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Posts Tagged ‘Mount Vernon Christian’

Wolves howl, Hurricanes crumble!!

Posted in Volleyball, tagged , , , , , on September 6, 2016| Leave a Comment »

Hope Lodell had eight services aces to pace Coupeville to a straight-sets win Tuesday. (John Fisken photo)

   Hope Lodell had eight services aces to pace Coupeville to a straight-sets win Tuesday. (John Fisken photo)

Opening night was a rousing success.

Using strong serving and timely hitting, the Coupeville High School volleyball squad gave first-year coach Cory Whitmore a straight-sets win in his debut Tuesday, stomping visiting Mount Vernon Christian 25-15, 25-11, 25-21.

The non-conference win, coming against a school that finished 4th at the 1B state tourney last season, was a crowd-pleaser from start to finish.

Coupeville used long, successful runs at the service stripe from multiple players to control the match.

“That was our game plan, to take command in the first set and ramp up the pressure,” Whitmore said. “The team we have here trusts in the system and trusts me to do my best to put them in position to do well.”

Wolf junior Katrina McGranahan kicked things off early in the first set.

Stepping to the line with her squad trailing 4-2, she calmly ripped off winners on seven straight serves, with most of the action coming courtesy her own laser-powered arm.

McGranahan nailed one ace that curved in and bit a chunk of paint off the back-line at the last second.

A moment later she drilled another that left a scorch mark on the net as it crawled over (at a blistering speed), then exploded at the feet of a would-be returner.

A couple of big plays from Emma Smith — a block in which she soared to the ceiling and a knee-buckling spike — kept the Wolves close, before Valen Trujillo ended the first set on an emphatic note.

The senior captain, mixing speeds and getting crafty, took a 16-15 lead and ran off nine straight points on her serve to turn a taut battle into a runaway rout.

“It’s so tough to read her serves,” said a smiling Whitmore.

The final two sets were much the same, with Hope Lodell, Payton Aparicio and Lauren Rose joining McGranahan and Trujillo with strong runs at the service stripe.

Smith was a deadly sniper with her spikes, while Mikayla Elfrank and Tiffany Briscoe both made a bid to craft the night’s best play.

Elfrank, a junior making her CHS volleyball debut, displayed serious pop and a nice touch frequently flying in from the outside.

She had a gym-rattling spike winner late in the second set, then topped that right near the end of the match.

Mount Vernon had rallied for three straight points late in the third set, cutting the margin to 23-20 and raising hopes they could steal a set and prolong the match.

Instead, Elfrank, coming in from the left side, unloaded a spectacular cross-court laser that angled through two jumping Hurricane players and kicked off the line on the far right side of the floor.

The ball struck, there was a momentary pause as everyone strained to see if it had caught the line, then the Wolf faithful exploded as the ref signaled that yes, Elfrank was just that good.

Briscoe’s moment came at the end of one of the game’s longer rallies.

After both teams came up with big saves to keep the action hopping, Briscoe pounced on a wayward ball, and, using just her fingertips, redirected it through a maze of MVC defenders, dropping it into the one small gap available for a winner.

Whitmore, who was making his regular-season debut as a varsity coach (Coupeville had a jamboree under its belt), basked in the glow afterwards, as fans and CHS Athletic Director Willie Smith showered him with congratulations.

“Retire now and you go down with the best winning percentage in school history,” Smith joked.

Lodell and Trujillo paced the Wolves with eight service aces apiece, while Aparicio (5), McGranahan (5) and Ashley Menges (4) all chipped in.

Menges dished out a team-high 12 assists, while Rose collected seven.

Coupeville heads to Langley Saturday for the six-team South Whidbey Invite, then hosts Chimacum Sept. 13 in its 1A Olympic League opener.

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Rose blooms!!

Posted in Girls Basketball, tagged , , , , , on January 9, 2016| Leave a Comment »

Lauren Rose, seen here playing defense, was (Sylvia Hurlburt photo)

   Lauren Rose, seen here playing defense, was all about the offense Saturday, scorching the nets for a career-high 17 in a win. (Sylvia Hurlburt photo)

Lauren Rose doesn’t have time to bleed.

The Wolf spark-plug, a woman of many nicknames (“Mouse,” “Keebler Elf”) and much talent, bounced right back from a recent injury and spent much of Saturday inflicting pain on others.

Raining down a career-high 17, the super sophomore lifted the Coupeville High School JV girls’ hoops squad to a thrilling 34-32 win over visiting Mount Vernon Christian.

The win, the second in the last three games for the young Wolves, lifted them to 4-6 heading into a nine-day break.

That will give Rose a chance to heal up, though hopefully not cool down.

“Lauren made a statement tonight with her game,” said CHS coach Amy King. “Still playing with a wrapped ankle, she led the team — directing on offense, finding open lanes to drive through, as well as hitting a much-needed three.

“She just seemed to be everywhere, stealing, driving, cutting and taking shots when open. Lauren really did a nice job of leading the team,” she added. “This is her best game this season. You could see her confidence growing and it was so nice watching her take over the game.”

Rose got a fair amount of help, with freshman Sarah Wright providing the defensive muscle to complement the offense.

She hauled down a game-high 11 rebounds, rejected a shot and sparked her teammates all night.

“It seemed like Sarah was everywhere all game long,” King said. “She is very strong with the ball, rebounding, dribbling up the floor and driving to the basket.

“On inbound plays under our basket, she is seeing the defense and placing herself in the perfect position for an easy pass and shot.”

With Wright’s energy and Rose’s hot hand leading the way, Coupeville held the lead from start to finish, stretching it out to nine at one point before a late Hurricane rally.

The fourth quarter went back and forth, with the Wolves refusing to relinquish the game.

Back within a bucket with 27 seconds left on the clock, Mount Vernon opted not to foul and try for a steal instead, but Rose played smartly and flawlessly dribbled out the game.

“I think overall, this is the strongest our team has looked for the majority of the game,” King said. “Everyone did something great.

“We had several give-and-go plays that resulted in either a lay up, short jumper or foul,” she added. “The big thing that makes me so happy, is that these girls are starting to recognize gaps in the defense or creating a play or shot out of something we have gone over in practice.”

When Rose wasn’t draining buckets, the Wolves got scoring from five different players, led by Wright with eight.

Ema Smith banged home four, while Nicole Lester (2), Skyler Lawrence (2) and Allison Wenzel (1) all chipped in.

It was Lester’s first basket of the season, and the freshman scored off of a put-back on a rebound, causing “the gym to erupt.”

Wenzel (5) and Lawrence (4) combined to snag nine rebounds, while Lindsey Laxton (3), Smith (3), Ashlie Shank (2), Lester (2) and Maddy Hilkey (1) all worked the boards.

Rose made off with four steals, Brittany Powers pilfered another pair and Brisa Herrera “asserted herself on defense with a really strong grip; nobody was going to take it (the ball).”

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“This was a big win for us!!”

Posted in Girls Basketball, tagged , , , , on January 9, 2016| Leave a Comment »

Kailey Kellner, keeping it low-key here, was a demon on defense Saturday. (John Fisken photo)

   Kailey Kellner, keeping it low-key here, was a demon on defense Saturday. (John Fisken photo)

Ten players operating as one, each doing their part to make the team stronger.

It’s the driving philosophy behind the success of the Coupeville High School girls’ basketball squad, and it was on display all afternoon Saturday.

Even with their leader, Makana Stone, under the weather — she still scored 15 and grabbed 12 boards — the Wolves got big performances from a number of role players and soundly thumped visiting Mount Vernon Christian 41-26.

The non-conference win, in which CHS only trailed once, very early, lifted the Wolves to 8-3.

They’re now off for nine days, then return with three games in four days, including conference showdowns with Chimacum and Port Townsend.

The break will allow Stone to recover from her illness, and the Wolves to continue to fine-tune things, but CHS coach David King exited the gym with a smile on his face Saturday.

“This was a big win for us after we sputtered a little in our last game,” he said. “Offensively we really moved the ball well along with crashing the boards and going back up with it.”

The game was close for a quarter, with the Hurricanes actually leading 5-4 at one point (Mia Littlejohn and Lauren Grove promptly responded with back-to-back buckets) and Coupeville only up by a point at the end of the first eight minutes.

Mount Vernon beat the buzzer with a three-ball, after a loose ball bounced off of six different sets of hands (it seemed, at least) before plopping right onto the fingertips of a Hurricane shooter.

That pulled them within 10-9 heading into the second, and it looked like it would be a back-and-forth battle.

And then it wasn’t, as Coupeville clamped down extra-tight on defense, holding the Hurricanes to just four more field goals the rest of the way.

Flustered by the Wolf ‘D’, Mount Vernon stayed alive for a bit with decent free-throw shooting, but that was far from enough when Coupeville was hitting from all angles.

Tiffany Briscoe kick-started the second quarter by banging home a layin off of a loose ball, Littlejohn drained all three free throws after being hacked while shooting a trey, and Lauren Grove swished a long jumper to close the half.

In between all that, Stone sliced through the Hurricanes for seven of her 15 in the second quarter, picking her moments to shine as she (and King) conserved what energy she had.

The highlight reel play for the night came late in the quarter, when Stone rejected a Hurricane shot, snagged the ball out of midair, hit sprinter speed and shot the length of the court, draining the layup and the resulting free throw she got after a straggler whacked her in the shoulder.

The transcendent senior, even ill, filled up the stat sheet, with three blocks, two steals and an assist to go with her double-double.

“Makana was pretty under the weather today. Even not feeling well she showed up and gave every ounce of energy she could,” King said. “She really played in control and didn’t speed things up like she can do at times.”

As they have all season, Stone’s younger teammates stepped up at crunch time, whether it was Littlejohn’s slick ball-handling, Briscoe’s relentless rebounding or Grove’s sudden offensive explosion.

Throwing down a season-high 10, the wily junior, who is known for her ball-hawk defense, was en fuego on both sides of the court.

“What can I say, her on-ball defense is outstanding right now,” King said. “She understands her scoring opportunities right now will come off of steals or drives to the basket.

“Today she took advantage of what she could and pumped life into our offense.”

He also complimented Littlejohn (“today she was the floor general this team needs”), freshman Lindsey Roberts (“she has been playing better ball for us; her defense and rebounding is getting better, too”) and ever-scrappy Kyla Briscoe, who snagged two boards and gave the squad crucial energy all night.

Tiffany Briscoe and Kailey Kellner got a special mention for being willing to sacrifice on defense.

“Undersized in the post, they both stepped up big time with their defense,” King said. “I told them they had to play taller than they are.

“They both worked so hard in there, I think that interior defense was a key to taking control of the game in the second quarter through the end of the game,” he added. “Both of these players have bought into the reality that defense wins games.”

Tiffany Briscoe and Littlejohn dropped in seven apiece in support of Stone and Grove, while Roberts nailed a jumper and snagged four boards.

Grove pilfered five steals, Tiffany Briscoe corralled five caroms and swing players Allison Wenzel, Lauren Rose and Skyler Lawrence all saw floor time, with the first two each grabbing a rebound.

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Just ’bout that team win, boss!!

Posted in Boys Basketball, tagged , , , , , , on January 9, 2016| Leave a Comment »

Risen Johnson

   The power of the man bun compels you. Risen Johnson scored five of his team-high 15 in the fourth quarter Saturday. (John Fisken photo)

The answer was loud and clear.

After a three-game stretch in which the Coupeville High School boys’ basketball squad struggled, Wolf coaches challenged their players.

To unite as a team. To buy into their roles. To commit to each other. To get back to how they had opened the season.

Saturday, the players responded, and they did so as one.

It wasn’t just that they won, holding off visiting Mount Vernon Christian in a 69-68 non-conference thriller.

That was big, yes, and it brought Coupeville back to 5-6 on the season.

But more than merely winning, it was how they won. As a true team.

“Everybody stepped up, and everybody stepped up when we needed them to,” said Coupeville coach Anthony Smith. “We found a way to win, a way to get back to how we were before.”

The Wolves could have fractured on this night, and badly.

Up 53-45 after JJ Johnson swooped to the hoop for a bucket to open the fourth, Coupeville hit its only rough stretch of the night.

Taking advantage, the Hurricanes reeled off 10 straight, with a pair of three-balls which were true daggers, as one came off of an in-bounds play and another on a really long rebound that skittered right through the hands of several Wolves.

Suddenly trailing by two, CHS needed a big emotional burst and it got it thanks to teamwork.

Wiley Hesselgrave, who fought like a savage yet had a grin on his face most of the night, came up with a loose ball, spun and dropped the ball into the hands of a flying Dante Mitchell.

Without a trace of hesitation, the lanky senior put the ball on the floor once, snatched it back and shot past his defender for a running layup.

Cue an explosion of joy which ripped through the pro-Wolf crowd and a fist pump of approval from Hesselgrave.

That knotted the game at 55, while setting up an absolute war that played out over the final three-and-a-half minutes.

The two teams exchanged buckets like heavyweight boxers standing in the middle of the ring, slugging it out, daring the other guy to back down, but secretly happy when they didn’t.

A thunderous right — Hesselgrave tearing a rebound out of a Hurricane’s hands and drilling a jumper while three guys landed on top of him.

Then a series of jabs to the spleen —Risen Johnson spinning down the baseline, shedding defenders on his way to three points the hard way; Jordan Ford banking in a bucket off of a bullet pass from Risen Johnson that slid and curved through a maze of rival arms.

Each time Mount Vernon responded with their own nerves-of-steel play, until Coupeville finally broke its will.

Trailing 66-65 with 1:04 to go, the Wolves got a pair of free throws from Hunter Smith to snatch back the lead, then held the Hurricanes scoreless for 62 of the final 64 seconds.

Risen Johnson worked an absolutely textbook give-and-go with Hesselgrave, getting the ball back and hitting a runner while laying the ball up backwards over his head to put CHS up by three.

The Hurricanes went for the tie, missed and got a reprieve when a ref called Risen Johnson for traveling after he leapt, snatched the rebound, but inadvertently rolled over a body coming back down to Earth.

The next trey missed as well, though, and while a Hurricane slipped through to put the rebound back up and in, the clock ran out on the visitors.

Taking the ball out of the net with 1.9 seconds to go and the clock running, Ford alertly never in-bounded the ball, squeezing it to his chest as his teammates celebrated.

The late theatrics capped a game that was smartly played by both teams, a scrappy affair where Coupeville survived MVC runs by getting big-time shots at just the right moments.

Risen Johnson had the play of the first half, in which he stole the ball and zipped in for a layup, making not one, but two, different Hurricanes crash to the floor on the play.

Still, the Wolves trailed 28-21, until they turned it around with a 14-3 run to close out the half.

Mitchell and Gabe Wynn each knocked down a bucket and free throw during the run, but it was long-range gunner JJ Johnson who made the crowd swoon.

The Wolf senior nailed a trey from the right side with 20 seconds to play, then raised the ante by nailing another one with less than a single tick on the clock, backpedaling with a grin as his large fan section lost its ever-loving mind a few feet away.

Coupeville wasn’t done with the crowd-pleasers, hitting three treys in the third, including an even longer one from JJ Johnson.

The final one was the most unexpected, as Ford, far from the paint he normally patrols, rolled out, took a pinpoint pass from Hesselgrave and dropped his own three-ball from the deep, dark corner on the right side.

As the ball started to settle through the twine, the third quarter clock read 0:00, one more time in which the Wolves pulled off perfection thanks to note-perfect team play.

The commitment to getting something from everyone carried over to the scoring totals, where eight of Coupeville’s 11 players scored, with four notching double digits.

Risen Johnson led the way with 15, while Ford banged home 12 and Hesselgrave and JJ Johnson each added 11.

Smith dropped in seven, Wynn popped for six, Dante Mitchell went for five, Ryan Griggs added a bucket and Desmond Bell, DeAndre Mitchell and Jared Helmstadter all chipped in with strong work on the defensive end.

Coupeville is now off for six days, returning to action with a home non-conference game against Stevenson Friday, Jan. 15. That game (varsity only) tips at 5 PM.

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