Jada Heaton, seen in an earlier match, played virtually error-free volleyball Tuesday night. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
This is how an empire dies, in a hail of fiery spikes on a blustery evening.
Outside rain slashed down on the streets of Cow Town Tuesday, while inside the Coupeville High School gym screams of joy, seasoned with delicious salty tears from the visiting fans, reverberated off the walls.
It was Senior Night for the Wolves, a time to celebrate four-year warriors Issabel Johnson and Grey Peabody.
But it was more, because the mightiest team in the region, four-time defending 2B state champion La Conner, a program which hadn’t lost a Northwest 2B/1B League varsity volleyball match in 12+ years, was down for the count.
In more ways than one.
Led by its seniors, and getting contributions from all nine girls on the roster, Coupeville plunged the dagger in, claiming a 30-28, 22-25, 27-25, 25-23 victory which will stand as one of the defining moments in CHS volleyball history.
The streak killers. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
The win, the eighth-straight for the surging Wolves, lifts them to 5-2 in conference action, 9-4 overall.
The 85th win for Coupeville coach Cory Whitmore, it pushes his squad within one victory of hitting double-digits for the seventh time in his eight years at the school.
The only time CHS didn’t get there? 2020, when the pandemic limited the school to just nine total matches.
Next up is the regular-season finale Thursday at Friday Harbor, against a team sitting at 1-12 on the season.
After that comes the four-team double-elimination district tourney, which will send two schools to the state tourney.
As the #2 seed from District 1, Coupeville opens Monday, Oct. 30 on the road in Lacey against District 2’s top team, Northwest Christian, while La Conner hosts Auburn Adventist Academy.
But while the Braves will be the #1 seed from District 1, Tuesday’s loss also denies them the regular season NWL title.
Orcas Island, which lost to La Conner, finishes 8-1, while La Conner comes in at 7-1.
The difference in matches played is because there are three 2B schools in the NWL and four 1B schools.
Each team plays home and away matches against rivals from their same classification, but just one rumble against teams that are not, which gives 1B schools nine conference contests, but 2B schools just eight.
Is it fair? Probably not.
Is every other volleyball team in the land holding hands and singing kumbaya tonight after Coupeville KO’d a La Conner program which has ruled with an iron fist since current players were in preschool?
Abso-frickin-lutely.
Madison McMillan and Co. are on a tear. (Jackie Saia photo)
There’s no Ellie Marble to save the Braves this season, and I have no doubt La Conner, which is 9-7 overall and taking a beating from vengeance-seeking non-conference foes, will be back strong in the future.
Which is why you strike when you can, and you enjoy the heck out of the moment when you put a dent in the Death Star.
Coupeville beat La Conner earlier this season in tourney play at the South Whidbey Invite and pushed the Braves to five sets the first time they played a regular-season match.
Tuesday, when it meant the most, the Wolves hit the hardest.
It was a donnybrook, a street fight played out on hardwood, a match only decided by three points, with CHS holding a 104-101 advantage at the end.
Three different Wolves — Mia Farris, Lyla Stuurmans, and Peabody — connected on 13+ kills apiece, and they had to work overtime to collect those.
There were no easy points on this night, which makes the end result sweeter.
The first set featured 14 ties, and seven set points — five for Coupeville, two for La Conner — as both teams dug deep in search of an elusive edge.
Stuurmans, bounding to the rafters in front of a raucous Wolf student section, pasted the crud out of the ball in the opening frame, while Teagan Calkins and Farris exploded at key moments.
But it was Peabody who delivered the biggest blows at the end, accounting for three of Coupeville’s final four points in the set, her arm windmilling and cranking kills off of feathery sets by Katie Marti.
Each blast by the standout senior generated big breeze, pushing the Braves back on the floor and threatening to blow the doors off the gym.
The second set was a kill-off between Stuurmans, fire erupting from her fingertips, and Farris, who slammed every one of her winners off of a La Conner body part.
Jada Heaton, bringer of joy to her teammates, proved to be a deadly companion as well, artfully collecting a pair of tip winners, then dancing off to squeeze the life out of best bud Farris.
But La Conner rallied to briefly sting Coupeville at the worst possible moment, closing the set on a 6-1 run to knot things up at a set apiece.
If that bothered the Wolves, they hid it well, bouncing right back to claim a third set which featured 11 ties.
Neither team led by more than two points until CHS pulled ahead 24-20 as Stuurmans painted the backline with a blast which made her fan club yelp in joy.
La Conner held off four set points, though, and actually went ahead at 25-24.
Enter Heaton again, whacking a kill to knot things up, before a disputed call at the net went against the Braves and Farris spanked a winner down the middle of the floor.
Your silly rules will never keep Taylor Brotemarkle from bringing the spirit. (Jackie Saia photo)
Coupeville’s celebration proved to be too much for the Fun Police, who slapped Taylor Brotemarkle with a yellow card for levitating off the bench and daring to cheer for her teammates in a vibrant voice.
We weren’t playing in a library, even if the refs seemed to think so.
For Wolf coach Cory Whitmore, the moment drew a laugh after the match.
“I will take that anytime, seeing Taylor supporting her girls like that,” he said. “Love to see the passion.”
With the gym getting progressively louder, Coupeville claimed the early lead in set four behind some peppery serves from woman-of-a-million-talents Madison McMillan and the countdown was on.
La Conner fought back to go ahead at 18-15 — which caused Farris, Peabody, and Marti to crunch back-to-back-to-back winners — then claimed its final advantage at 22-20.
The Braves were looking for a miracle, a chance to catch their breath, for the power to go out in the gym.
Anything to derail what was coming.
Nothing was stopping this train on this night, however.
Calkins slid a winner into a barely-there crack in the defense, before Farris launched a missile that no one on La Conner’s side of the net was … brave … enough to stop.
The visitors had dodged set points again and again, but on match point, it ended in a flash.
McMillan, prowling the baseline with a small, deadly smile gracing her face, let loose with a silky serve.
The ball went skyward, La Conner tried to play it back, and then, a burst of wind as Farris soared to the heavens, her fist swinging, unleashing like Thor bringing the thunder and the lightning.
And maybe all that rain filling the streets outside the gym.
That is how one empire dies, and another is born. In fury and joy, in a final kill which La Conner had no chance to return.
Celebrating a legendary win. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
Cue the celebration, whether it be the student section and Wolf bench rushing the floor, or Whitmore and assistant coach Ashley Menges quietly sitting in the bleachers afterwards, basking in the afterglow.
“I am so proud of the way that everyone was all in,” Whitmore said. “So much fun to see them battle and thrive.
“We still have much to work on, and that’s a good thing, but this is a culmination of a lot of hard work, not just volleyball, but of being really connected as a team.”
Or, as Menges put it, gently needling any hoops-obsessed bloggers in the area while arching an eyebrow or two, “Maybe tonight, basketball wasn’t God’s favorite sport after all. Maybe tonight it was volleyball.”
Maybe so.
Tuesday stats:
Taylor Brotemarkle — 6 digs, 1 assist
Teagan Calkins — 4 kills, 3 digs, 2 aces
Mia Farris — 16 kills, 28 digs, 2 aces, 1 solo block, 1 block assist
Jada Heaton — 3 kills
Issabel Johnson — 7 digs, 1 ace
Katie Marti — 2 kills, 18 digs, 33 assists, 1 ace
Madison McMillan — 1 kill, 13 digs, 5 assists, 1 ace
Grey Peabody — 13 kills, 1 solo block, 3 block assists
Lyla Stuurmans — 15 kills, 12 digs, 2 aces, 2 block assists
Coupeville Sports 