Put a volleyball in the hands of Willow Vick (or twin sister Raven) and they will unleash Hell on Earth. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
Don’t hurt ’em, Vick sisters! Whoops, too late.
Combining to win points on 19 serves, the twin terrors that are Raven and Willow Vick (friendly, artistic souls off the court, cold-blooded assassins between the lines) were on fire Thursday night.
Actually, so was everyone else in a Wolf uniform, as the Coupeville High School JV volleyball team mashed visiting Friday Harbor in a match where the word “rout” would be an understatement.
Kicking off their season with a 25-7, 25-9, 25-11 cakewalk, the Vick-powered wrecking crew left coach Chris Smith leaning back in his chair, contented grin on his face as his game plan came together flawlessly.
Coupeville controlled the match from the service stripe, with one player after another going off on sustained runs in which they peppered Friday Harbor receivers with balls which had no chance of ever coming back over the net.
Abby Mulholland, Maddie Vondrak, Ivy Leedy, Eryn Wood, Izzy Wells – didn’t matter who was spinning the ball and rocketing sweet, sweet missiles over the net. They all had the magic touch.
But it was the Vicks who put the final stamp on the night.
Willow ripped off four-straight aces at one point in the final set, with each serve kicking in a different direction (except for the one which tattooed a Friday Harbor player in the chest).
Her twin was even more lethal, as Raven went on a tear which netted 12 consecutive points as the Wolves cruised through the second set.
She got some help from Zoe Trujillo, who cranked a winner off a rival, unleashing a shot which just about tore the girl’s arm out of its socket.
Other than that brief rally, Friday Harbor could not get anything off of Raven Vick, however, as she dropped aces in front of them, then blasted aces to the deepest, darkest part of the court.
Picking up inspiration from her older teammate, Wood, a freshman making her high school debut, put together her own run of six straight points on serve.
Fellow frosh Mulholland bashed a serve off of a Friday Harbor player’s very-surprised face, while Lucy Sandahl got nasty with her own serves, launching bombs which dove and bit the court, spraying fragments everywhere.
With Coupeville’s service game firing on all cylinders, there weren’t a whole lot of sustained rallies, but buried in the midst of a series of one-off plays there was one majestic conflict.
After Jaimee Masters put the ball in play off of her serve midway through the second set, both teams pulled off unexpected last-ditch saves, keeping the ball in the air longer than at any other point in the match.
While Friday Harbor looked like they had a winner, Vondrak, roaring up the middle of the floor, stretched out, using every last inch of her frame to scrape the rapidly-descending ball off the floor.
Pushing it skyward, she not only kept the play alive, but popped it perfectly on to Trujillo’s fingertips, allowing the Wolf outside hitter to pound home a convincing winner.
With everything falling his way, Chris Smith was able to use all 14 players on his roster, with Kylie Van Velkinburgh, Abby Meyers, Anya Leavell and Noelle Daigneault also seeing solid floor time.
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