Madison McMillan (14) gave Coupeville a huge emotional boost off the bench against Orcas Island. (Delanie Lewis photo)
Do you believe in miracles? Because that was a freakin’ miracle.
Trailing two sets to one and down 16-3 in the fourth set Thursday, the Coupeville High School varsity volleyball squad looked dead in the water.
The Wolves were about to lose on their home floor to Orcas Island, and it would have been the first time the CHS spikers fell to a Northwest 2B/1B League school that wasn’t three-time defending state champ La Conner.
It was signed, sealed, and all but delivered.
You could see it in the faces of many of the players, who had fought valiantly but also suffered through some crushingly bad stretches at times.
You could hear it in the mutters of the fans, as even the Wolf grandma endlessly hollering “I BELIEVE IN YOU!!!” had a notable strain in her voice.
But people believe in miracles because they do happen in sports, and often at the most unlikely of times.
Spurred on by sophomores Madison McMillan and Katie Marti, who roared off the bench and sent a jolt of electricity through a tired-looking Wolf team, Coupeville did the seemingly impossible.
It came back, all the way back, pulling out a 25-27, 25-19, 20-25, 25-23, 15-13 stunner to cap a night which was alternately brutal and beautiful.
The victory lifts the Wolves to 3-0 in league play, 3-2 overall, and leaves them alone atop the NWL standings.
It left CHS coach Cory Whitmore — in need of a nap and knowing a long bus ride to Forks arrives Saturday — looking bemused.
Happy to get the W, but well aware the Wolves largely put themselves in the hole they had to dig back out of against Orcas.
“They showed a lot of resiliency,” he said. “We found a way late to return to our identity, and were more efficient, with less service errors, and that was super important.”
The positive jolt offered by his super subs can’t be overstated.
“I am so impressed with how Katie and Madison stepped on to the court like they had being doing it for years,” Whitmore said.
“Also, Taygin (Jump) was strong with her jump serve and was tough when she needed to hit certain spots.
“She helped give us a lot of energy, which we needed.”
The match turned, though hardly anyone knew it in the moment, with a small flip of the ball, as Alita Blouin proved Coupeville still had some daggers with which to inflict pain.
Orcas had rung up 11 straight points to stake itself to that 16-3 lead in the fourth set, but Blouin finally stopped the bleeding, sliding the ball between two defenders to earn a side out.
From there, the comeback began, step by step.
Jump, McMillan, and Marti went on runs at the service stripe, with Grey Peabody, Ryanne Knoblich, and Jill Prince rising up at the net to smash winners.
Ryanne Knoblich made her mom proud with some thunderous spikes. (Delanie Lewis photo)
Coupeville ran off its own 15-2 surge to knot things at 18-18, but Orcas, a tough, scrappy team, didn’t break.
The Vikings, though pushed back on their heels, responded, reclaiming the lead and pushing it out to 23-21.
Two points away from losing the match, the Wolves had to find their inner mojo, and they did.
Knoblich and McMillan whacked back-to-back spikes, the balls skidding away from their Orcas rivals, before Coupeville’s defense closed out the set with a strong stand.
Given new life, and with a new buzz in their between-sets huddle, the Wolves claimed control early in the fifth, and final, set.
Jumping out to a 4-1 lead, CHS wasn’t out of the woods, however, as Orcas fought back to go up 7-6 as the two teams raced to see who could net 15 points first.
A revived Peabody was the difference down the stretch, coming up big at the net with three winners, while McMillan was dominant at the service stripe.
Clinging to a 14-13 lead and with Orcas serving, Coupeville held fast on the last rally of the night.
In a fitting finale, the two squads went back-and-forth, the ball skipping from hand to hand, before the Wolves forced the Vikings into a final, fatal error.
That set off a celebration which was equal parts joy and relief, capping a match which was the most-intense of the still-young season.
Things started hot in the first set, with big swings, both in intensity and the score.
Orcas went up by six points, Coupeville stormed back to build its own five-point advantage, and then things got dicey at the end.
The Wolves benefitted from some nasty slicers delivered by Lyla Stuurmans and a fantastic play in which Blouin scraped a thunderous spike off the floor, flicking it skyward to set teammate Mia Farris up to deliver a winner.
But it was Orcas, holding off two set points, which pulled away at the end, closing the set with a service ace which looked like it was long gone, only to suddenly drop and tear off the back line.
Coupeville scrambled back into contention in the second set but had to put out a lot of effort along the way.
The Wolves trailed for much of the frame, only going in front for good after Maddie Georges turned an 18-18 tie into a 23-18 lead with some artful slicing ‘n dicing from the service line.
Stuurmans, bounding to the ceiling, froze the defense with an artful tip winner for a punctuation mark at 25-19, knotting things at a set apiece.
CHS couldn’t hold on to a lead in the third set, contributing to that hole it eventually had to dig back out of, but it wasn’t for a lack of effort.
Marti and Jump made eye-popping saves on balls which should have been Orcas winners, with the former smashing into the floor and the latter running up into the stands.
Both of those track-down jobs were promptly converted into Wolf winners as Coupeville caught the Vikings in premature celebrations.
Thursday stats:
Alita Blouin — 1 kill, 15 digs, 1 ace
Mia Farris — 2 kills
Maddie Georges — 2 kills, 7 digs, 34 assists, 3 aces
Taygin Jump — 7 digs, 1 assist, 1 ace
Ryanne Knoblich — 14 kills, 7 digs, 1 solo block
Katie Marti — 1 kill, 3 digs, 2 aces
Madison McMillan — 2 kills, 6 digs
Grey Peabody — 9 kills, 2 digs, 1 solo block
Jill Prince — 8 kills, 1 dig
Lyla Stuurmans — 5 kills, 8 digs
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