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Posts Tagged ‘regular season finale’

Big bats, fast feet, many wins

Posted in Softball, tagged , , , , on May 6, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Haylee Armstrong and friends are 17-1 heading into the playoffs. (Bailey Thule photo)

Hit the ball hard and run like the wind.

It’s a good strategy, as proven time and again this season by the high-flying Coupeville High School softball squad.

And the Wolves were right back at it Tuesday, combining power and wheels to race past visiting Granite Falls 5-2 for a sweet Senior Night win.

The non-conference victory, coming against a school from a bigger classification and a former league rival, lifts Coupeville to 17-1 on the season.

Up next?

A trip to the Skagit Valley Playfields in Mount Vernon May 15 for the District 1 2B tournament.

Orcas Island and Friday Harbor clash at noon that day, with the winner returning to the diamond to face the top-seeded Wolves at 3:00 PM in a winner-to-state, loser-out game.

Keep thumping, and keep sprinting, and Coupeville softball will earn its fourth trip to the big dance, and first since 2019.

Back then, the Wolves were a 1A program and their biggest archrival was Granite Falls, who they beat twice late in the season to stun the diamond community.

Jump forward six years, and the Wolves and Tigers are no longer united by a classification, or a league, but they still can throw down a super-competitive game.

CHS coach Aaron Lucero held the Senior Night festivities — honoring lifelong teammates Taylor Brotemarkle, Chloe Marzocca, Mia Farris, Jada Heaton, and Madison McMillan — until after the game.

Smart move, as copious happy tears were shed (and that was just the dads!), flooding the diamond.

Instead, the Wolves hit the field locked ‘n loaded, nine terminators in search of targets to erase.

And while Granite Falls scraped out a run in the top of the first, Coupeville quickly gained the upper hand.

After being held scoreless in their half of the first, the Wolves pushed two runners across in the second and another in the third to take a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.

Sage vet Heaton and young gun Haylee Armstrong led off the second with back-to-back singles, with Heaton scoring the tying run on a well-executed double steal.

“If you hit a triple, I’ll hit one too, OK?” (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

That came right before Brotemarkle cracked an RBI triple to left, the first of four extra-base hits for the Wolves.

Flying around the bags with glee, the senior shortstop bounded high into the air as she skidded into third, punching the prairie air and letting out a roar which was matched by her teammates on the bench.

Triples were contagious, with McMillan walloping one in the third, before coming home to tap the plate off a sac fly from Capri Anter to make it 3-1.

Heaton, having herself a well-rounded game — she also got nailed by a wayward pitch for the 3,856th time this season — made a spectacular diving, rolling catch to rob Granite of a hit in the fifth, while Wolf hurler Adeline Maynes was throwin’ smoke.

The fab frosh finished with 13 strikeouts across seven innings of work, while also fielding her position with skill, gunning down a would-be bunter with a flick of her wrist.

Coupeville tacked on two runs in the bottom of the fifth to give Maynes some breathing room, and again it was the attack of the three-baggers which lit the fire.

Farris launched a moon shot over the center fielder’s head, glided into third, then turned for home and scored when Granite had trouble with the throw back in.

Two pitches later, it was Wolf catcher Teagan Calkins crunching a laser to left for her own triple, with McMillan plating her on a sac fly that caused two defenders to crash head-first into each other.

Teagan Calkins hurts the softball. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

If Granite was harboring any hopes of a comeback, they were quickly stifled by Maynes, who picked up five more K’s across the final two innings.

It was a familiar story told with new characters, as back in 2019, Wolf hurler Izzy Wells, then a fab frosh herself, sliced ‘n diced the Tiger hitters as she led CHS to state.

Her successor came up just as big in crunch time, with Maynes dealing liquid heat, while Calkins gave her young padawan a boost by picking a runner off of third.

 

Tuesday stats:

Capri Anter — One walk
Haylee Armstrong — One single
Taylor Brotemarkle — One triple
Teagan Calkins — One triple, one walk
Mia Farris — One triple
Jada Heaton — One single, one walk
Chloe Marzocca — One walk
Madison McMillan — One triple, one walk

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Sweet perfection, but there’s more!

Posted in Volleyball, tagged , , , , , on November 5, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Lyla Stuurmans unleashes the fury of the Valkyries. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)

“She mashes just like her mama used to!”

One by one, they pile up the wins, the milestones, and the records.

A senior-led Coupeville High School varsity volleyball squad continues to scale new heights and Monday night’s regular season finale was no different.

Dispatching visiting Sultan 25-10, 25-9, 25-22 in a non-conference rumble as the raging Whidbey early winter wind rattled the gym, the Wolves got to an impressive 14-0 on the season.

It’s the best start ever by a CHS volleyball team — by a solid four wins — and allows the 2024 spikers to tie the 2019 and 2004 squads for the most victories in a single season.

Win #15, which would put this team atop the pile, is due to come Thursday at home, when Coupeville hosts night #1 of the two-night District 1/2 tournament.

The #2 team from District 2 and the #3 team from District 1 square off at 3:30 at the CHS gym, with the loser eliminated, and the winner advancing to play Coupeville at 5:30.

Win or lose there, and the Wolves, the #1 seed from District 1, advance to Saturday’s second round of matches in La Conner.

CHS needs two wins total at Bi-Districts to punch a return ticket to the state tournament.

When the Wolves hit the floor Thursday in pursuit of win #15, they’ll also be on the cusp of a major personal milestone.

Senior setter Katie Marti, the sparkplug that powers the Wolf attack, is just one slim assist away from notching the 1,000th of her prep career.

She entered Monday needing 27 to get to the mark, though only Wolf coaches knew of the hush-hush fact, and finished with 26 assists against Sultan.

Every single one of those set-ups brought a huge smile to the face of Marti, likely the most emotional of Coupeville’s seven veterans honored on Senior Night.

Surrounded by a pack from both the Marti and Messner clans, Killer Katie marinated in the moment with a group of young women who have played together since elementary school.

Then she and her teammates, both “old” and “young,” went out and sliced up the Turk defense.

Coupeville’s seniors, putting a positive spin on their last run together.

Coupeville bolted out to a big lead early in the first set, with seniors Chloe Marzocca and Mia Farris launching a series of hard-to-return serves.

While the scrappy Turks, a former league foe of the Wolves now operating at a 2A school, put up a battle, the hometown net crew had an answer for almost everything.

The lone CHS junior, Teagan Calkins, showcasing the full fury of her “Red Dragon” persona, erupted from the right side to mash the crud out of the volleyball.

Then Jada Heaton, bounding high to protect the middle of the net, peppered the Turks with a mighty mash of a winner, and the rout was on.

Once Lyla Sturmans went from lurking on the left side to majestically rising into the clouds and throwing down lightning bolts, Sultan could do little but try and not take an incoming fastball off the face.

Calkins cracked a winner to end the first frame in lickity-split style, and the hits kept on coming as the match moved deeper into the night.

Set two was a greatest hits compilation, with Stuurmans, Farris, and Calkins trying to outdo each other in generating nasty kills.

Meanwhile Madison McMillan was off on a glorious rampage, spraying winners from the service line, while Taylor Brotemarkle and Tenley Stuurmans kept the floor polished by digging the ball off the hardwood time and again.

Coupeville went up 2-0 with a bang, as sophomore swing player Dakota Strong rotated in and delivered a set-ending kill which sent her teammates into hysterics as the ball tore off the backline.

Sultan came in with a 10-5 record, and wasn’t going to go down without a fight, however.

The third set was the night’s toughest battle, with the Turks taking an 11-7 lead at one point.

To which the Wolves said, “nah, nah, nah,” Timothee Chalamet-style, as they roared back to reclaim the lead, the momentum, and then the match.

Farris and Stuurmans both fired off ear-popping kills which split multiple defenders and CHS broke a 21-21 tie with a strong push to the finish line.

A brutally beautiful ace off the fingertips of the quietly dangerous Calkins pushed the Wolves in front for good, while Lyla Stuurmans delivered the knockout punch with one last crowd-pleasing swing of her furious fist.

The pack, ready to attack.

Taking a brief break to savor the end of one thing — the regular season — and the start of another thing — the postseason run towards trophy town — Coupeville coach Cory Whitmore enjoyed the moment.

“It was a good night for our group of seniors, and a nice way to honor them, their families, and all the people who have supported them over the years,” he said.

“I’m really proud of Chloe (Marzocca) – she served up a good game, as did Madison as well.”

And while 14-0 is sublime, there’s great potential for more.

“This group, everyone is playing their role and rising to the moment and giving us quite a show,” Whitmore said. “But they want more, a lot more, so we’ll keep working.”

 

Monday stats:

Taylor Brotemarkle — 6 digs
Teagan Calkins — 7 kills, 1 dig, 1 block assist, 2 aces
Mia Farris — 11 kills, 6 digs, 1 assist, 2 aces
Jada Heaton — 1 kill, 1 block assist
Katie Marti — 1 dig, 26 assists, 2 aces
Chloe Marzocca — 1 ace
Madison McMillan — 2 kills, 3 digs, 3 assists, 5 aces
Dakota Strong — 1 kill
Lyla Stuurmans — 11 kills, 4 digs, 1 assist, 2 solo blocks
Tenley Stuurmans — 7 digs, 2 aces

Avery Parker (left) and Halle Black brought down the house by belting out the national anthem to kick off the night’s festivities.

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Scrappy booters denied playoff berth

Posted in soccer, tagged , , , , on November 2, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Cael Wilson led Coupeville in scoring during his senior season. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)

Close, but no playoff berth.

Playing in the toughest 2B/1B boys’ soccer league in the state, the Coupeville High School co-ed pitch squad was in play for a postseason berth until the final day of the regular season.

Unfortunately for the Wolves, things came to an end Saturday at Mickey Clark Field, as they fell 5-0 to Orcas Island, the #1 team in statewide rankings.

The defeat brings Coupeville’s final record to 4-4 in Northwest 2B/1B League action, 6-8-1 overall.

With the Wolf loss, the fourth and final playoff berth from the nine-team league will go to the winner of a late Saturday afternoon game between Mount Vernon Christian and Friday Harbor.

That team will join Orcas — which is 8-0 in league, 15-1 overall — Lopez Island, and Providence Classical Christian in advancing to the postseason.

Saturday’s finale pitted the Wolves against a rampaging Vikings team which has now outscored its foes 80-11 this season.

By contrast, no other NWL team has registered more than 48 goals.

Orcas, which has played in four of the last five 2B/1B state championship games, winning the crown in 2021, is fast, wily, experienced, and prone to capitalizing on every little mistake.

Even when the error would appear to be made by the refs, who awarded the Vikings a penalty kick after a nothing burger of a play less than seven minutes into play.

Orcas senior Kevin Ibarra Garcia slapped home the game’s opening goal via that freebie, then came back around less than five minutes later to crank in another shot from about 20 yards out to make it 2-0.

The visitors stretched the lead to 3-0 shortly before halftime when a ball slid just under the grasp of Wolf goaltender Hurlee Bronec, before tacking on two more scores in the second half.

Facing a stiff defense, Coupeville only managed to scratch out just a handful of shots on goal.

The best chance for the Wolves came very late in the game, when Preston Epp was awarded his own penalty kick after being roughed up.

The senior captain banged a wicked shot to the left, but it caught part of the bar, and part of the Orcas goalie’s arm, and was denied by a matter of inches.

Hurlee Bronec lays out to block a shot during an earlier game.

Saturday’s game marked the end of the road for a pack of Wolves, with 12th graders Ayden Wyman, Matthew Ward, Epp, Angel Partida, Mason Butler, Cael Wilson, Bronec, and Dane Hadsall playing their final game in the red and black.

Epp and Wilson were five-year players, both starting their runs as 8th graders.

 

Final season scoring stats:

 

Varsity:

Cael Wilson – 7
Angel Partida – 5
Sage Arends – 3
Preston Epp – 2
Brian Thompson – 2

 

JV:

Tamsin Ward – 3
Lillian Ketterling – 2
Frankie Tenore – 1

Angel Partida heads upfield.

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Wolf netters stay scrappy

Posted in Girls Tennis, tagged , , , , on May 10, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Rafaela Silva De Campos Conceicao moves in for the kill. (Andrew Williams photo)

There’s no quit in this group.

Missing three of their eight players Friday, the Coupeville High School girls’ tennis team had no chance to win their match against host Friday Harbor.

But that didn’t mean the Wolves went down easy.

Instead, it was the exact opposite, especially at first singles, where 8th grader Tenley Stuurmans played the best match of the season.

“Hell of a game from our Number 1 singles,” said CHS assistant coach Starla Seal.

With temps of 74 degrees in Friday Harbor, and another 10 degrees warmer on court, Stuurmans fought her way through a three-set thriller against a veteran foe, the battle playing out over nearly three hours.

“She was worn out and exhausted. Played her heart out,” Seal said. “We’re so proud of how she battled. I’ve never seen anyone play as hard as her.

“I’m excited to have her with us the next four years.”

With no home courts this season, the Wolf netters have spent the entire campaign living on the bus and ferry, something which will continue with the district tourney, which goes down next Friday, May 17 in Seattle.

It’s been a learning experience for the players and first-year coaches Seal and Tim Stelling, but the positives are definitely there.

“Great way to end the season with an exciting match to watch,” Seal said. “Win or lose, there’s something to take away and learn from this match.”

 

Friday results:

1st Singles — Tenley Stuurmans lost to Georgia Keune 6-7(8-10), 7-6(7-5), 10-5

1st Doubles — Kauri Hamilton/Sofia Phay lost to Kira Clark/Megan Mellinger 6-0, 6-0

2nd Doubles — Delanie Lewis/Rafaela Silva De Campos Conceicao lost to Nora Layton/Ava Martin 6-2, 6-0

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Falcons crash, Wolves chomp

Posted in Softball, tagged , , , , on May 10, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Haylee Armstrong prepares to open a can of whup-ass. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)

As rivalries go, this one is incredibly one-sided at the moment.

Fueled by a fantastic pitching job from 8th grade ace Adeline Maynes, strong defense, and even stronger bats, the Coupeville High School softball squad crushed visiting South Whidbey Friday in the regular season finale.

Running the Falcons off the prairie to a 15-0 tune in a game mercy-ruled in the fourth inning, the Wolves get to 14-4 on the season.

Now, they’ve got eight days to get ready for their biggest game of the campaign.

That arrives Saturday, May 18, when CHS travels to Centralia to play a winner-to-state, loser-out game against a yet-to-be-named school from District 4.

While the playoffs are on the horizon, Friday was all about putting a punctuation mark on the regular season.

And how.

The very-young Wolves, who have no seniors and started two 8th graders and two freshmen Friday, were in control from the first pitch to the last swing.

Enjoying the only truly warm game day the prairie has had this spring, Coupeville fans jammed the stands, with a fair number of little league diamond stars in attendance to watch their idols.

The current Wolf stars more than lived up to the hype.

Maynes, playing catch with Teagan Calkins, held the Falcons to one lonely hit on the day, while whiffing five.

That included a wham-bam-bigger bam second inning, when the Wolf hurler struck out all three batters she faced, the ball whistling past bats with a merry lil’ hum before smacking into her catcher’s mitt.

When South Whidbey did get the ball back into play, Coupeville’s defense was lights out.

Shortstop Taylor Brotemarkle speared a pair of liners in the hole, elevating off the dirt to snag one, while fellow infielders Madison McMillan and Sydney Van Dyke vacuumed up everything that came their way.

Not to be outdone, Mia Farris hauled in a long fly ball to deep center, reaching over her shoulder to pluck the ball from the air while on the move.

Teagan Calkins, born to be awesome.

And then there was “The Red Dragon” sacrificing her body and sending a jolt through the throng of fans on the very first play of the game.

Roaring up from behind the plate, Calkins charged forward, went airborne, stretched her arm to its maximum length, and somehow pulled in a botched bunt as it spun towards the CHS dugout.

Ball hit mitt, player hit ground, ball stayed in glove, crowd and teammates went wild, and the sophomore backstop calmly gazed at her fans and whispered, “Oh, there’s more where that came from.”

Calkins proved it, using her bat and feet to help CHS jump out to a 4-0 lead in the bottom of the first.

The frame began with Haylee Armstrong punching a hole in the sky with a towering shot that dropped in between defenders, with Farris and McMillan slapping singles around a sac fly off the lethal bat of Brotemarkle.

Things really got wild however after Calkins crunched a hit over the third baseman’s head.

With the Wolves running aggressively on the basepaths, it spooked South Whidbey’s catcher into skipping a throw into left field, with two runners careening home to score on the botched play.

With Maynes throwing heat, and the Falcons having little chance to do anything with it, Coupeville blew the game open with an eight-run surge in the second inning.

Three consecutive walks to open the frame juiced the bags, before McMillan, Calkins, Danica Strong, Capri Anter, and Farris delivered run-scoring base knocks.

If South Whidbey thought the pain parade was done at that point, it was wrong.

While the Wolves coasted in for the win, they did so by pounding the stuffing out of the ball.

McMillan, flexing in the sunshine, drove a frozen rope to center field, then hit the jets and outran the throw for an inside the park home run to open the third.

Two batters later, Jada Heaton sliced a shot to right field, then showed off her own set of wheels as she rambled in with a triple.

An RBI single from Maynes pushed the lead to 14-0, with the game-ending run pushed across moments into the start of the fourth.

Armstrong walked, skittered down to second on a passed ball, moved to third on a Farris bunt which was so perfect it could get its own SportsCenter highlight, then tapped home when Brotemarkle mashed a hot shot.

Taylor Brotemarkle sends the ball flying far, far away.

The win gives the 2B Wolves a season sweep of their 1A next-door neighbors — they won 20-9 back in the season opener — and sends them to the playoffs on a high note.

And they’re not done yet.

 

Friday stats:

Capri Anter — One single
Haylee Armstrong — One single, two walks
Taylor Brotemarkle — One single, one walk
Teagan Calkins — Two singles
Mia Farris — One double, two singles, one walk
Jada Heaton — One triple
Madison McMillan — One home run, one double, one single
Danica Strong — One single
Sydney Van Dyke — Two walks

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