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Gut check time!!

Posted in Volleyball, tagged , , , , on October 12, 2018| Leave a Comment »

Scout Smith soars for a ball Thursday night. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)

The Wolf spikers are 7-2 on the season, tied for second-place in the North Sound Conference.

Chelsea Prescott (left) and Emma Smith rise up and deny.

You can find the measure of a team in how it responds when it’s at its lowest moment.

With that in mind, the next few days will tell us a lot about the 2018 Coupeville High School volleyball squad.

Coming in to Thursday’s home match with Cedar Park Christian, the Wolves were flying high, their only loss coming at the hands of King’s, the defending 1A state champs.

Blessed with big hitters, strong servers and a nimble setter in Scout Smith, CHS had the markings of a team which seemed primed to make a run at a second-straight trip to the state tourney.

And the Wolves still could.

While it suffered a major stumble Thursday, falling in five sets to a school it swept 3-0 the first time around, and doing so by continually misfiring and having to fight back from deficits, this is still a very-talented team.

Now, these Wolves, led by seniors Ashley Menges and Emma Smith, will have to brush off their 25-18, 23-25, 25-18, 19-25, 15-5 loss to the Eagles and prove they are as mentally tough as they are skilled.

This weekend, Coupeville travels to Eastern Washington for the 14-team Wenatchee Invite, where the Wolves will get a chance to work out the kinks against much-bigger schools.

Monday, Oct. 15 brings a major gut-check, as CHS hosts South Whidbey, which it edged in five titanic sets the first time around.

The Wolves (4-2 in league, 7-2 overall) and Falcons (4-2, 7-4) are tied for second-place in the North Sound Conference, two back of King’s (6-0, 9-1) and a game up on Cedar Park (3-3, 7-4) with four to play.

Granite Falls (1-5, 3-7) and Sultan (0-6, 3-7) bring up the rear.

The loss to CPC was a largely self-inflicted one, as the Wolves piled up hitting errors, blunting their often-ferocious attack.

Emma Smith and Menges combined to stuff an Eagle spike in the early going, knotting things up at 3-3 in the first set, but things quickly spiraled out of control.

Coupeville’s only lead in the opening frame was at 2-1, and it fell behind by as many as eight points, allowing CPC to claim first blood.

The second set was better, if not a smashing success, as the Wolves never trailed by more than a single point.

Chelsea Prescott and Emma Smith brought out the big hammers, drilling winners which ripped holes through the fabric of time and space, while Hannah Davidson dropped a superb tip winner which froze all the Eagles in place.

The Wolves went ahead for good at 19-18, after Maya Toomey-Stout bounced a spike off of a girl’s elbow, then “The Gazelle” topped herself several plays later when she lasered a winner while hanging in mid-air at mid-court.

But, as quickly as Coupeville found its mojo, it lost it again, trailing from the first serve to the final aborted spike in the third set.

Toomey-Stout and Emma Smith delivered big kills in frame three, but the Wolves, normally a very-efficient team at the service stripe, struggled to sustain any runs.

The best play in set three was a desperation one, in which Menges, crashing to her knees, threw out an arm and kept a seemingly-dead play alive, setting up an eventual winner from Davidson.

Things turned really dark in the early moments of the fourth set, with CHS falling behind 7-1.

But Toomey-Stout came bounding down the middle, took a jack rabbit jump in front of the net and speared the ball for a winner, injecting a jolt of electricity through her teammates and the (unfairly) sparse crowd.

Scout Smith, mainlining some of her running mate’s energy, out-fought an Eagle as they both went for a tip winner at the same moment.

Flexing her biceps, the Wolf junior held her ground (while in the air), forcing the ball up and over her foe’s fingertips, then pumping her fist as it slapped down and skidded away for a winner.

Coupeville claimed its first lead of the set at 11-10 and never surrendered it, with Prescott tagging balls off of wayward Eagles, Emma Smith ripping off arms with her kills and Toomey-Stout going “Maya Oh My” on one nuclear detonation of a put-away.

But when you spend all night digging yourself out of holes, you burn through a lot of energy, and it showed in the fifth and deciding set.

Other than one nice kill from Emma Smith, the final frame was a series of balls hitting Wolf hands and shooting off to the side, and despite several time outs, Coupeville couldn’t put a halt to a final tsunami of Eagle points.

The final score, and the night as a whole, left CHS coach Cory Whitmore drained.

“We have things to work on, and we will,” he said as he rubbed his temples. “I’m excited we took it to five sets, when we weren’t headed that way, and, overall, we passed better.

“This weekend will be a good opportunity for us.”

Toomey-Stout paced the Wolves Thursday with 14 kills, nine digs and two aces, while Emma Mathusek went low for 13 gigs and Scout Smith passed out 29 assists.

Prescott (six kills, five digs, two aces), Emma Smith (11 kills), Menges (three aces) and Davidson (four kills) all chipped in, with swing player Zoe Trujillo firing off a kill on the first play she was on the floor.

 

To see everything John Fisken shot Thursday, pop over to:

https://www.johnsphotos.net/Sports/Coupeville-Volleyball-2018-2019/VB-2018-10-11-vs-CPC/

And remember, purchases help fund scholarships for CHS senior student/athletes.

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“One of our best games!!”

Posted in Girls Soccer, tagged , , , , , on October 11, 2018| Leave a Comment »

Mallory Kortuem leads the charge Thursday as Coupeville and Cedar Park Christian waged a double overtime thriller. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)

Showing off their support for cancer research on Pink Night, the Wolves played under blue skies.

Ema Smith gets her head into the game.

Leaving the goalie in her dust, Anna Dion slaps home a goal.

Everything but the win.

Playing on a night when they raised awareness for cancer research, the Coupeville High School girls soccer team put together quite a show for the local fans.

Led by two more goals from rampaging sophomore sensation Genna Wright, the Wolves pushed visiting Cedar Park Christian to the very limit, before falling 4-3 in double overtime.

The Eagles slipped in the winning score with just over a minute left to play, averting a draw and keeping CHS locked in a tie for the final playoff berth out of the North Sound Conference.

With the narrow loss, the Wolves fall to 1-7 in league play, 2-10-1 overall.

Coupeville, which has two games left — Senior Night against South Whidbey Oct. 15 and a road trip to Granite Falls Oct. 17 — is tied with Sultan (1-7).

King’s (8-0) clinched the league title Thursday with a 2-1 win over Granite Falls (5-3), while South Whidbey (5-3) moved into a second-place tie with a 7-0 shellacking of Sultan.

With its win, Cedar Park Christian (4-4) sits in fourth-place.

Five of six teams from the North Sound Conference advance to the double-elimination district tourney, which starts Oct. 22, with the #5 seed drawing King’s in the first round.

If Coupeville and Sultan finish the regular season in a tie, they will meet Saturday, Oct. 20 to decide who will be the #5 seed.

The game will be on the turf in Sultan, thanks to a blind draw to determine tiebreaker hosts.

While the Wolves would have preferred a win Thursday, CHS coach Kyle Nelson was happy to see his team bounce back after a rough road loss earlier in the week.

“One of our best games, bringing things together,” he said. “It was an exciting back and forth game; we had more opportunities and they capitalized on some free kicks.”

Wright smacked a pair of goals into the back of the net to pace the Wolves, her sixth and seventh of her sophomore season.

That gives her 17 for her career, tying her with Lindsey Roberts for the lead among active players, and moving her halfway to the Wolf girls program record of 35 goals by Mia Littlejohn.

Coupeville’s other goal came from junior Anna Dion, who recorded her second score of the season.

 

To see everything John Fisken shot Thursday, pop over to:

https://www.johnsphotos.net/Sports/Coupeville-Soccer-2018-2019/GS-2018-10-11-vs-CPC/

When you do, remember, purchases help fund scholarships for two CHS senior student/athletes.

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JV serves up another win!!

Posted in Volleyball, tagged , , , , , on October 11, 2018| Leave a Comment »

Jaimee Masters was electric at the service line Thursday, sparking the Coupeville JV volleyball squad to a comeback win. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

Give your foes a glimmer of hope, then crush their dreams.

Using every player on the roster Thursday, the Coupeville High School JV volleyball squad stormed back from down a set to blitz visiting Cedar Park Christian, turning a tense match into a runaway win.

While the Eagles slipped away with the opening set 26-24, after blowing a seven-point lead and wasting two set points, it was all Wolves, all day, as soon as the squads switched sides of the floor.

Coupeville blistered the visitors 25-16 in the second set, then took the third set, and the win, with a 25-19 frame in which the Wolf freshmen carried the load.

The win, the team’s third-straight, lifts the JV to 3-3 in North Sound Conference play, 5-4 overall.

CHS coach Chris Smith mixed up his lineup a bit more than normal Thursday, used all 13 of his players, and got big-time plays from everyone on the court.

While the Wolves ultimately dropped the opening set, they displayed an admirable scrappiness, battling back from an 11-4 deficit to knot the set up at 19-19, 22-22 and 24-24.

After failing to win a point through its first four servers, Coupeville finally broke through on the wicked hot arm of Willow Vick.

Her first serve set up a roundhouse spike from Zoe Trujillo, then Vick ripped off a knee-buckling ace to start the comeback.

The Wolves fought all the way back to tie the set at 19 when Lucy Sandahl spun a ball off of her fingertips while on the move, dropping a tip winner between two flailing rivals.

From there, the opening set became a war of attrition.

Maddie Vondrak bounded to the ceiling to pound home a winner, Raven Vick scorched a nasty ace, but a truly awful call by the ref swung things back to CPC, which closed out the set.

From their demeanor, it was tough to tell the Wolves were down a set, however, as they bounced around, full of energy and ready to bring the pain.

Sandahl started things off with a nice run at the service line, then Jaimee Masters took things to another level, ripping off seven straight winners, punctuated by a  low, screaming ace which tore a chunk out of a CPC player’s toe.

Inspired by her teammate’s serving prowess, Vondrak got funky, dancing this way and that, blocking two shots in a row with just the top of her fingertips, before swinging the hammer on a spike that sealed the deal.

Riding the wave of emotion, Coupeville’s freshmen (Izzy Wells, Noelle Daigneault, Eryn Wood, Abby Mulholland, Kylie Van Velkinburgh and Anya Leavell) teamed with sophomores Ivy Leedy and Abby Meyers to do most of the damage down the stretch.

Wells opened the final set with eight consecutive points on serve, then, after a nifty kill from the middle of the floor by Leavell, it was time for Daigneault to get down and dirty.

Back-to-back aces from the freshman Homecoming princess blew the lead out to 11-1, with the Wolves eventually stretching the margin all the way to 22-9.

Van Velkinburgh sprawled out on the floor to keep one crucial rally going, while Mulholland froze two rivals with a tip winner, and things looked to be about three seconds from ending.

Give CPC some credit, though, as they closed on a 10-2 run with at least two winners catching the last flake of paint on the back line.

Smith never panicked, however, and neither did his youngest players, as he left them on the floor to close out the win. Which they promptly did.

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Spikers soar in Sultan!!

Posted in Volleyball, tagged , , , , on October 9, 2018| 1 Comment »

Sophomore Chelsea Prescott chipped in with eight digs and two aces Tuesday as Coupeville volleyball crushed Sultan in straight sets. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

“They’re stuffing you like a great big green pepper!”

The commentator on the TurkTV internet feed Tuesday knew what was up — Sultan was getting whupped, and Coupeville was holding the paddle.

Kicking into high gear after a brief slow start, the Wolf spikers rained down holy terror on their hosts, rolling to a 25-23, 25-9, 25-14 victory which keeps them a game out of first-place in league action.

With the win, Coupeville soars to 4-1 in North Sound Conference play (right behind 5-0 King’s) and 7-1 overall.

The Wolves kick off the second half of the league season Thursday, when they host Cedar Park Christian (2-3, 6-4), before zipping off to Eastern Washington for Saturday’s 14-team Wenatchee Invite.

Tuesday, Coupeville faced off with a team which played much better than its win-less record in league play might indicate.

The Turks jumped on a rare bit of service misfire from the Wolves in the first set, staying close until CHS found another gear to close things out.

“We missed eight serves, which were infectious, and putting those serves in creates a different story,” said Coupeville coach Cory Whitmore. “And while we didn’t serve well in the first, they played very clean.”

Once they got past their brief hiccup, the Wolves reverted to the big-hitting, precision-passing squad their fans are used to seeing.

“I was happy to see us turn it around, only making five hitting errors total in the second set,” Whitmore said. “We passed and served well and carried that momentum into the third and maintained a lead the entire way.

“I’m proud of the way that we turned around and fixed exactly what we needed to.”

Front-row smashers Emma Smith and Hannah Davidson were in perfect sync, both finishing the night without a single hitting error.

With Scout Smith lofting 21 assists to go along with her four aces, the Wolf big hitters had plenty of opportunities to launch wicked spikes.

Maya Toomey-Stout led the way with 10 kills, while Emma Smith tallied six and Davidson launched four.

Toomey-Stout, who also scraped nine digs off the floor and ripped off a pair of service aces, earned another big compliment from the TurkTV crew.

As “The Gazelle” hung in mid-air for an eternity before launching one missile, the awe-struck announcer blurted out “I think she can jump to the moon and back!”

While Toomey-Stout’s aerial ballet earned her some new fans, she got a lot of help from her teammates.

Chelsea Prescott collected eight digs and two aces, Ashley Menges fired off five aces, Emma Mathusek went low for three digs and swing player Zoe Trujillo popped onto the floor to rip off an ace of her own.

 

JV:

Led by a big serving performance from Jaimee Masters, the Wolf young guns thrashed the Turks 25-13, 25-18.

The win, the team’s second-straight, lifts the JV to 2-3 in league play, 4-4 overall.

Coupeville dominated in all aspects of the game, from Lucy Sandahl lofting 17 superb assists, to Masters torching the Turks for seven service aces, to the Wolves sharing duty when it came time to smash put-aways.

Maddie Vondrak peppered Sultan for five kills, while Willow Vick smashed four and the tandem of Trujillo and Raven Vick laced three winners apiece.

The Vicks were equal opportunity killers, combining to launch seven service aces, with Willow narrowly edging her twin sister 4-3.

Freshmen Abby Mulholland and Anya Leavell also saw floor time for the JV, as all seven Wolves to take the court played as one.

“Overall we controlled the ball well and played in system,” said Coupeville coach Chris Smith. “The hitters performed well, keeping us on the plus side for our hitting percentage.”

 

C-TEAM:

With the win in hand, Smith went to his bench for the third set.

While the Wolves fell 25-15, their coach saw many positives.

“Set three, our younger players got some valuable floor time,” Smith said. “Although we came up short in that set, the experience helps identify areas of focus going forward in practice.”

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Tripped on the turf!!

Posted in Girls Soccer, tagged , , , , on October 9, 2018| Leave a Comment »

Ema Smith and her Wolf teammates scrapped on the turf in Sultan Tuesday, but the Turks escaped with a 1-0 win. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

A change in field, a change in results.

Playing on turf in Sultan Tuesday, the Coupeville High School girls soccer team had trouble finding its scoring touch and absorbed a painful 1-0 loss to the host Turks.

It was a complete reversal from the first time the two teams played on Whidbey, when the Wolves scorched Sultan 6-0 while playing on a natural grass surface.

The loss drops Coupeville to 1-6 in North Sound Conference action, 2-9-1 overall, and will make it harder, but not impossible, for the Wolves to nab a playoff spot.

Five of the six teams in the new league advance to the postseason, and a CHS win would have put it two games up on Sultan (also now 1-6) with three to play.

Instead, the two teams are now locked in a tie for the final playoff berth, two games back of the league’s #4 team, Cedar Park Christian (3-4).

King’s (7-0), Granite Falls (5-2) and South Whidbey (4-3) currently hold down the top three slots.

Tuesday’s tilt on the Turk turf was one of those cases where a lot of small things build up and create bigger issues.

Coupeville’s roster is battling illness, there were no assistant refs on the scene, leaving one man to monitor the entire field, and then there was the faster surface, with its often unexpected bounces.

“We had a difficult time adjusting. Definitely slowed us down,” Coupeville coach Kyle Nelson said. “Throw in no AR’s, and a few sick girls, and we had a recipe for a bad game going.”

And yet the Wolves fought from start to finish, with their defense doing everything possible.

Wolf defender Tia Wurzrainer was a fireball in the backfield, shutting down Sultan strikers and stopping one shot on goal by sacrificing her own body, absorbing the force of the shot as she tumbled backwards.

With goalie Sarah Wright standing tall in the net, and Wurzrainer’s fellow defenders, like freshman Mary Milnes, keeping the Turks at bay, the game went into the half in a scoreless tie.

Sultan finally broke the seal on the net eight minutes into the second half, thanks to a bad bounce and a smooth move by its senior captain.

Coupeville lost control of the ball while sending it up-field, and the Turks took advantage.

Faith Kindle, with the ball on her toe, slid to the left, then dumped a ball back to the right, just squeezing it into the corner of the net at the last second for what would turn out to be the game’s only score.

The Wolves kept forcing the issue, with Lindsey Roberts smashing long balls and Genna Wright and Avalon Renninger fighting to get off a few shots, but Sultan’s defense proved up to the challenge.

Turk goalie Amanda McKay made a couple of nice snags to blunt Coupeville’s best scoring chances, and the Wolves couldn’t buy a break as the final minutes ticked away.

CHS gets to get back to playing on grass for its next two games.

The Wolves host Cedar Park Christian Thursday and South Whidbey Oct. 15, before traveling to Granite Falls Oct. 17 for the regular season finale.

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