Maya Toomey-Stout piled up 11 kills, nine digs, and four service aces as Coupeville shredded Granite Falls. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
The Wolves honored their seniors before the match. (Photo courtesy Charlotte Young)
All the spikes, all the emotions.
In the midst of the roar of the crowd, in between the hugs of parents and siblings, they stood together Tuesday night.
Eight young women, seniors all, talented volleyball players and better people.
And in the middle of the scrum, the coach who has guided them for their entire high school journey, a man who has transformed the Coupeville High School volleyball program.
There is a chance these Wolf spikers will never play on their home floor again, that a straight-sets Senior Night win against visiting Granite Falls, will be their swan song on the CHS floor.
But there is also an even bigger chance the Wolves, now 12-1, matching the 2004 team for the best record through 13 matches by any CHS team, will be back.
That, after ending the regular season with matches at King’s Thursday and Sultan Oct. 28, Coupeville will play well enough at the district playoffs (Nov. 2 and 5) to make it to the second day of the two-day tourney.
Which would put them back on their home court, as the final five district matches, with five berths to the bi-district tournament at stake, will be held at Coupeville’s gyms.
Wolf coach Cory Whitmore, now 47-17 across four seasons at CHS, would love to have his team take the floor in front of their home fans again.
But that’s still down the road, and, for the moment, he and his seniors were content to enjoy their 25-21, 25-11, 25-16 win over Granite, and the pre-match festivities which went with it.
“A great Senior Night with a fantastic group of seniors and their families!,” Whitmore said. “This group has meant so much to me for four years, and I’m so proud and honored to be their coach and mentor.
“We have more goals to reach together, and, as always, this group looks forward to the challenge.”
With the win, the Wolves, 7-1 in league play, clinched at least second-place in the NSC for a second-straight season, while keeping alive hopes of catching King’s (8-0, 12-0) for the conference crown.
Cedar Park Christian (5-3, 10-4) could still tie Coupeville record-wise, but CHS swept CPC this season, giving the Wolves the tiebreaker.
South Whidbey (3-5, 4-8), Sultan (1-7, 4-9), and Granite Falls (0-8, 3-10) round out the current standings.
Tuesday night was about remembering the past, celebrating the present, and playing for the future.
With the exception of their first match-up with King’s, the Wolves have drilled opponents left and right, and Granite, while willing to put up a fight, could do little to derail a team with so many weapons.
The match opened with Maya Toomey-Stout blasting a savage kill which jumped off her hand and shot cross-court, evading two Granite defenders, and Coupeville rarely let up.
A Hannah Davidson spike which bounced off a rival’s upper arm staked the Wolves to an early lead, then two big kills from a red-hot Zoe Trujillo stretched the lead way out.
Both of Trujillo’s put-aways were set up by strong hustle plays from her fellow seniors.
On the first, Emma Mathusek, the unflappable, often unsung heart and soul of the squad, sold out, sacrificing her body to peel a ball off the floor, before Toomey-Stout showed off her world-class talent and heart on the second.
Coming from the back side of the floor, on a ball which wasn’t hers (but no one else was going to reach it), “The Gazelle” slid halfway down the court on her stomach, flipping the ball skyward at the last second and right onto Trujillo’s waiting kill hand.
“I said I wasn’t going to cry, but that almost made me tear up a bit,” Whitmore said with a big smile.
Mouths agape, the Granite players were noticeably impressed. But, to their credit, they didn’t completely crack, continuing to try and chip away at the lead.
From eight points down, the Tigers got within 3-4 points a couple times in the first frame, but each time a Wolf stepped up to put down the rally.
Maddie Vondrak, one of just a handful of non-seniors on the Wolf varsity (she was joined on the floor Tuesday by Lucy Tenore and Kylie Chernikoff, while Chelsea Prescott continued to rehab a hurt ankle), mashed a crowd-pleasing kill.
Then it was Toomey-Stout’s turn once again, a kill erupting from her hand and ending the set on a positive bang.
The second set was Coupeville’s from start to finish, with Raven Vick, Lucy Sandahl, and Scout Smith all putting together runs at the service line, while Trujillo painted the corners of the court with laser-riffic kills.
Smith pulled off a master class in deception on one point, suckering the Granite defense into believing she was launching a pass, before twisting her body into a pretzel in mid-air and dropping a lil’ flick shot into the smallest of gaps.
But while that shot was pure art, Coupeville lived and thrilled on pure power much of the evening, so it was sort of fitting the final point of the frame came via Trujillo launching a running spike which crash-landed with an emphatic bang.
At times this season, the Wolves have roared out to a two-set lead, then “napped” a bit in the third set. Not so this time out.
Making sure the match would end in a quick, efficient manner, Coupeville unloaded every spike in its arsenal in the final frame, with Trujillo and Vondrak staging a super-friendly, but fierce, competition to see who could scare the Tigers more.
Trujillo painted the corner on a kill, tore off some random body parts on a couple of other blasts, then capped things with a mammoth shot.
To which Vondrak bowed in the direction of her older teammate, smiled slightly, and brought out the gun show.
“The Mad Masher” tore off the back line for a point, nailed another winner by launching the ball from corner to corner, then lingered at the net as Willow Vick fired off a smokin’ serve on match point.
Granite got the ball back into play (barely), but as it flopped back over the net, Vondrak shot straight up and ripped the cover off the ball, before bouncing back to Earth, smile a mile wide as her teammates rushed her.
Off to the side, their coach nodded and lightly tapped his clipboard in approval.
“We have really been focusing on the team concept, and everyone played big parts in this win,” Whitmore said. “We stayed calm and composed and never let anything get out of control tonight.
“I’m through the roof for these girls.”
