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Posts Tagged ‘Mount Vernon Christian’

Hawk soars, Wolves growl

Posted in Boys Basketball, tagged , , , , on May 19, 2021| Leave a Comment »

Hawthorne Wolfe rippled the nets for 38 points Tuesday, most by a Coupeville player since the 2003-2004 season. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

They waited. And they worked. Then they worked some more.

When the moment finally arrived Tuesday, when the Coupeville High School varsity boys basketball squad reclaimed the court for the first time in 465 days, the Wolves were ready.

Given a chance to play again, Hawthorne Wolfe, Xavier Murdy, and Co. made the night memorable, raining down pain on host Mount Vernon Christian in an action-packed 72-63 win.

The victory opens a new season and a new story for Coupeville, which is returning to the Northwest 2B/1B League after a long absence.

And that first welcome back featured Wolfe, the sharp-shooting guard who lives and breathes, and probably dreams, hoops, going bonkers.

Scoring all 20 of Coupeville’s second quarter points, the junior torched the joint for 38 points, the most by a Wolf since Allen Black banked in 39 against Concrete during the 2003-2004 season.

It was just 10 points off the 48 points scored by Jeff Stone against Darrington in 1970’s district title game, a school record which has stood untouched for 51 years.

The third 30-point game of his prep career, Tuesday’s performance lifts Wolfe from #55 to #50 on the CHS boys career scoring chart, which dates back to 1917.

With 448 points and counting, he passes Mason Grove (414), Caleb Powell (421), Tony Ford (432), Del O’Shell (440), and Gary Hammons (443).

Next up are Frank Marti (462) and Sean Dillon (469), with Stone and Mike Bagby tied at #1 with 1,137 points apiece.

Wolfe got off to a decent start Tuesday, rattling home nine points in the first quarter, with Xavier Murdy adding five, and Alex Murdy and Daniel Olson each dropping in a bucket during an 18-14 run.

But the second quarter belonged to Hawk, who scored from all angles, outpacing MVC 20-13 by himself to stake Coupeville to a 38-27 halftime lead.

Wolfe drained three treys, three two-point buckets, and five free throws during his second-quarter assault on the rim, then turned the spotlight over to fellow junior Grady Rickner.

After a brief cameo in a playoff game at the end of his sophomore season, this was Rickner’s varsity coming-out party and he responded, scorching the Hurricane defense for 10 points in the third quarter.

MVC managed to cut the margin down to single-digits thanks to a 14-10 advantage in the frame, however, and the fourth quarter was a back-and-forth battle.

Coupeville never blinked, with Wolfe tacking on another nine points down the stretch, with Olson, Logan Martin, Xavier Murdy, and Grady Rickner all scoring in the fourth.

“It was a good game. MVC was tough, and physical. Proud of our guys resilience tonight,” said Coupeville coach Brad Sherman. “Every time MVC started to make a run, somebody stepped up and made a big play.

“Was really great to see our guys come together as a team, keep composed when it was needed late, and pull out the league win,” he added. “After the long break, certainly a nice way to start.”

Wolfe’s 38 points were backed by Grady Rickner (12), Xavier Murdy (8), Olson (8), Martin (4), and Alex Murdy (2), while Sage Downes, TJ Rickner, and freshman Logan Downes all saw floor time.

With his first four varsity points, Logan Martin becomes the 394th Coupeville boy to score in a varsity game, and the second in his family.

Older brother Dalton tallied 47 points in the 2014-2015 season.

Coupeville returns to action Thursday with a home match-up against Orcas Island, which is 2-0 after beating Concrete and Friday Harbor.

There will be no fans at that game, per the request of the Orcas School District.

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Rough start, promise of better days

Posted in Girls Basketball, tagged , , , , on May 18, 2021| Leave a Comment »

Coupeville sophomore Gwen Gustafson scored her first varsity point Tuesday night. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)

It was a tough way to kick off a new season.

With a very young roster, including two middle school-aged players, the Coupeville High School varsity girls basketball squad had trouble keeping up with one of the dominant hoops programs in its new league.

Mount Vernon Christian has played 23 games at the state tourney over the past seven seasons, bringing home top-six banners four times.

So it wasn’t too much of a surprise that the Hurricanes battered the Wolves Tuesday night in both team’s season openers, winning 54-14 on their home floor.

For second-year CHS coach Scott Fox, who lost five of his top seven scorers from a season ago, it was a rough, but maybe necessary learning lesson.

“It wasn’t pretty, but we now know the areas to improve on,” he said.

“There’s a reason MVC has gone to the state tournament often and it starts with their aggression,” Fox added. “We showed our youth tonight and there were times two 8th graders were in the lineup.”

Those CMS students, Lyla Stuurmans and Savina Wells, became the first middle school athletes to play in a CHS varsity girls basketball game, and they represent a bright future for Wolf hoops — just one which will have to learn under fire.

One of the team’s few returning veterans, junior Audrianna Shaw, led Coupeville on opening night, pounding away for a team-high eight points.

“Audri was our bright spot,” Fox said.

She was joined in the scoring column by Maddie Georges, who knocked down three points, Izzy Wells, who banked in a bucket, and Gwen Gustafson, who drained a free throw.

Gustafson, making her varsity hoops debut, becomes the 230th Wolf girl to score since the program began in 1974, and the second in her immediate family.

Big sis Amanda Fabrizi, a 2014 grad, is #36 on the all-time CHS girls scoring chart, having scorched the nets for 299 points in her prep career.

Ja’Kenya Hoskins

Tuesday’s game also marked the return of Ja’Kenya Hoskins.

After playing on varsity as a freshman, she missed her entire sophomore campaign thanks to a busted ankle suffered during a school dodgeball tourney.

Hoskins, an absolute ray of sunshine in the world, even if she’s too young to know what Videoville was, deserves all the praise for maintaining a supremely-positive attitude during her down time.

Ja’Kenya is a wrecking ball on the court, and pure class off it, and everything is at least a little bit better knowing her family gets to watch her play her favorite sport again.

 

No JV Game:

MVC doesn’t have a second squad this season, so Coupeville’s JV will make its debut Thursday at home against Orcas Island.

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Cold finish dooms JV boys

Posted in Boys Basketball, tagged , , , , on May 18, 2021| Leave a Comment »

Nick Guay scored six points Tuesday in Mount Vernon as the Coupeville JV boys basketball team made its season debut. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

The fourth quarter didn’t go as planned.

Locked in a back-and-forth battle with host Mount Vernon Christian Tuesday, the Coupeville High School JV boys basketball squad was playing step for step with the Hurricanes.

Then, things fell apart a bit, as a scoring drought in the final frame doomed any comeback tries.

Unable to get the basket to accept any of their gifts, the young Wolves were outscored 13-0 over the game’s final eight minutes, eventually falling 44-28 in their season opener.

Coupeville, playing for first-year coach Hunter Smith — the 12th leading varsity scorer in the 104 seasons of CHS boys basketball — played strongly for much of the game.

With Jonathan Valenzuela and Nick Guay combining for all their scoring in the early going, the Wolves trailed just 12-9 at the first break.

CHS clamped down on defense in the second quarter, and led by Zane Oldenstadt’s four points — which included a perfect 2-2 trip to the charity stripe — the Wolves shaved the deficit down to 19-17 by the half.

While MVC pushed the margin back to three at 31-28 coming out of the third, anything seemed possible.

Unfortunately, at least for Wolf fans, the hot hand in the final quarter belonged to Owen Heinze, who tallied seven of his game-high 12 points down the stretch, spurring the Hurricanes to their first win.

Valenzuela paced Coupeville with a team-high nine points, including his team’s lone three-ball, while Guay pumped in six and Dominic Coffman rumbled for five.

Oldenstadt (4), William Davidson (2), and Cole White (2) rounded out the CHS scorers, with Andrew Williams, Ryan Blouin, and Quinten Simpson-Pilgrim also seeing floor time.

Wolf young guns Mikey Robinett, Alex Wasik, and Nathan Ginnings were also along for the trip.

Coupeville returns home Thursday to face Orcas Island in a game with no fans, then travels to Friday Harbor Saturday to cap a busy opening week in a pandemic-compressed month-long schedule.

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Tip your hat, work for next year

Posted in Girls Soccer, tagged , , , , on May 7, 2021| Leave a Comment »

Coupeville girls soccer coach Kyle Nelson is already looking forward to next season — which should hopefully go down this fall. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)

Carolyn Lhamon is part of a talented group of underclassmen who can return.

Give credit where credit is due.

The Mount Vernon Christian girls soccer team just had a (pandemic-shortened) season for the ages.

Capping their torrid run with a 6-0 win over Coupeville Friday, the visiting Hurricanes finished with all their zeroes in the right place.

With the victory, MVC put the finishing touches on a 6-0 season in which it outscored its two foes, La Conner and Coupeville, 55-0.

That’s not a misprint.

The Hurricanes rang up 21 goals against the Wolves, winning 9-0, 6-0, and 6-0, while really reaming La Conner.

MVC thunked the Braves 9-0, 14-0, and 11-0, which is beautiful and horrifying in equal measures.

Thanks to their own 4-0 and 6-0 wins over La Conner — a third game was lost to the constant schedule shuffle of the Age of Coronavirus — Coupeville finishes 2-3 and claims second-place in the Northwest 2B/1B League.

Needless to say, La Conner, outscored 44-0 (also not a misprint) finishes last at 0-5, while Friday Harbor took a season off due to Covid concerns.

While the Wolves couldn’t stop MVC, they did slow down the fleet-footed Hurricanes for a chunk of each game.

Friday was no different, as Coupeville, celebrating Senior Night, played their phenomenal foes even for much of the first half.

“We did manage to frustrate them for the first 30 minutes, where we held them,” said CHS coach Kyle Nelson. “But, unfortunately we could not hold them off longer, and tired legs gave way.”

While he’ll lose several players to graduation, headlined by goal-scoring terror Genna Wright and dependable goalkeeper Mollie Bailey, the Wolves can return much of their roster.

“The first half gave promise to things to come in the next season with some more time to work together,” Nelson said.

While Wright’s departure takes away Coupeville’s top goal-scoring threat, the other six players to find the back of the net this season were underclassmen.

Wright, who lost her junior season to injury and saw her senior campaign greatly reduced in size by the pandemic, graduates as the program’s #3 career scorer.

Her 20 goals trails just Mia (35) and Kalia Littlejohn (33).

 

Final scoring stats:

Genna Wright 3
Eryn Wood 2
Carolyn Lhamon 1
Sophie Martin 1
Ava Mitten 1
Audrianna Shaw 1
Reese Wilkinson 1

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Wolves spike Hurricanes

Posted in Volleyball, tagged , , , , on May 5, 2021| Leave a Comment »

Maddie Georges netted 37 assists Tuesday, as Coupeville’s varsity spikers won on the road. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

Focused and in control.

As they prepare for a third rumble with two-time defending state champ La Conner, the Coupeville High School varsity volleyball squad was in fine form Tuesday night.

Taking care of host Mount Vernon Christian 25-21, 25-16, 21-25, 25-14, the Wolves improve to 5-2 on the season and reclaim sole possession of second-place in the Northwest 2B/1B League.

Next up for CHS is a Senior Night rumble with La Conner (7-0) Friday, then a season-closing bout with Orcas Island (3-6) Saturday.

While both matches are home affairs, no fans will be allowed at the second one, as Orcas requires that during the Age of Coronavirus.

The tussle with the Vikings will be broadcast on Facebook Live.

While La Conner is the spiker program everyone measures themselves against, Coupeville didn’t look past MVC.

The first time these two schools clashed on the volleyball court this season, the Wolves had to rally to pull out a nail-biting five-set thriller.

This time around, the action was equally intense, but a little more one-sided.

“I was excited to see that we played much more in control than last time we faced off with MVC,” said Coupeville coach Cory Whitmore.

“That game was a turning point for us to focus on our attacking form and our readiness on defense, and both were much more improved than our last outing against them.”

While the Hurricanes lost, they also came hard, something Whitmore was pleased to witness.

“It was fun to see that MVC was also improved, meaning that we had to earn our points,” he said. “We had a bit of slump in the third set, going back and forth with them before they crept ahead at the end.

“The girls then had to generate the energy as a team in order to break free in the fourth set,” Whitmore added.

“After dropping the third set, you want to see your team take the game back in control and close it in four, which is what they did and I’m especially proud of them for that.”

A key to Coupeville’s success was its smooth work on offense, with sophomore Maddie Georges doling out 37 of her team’s 40 assists.

“Overall, our passing was strong and we were in very comfortable attacking situations,” Whitmore said. “I was really impressed with Maddie’s setting decisions and delivery.

“She averaged 9.25 assists per set, which is a strong distribution.”

Once Georges flipped the ball into play, the Wolf mighty mashers took advantage, with the senior triple threat of Chelsea Prescott (17 kills), Kylie Chernikoff (12), and Maddie Vondrak (10) combining to rain down holy terror on the Hurricanes.

Vondrak was a beast at the net, also picking up a solo block and four block assists, while Chernikoff and Prescott tallied double-doubles.

Chernikoff added 10 digs and three service aces to go with her knee-buckling kills, with Prescott going off for 15 digs and five scorchin’ aces.

Ten Wolves saw floor time in the win, with all of them slappin’ down nice numbers in the stat book.

Sophomore Lucy Tenore “came in and served very well at critical times,” ripping off five aces and “carrying us through to the end of the match with a very strong serving run to close it out.”

Tenore added five digs, three kills, and two block assists, while Georges also picked up four digs, three block assists, and two aces.

Alita Blouin (seven digs), Jill Prince (two digs, a block assist), Abby Mulholland (two digs, an ace) Jaimee Masters (a dig), and Ryanne Knoblich (a dig) also kept the stat-keepers hoppin’.

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