Mikayla Elfrank, seen here in an earlier match, paced Coupeville with six kills Thursday night. (John Fisken photos)
Katrina McGranahan (11) and Lauren Rose (9) provided big plays in crunch time, a regular occurrence for the rock-solid junior duo.
Saving its most electrifying play for crunch time, little 1A Coupeville stunned 2A North Mason in five titanic sets of floor-shaking volleyball action Thursday night.
Riding the deadly serves of Lauren Rose and Hope Lodell, whose styles at the stripe couldn’t be more different, the Wolves roared out to a huge lead in the night’s deciding set, then capped the non-conference win with a huge service ace off the fingertips of Payton Aparicio.
As the ball caught the very back of the end-line and exploded away, the rockin’ home fan section exploded in joy and Coupeville ran off the court with a hard-earned 25-22, 20-25, 25-18, 22-25, 15-5 victory.
The win snapped a two-game skid and lifts CHS to 3-2 as it prepares to hit the road for the first time this season.
The Wolves travel to Silverdale Tuesday for a first-place showdown with 1A Olympic League rival Klahowya.
Thursday they capped a long night (North Mason showed up a half hour late, then the whole five sets thing) with a roar.
Rose, the ever-calm “Mouse,” ran off four straight points at the service line to kick off the final set, her knuckle-ball serves dancing and darting.
Helped out by a beautiful stuff at the net from buddy Katrina McGranahan, who climbed to the heavens and was in the right place at the right moment, Rose eased any worries the Wolves might have had after dropping the fourth set.
Then Lodell charged in, long pigtails slapping her back as “The Surgeon” elevated and sliced ‘n diced with high-voltage serves.
By the time she was done, lashing an ace off the back line (and helped by two picture-perfect tip winners from a fired-up McGranahan), the Wolves were up 10-1 and shoulders were slumping all across the North Mason side of the net.
Just to make sure, CHS sniper Mikayla Elfrank whacked a winner off of a Bulldog elbow.
It was only her 4th or 5th biggest spike of the evening — she had one vicious winner in the fourth set that impressed me so much it earned three exclamation points in my notebook.
With Lodell (20 digs) and Valen Trujillo (19) chasing down almost everything and the front line combining for a season-high five blocks (led by Emma Smith with two), Coupeville played gutsy ball all night.
The opening set went Coupeville’s way thanks largely to two very successful runs at the service line by Ashley Menges (she had seven aces and just one error on 29 serves for the night) and big hits from Tiffany Briscoe, Smith and Elfrank.
Trujillo pulled off maybe the sweetest play, sacrificing her body on a head-first dive to snare a ball a fraction of an inch before it skidded away.
Not only did she successfully save the ball, her return zipped back over the net, split all six North Mason players and landed for a surprise winner.
Bouncing to her feet, grin on her face, Trujillo seemed the most surprised of all, despite the fact she’s been pulling off shots like that on a regular basis for the last four years.
Flying high, the Wolves looked they were going to make it a quick evening, jumping out to a 12-5 lead in the second, halfway to taking a 2-0 set lead.
Then, something went wrong.
North Mason rallied to rip off nine straight points, confusion overtook Coupeville for a bit, and what was headed towards rout city suddenly became a struggle.
“We came out in the first set red-hot and executed our game plan with moments of brilliance,” CHS coach Cory Whitmore said. “Then we had some lapses in focus and energy in that second set.
“Kudos to them for chipping away at our lead.”
With the match tied at a set apiece, Coupeville needed to get its center back, and, as if by divine providence, who should have the ball in her hands but the serene Rose.
One of the most outwardly calm athletes to ever wear the red and black, the junior setter ambled to the line, twirled the ball in her hands while all around her nervous energy crackled, then went to work.
She won points off of her first five serves, and the points were important.
But the far bigger thing was how, with a few simple moves, Rose pulled her teammates back together and helped them find their missing groove.
The other Wolves responded, with Lodell lashing two winners, Elfrank mashing a spike for a key point and Trujillo testing the quality of her knee pads one more time, rolling cross court to pull out a huge save.
Aparicio peeled some paint off the gym floor with a laser shot of a winner to the deepest, darkest corner of the court and Coupeville was ready to roll once again.
“I’m very happy with how we overcame stuff tonight,” Whitmore said. “They had to find it within themselves, and they did.
“This will be very important for us down the road, either in league matches or the postseason, knowing we can pull matches out.”
The Wolves shared the stats, with Aparicio and Elfrank each cranking out six kills, while McGranahan added four.
Rose dealt out a team-high 14 assists (Menges added five) while Lodell had eight service aces.
Wolves sweep:
Coupeville grabbed JV (26-24) and C-Team (25-18) wins as well.
Both matches, which were held after the varsity played, were trimmed-down due to North Mason having to leg it out of town to catch a ferry.
The wins lifted the JV to 3-2 on the season and the C-Team squad to 2-1.
The JV bout was a back-and-forth affair, highlighted by Scout Smith jumping out of her shoes to make a soaring tip for an unexpected winner and back-to-back big hits at the very end of the set.
With things knotted up at 24, and North Mason having reeled off three straight points, the Wolves could have cracked.
They didn’t, however, with Sarah Wright and Allison Wenzel rising to the moment with successive winners.
Wright’s spike caught the back line like a boss, then Wenzel went airborne, sliding in from the side like a ballerina for a truly gorgeous tip to ice things.
The C-Team, you ask?
They were in the other gym playing at the same time as the JV, and I am only one man, not able to be in two places at the same time.
I think it’s safe to assume the combined forces of Maya Toomey-Stout, Peytin Vondrak, Willow and Raven Vick and Co. were awesome, as usual.
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