fight from Kenzi LaRue, Maggie Crimmins, Kayla Rose, Abby Parker and Kameryn St Onge.
Coupeville Sports 