Emma Smith had seven kills and four blocks Monday as Coupeville volleyball thrashed South Whidbey. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
They were sick. They were tired. They were under siege.
But, in the end, all that mattered was the size of their hearts.
Overcoming illness, weariness and some nicely rowdy visiting fans, the Coupeville High School varsity volleyball squad bounced back from its toughest moment of the season by delivering a classic knock-out punch to its arch-rivals.
The Wolves, backed by their own increasingly enthusiastic band of student supporters Monday, drilled visiting South Whidbey 25-22, 9-25, 25-18, 25-18, sweeping the season series from their next door neighbors.
With the win, CHS jumps to 5-2 in North Sound Conference action, 8-2 overall and solidifies its hold on second-place in the six-team league.
Coupeville trails defending 1A state champ King’s (7-0, 10-1) by two games, with three to play, and is a game up on Cedar Park Christian (4-3, 8-4) and South Whidbey (4-3, 7-5).
Granite Falls (1-6, 3-8) and Sultan (0-7, 3-8), two of the three teams the Wolves play in the final week-and-a-half of the regular season, bring up the rear.
When they took the floor Monday, the Wolves had a lot of excuses for feeling blue.
They were coming off an unexpected five-set loss to Cedar Park Christian in their last match, they were tired after making the long trip East for this weekend’s Wenatchee Invite, and their roster was racked with illness.
To which they said, “shrug it off.”
The spirit was best exemplified by one of the sickest of the bunch, junior Maya Toomey-Stout.
Bent over, frequently coughing into her shirt, both hands taped up, “The Gazelle” looked like a boxer who had already gone 10 rounds.
Which didn’t mean she wasn’t still fully capable of delivering hay-makers that made the court shake, her opponent’s knees quake and her fans lose their ever-lovin’ minds.
Same thing with senior Emma Smith, who came roaring in to open the match with a spike that peeled paint off the floor, and sophomore Chelsea Prescott, who followed almost immediately with a kill which thudded home with so much force it permanently warped the court.
The first time Coupeville and South Whidbey faced off, they played the full five sets, with each frame so close only an error here, a brilliant serve there, provided the slimmest of slim wins for the Wolves.
This time around, other than in a brief burp during the second set, Coupeville controlled the flow of action in every aspect of the game.
The opening set was tied 10 different times, the last at 22-22, but the Wolves only trailed once, and then by only a single point at 13-12.
Coupeville immediately responded, with Emma Smith taking a set-up from Scout Smith (one of her 24 assists) and crushing a spike that started on the left, zinged to the right like a bolt of lightning, then fried any Falcon within a two-mile radius.
From there, Toomey-Stout got down with her bad self, hammering home a winner, popping off a run of sizzlers at the service line, then sealing the deal with an unexpected bit of mid-air ballet.
With the set knotted at 22-22 and the teams rallying, “The Gazelle” suddenly shot up the middle of the court, sprang almost over the net in a single bound, and flicked the ball to the side for a crippling winner.
In that single play, all the momentum shifted Coupeville’s way, and, sure enough, two plays later, Emma Smith sealed the deal, rising majestically on set point to deliver one of her match-high four blocks.
The less said bout the second set, the better, so we’ll keep this brief and … big breath.
Emma Smith and Toomey-Stout delivered a handful of kills, Prescott and Emma Mathusek chased down everything humanly possible, Hannah Davidson had a sweet tip winner, Maddie Vondrak cracked an ace as soon as she hit the floor, and it all wasn’t enough to save the Wolves.
Moving on.
The third set was better, much better, and, even though Coupeville had to fight from behind, not leading until 14-13, the mood in the gym swung big time.
After letting seven South Whidbey students (and the metal sign they were clanging away on) carry the load in the early going, Coupeville’s fan section picked up their game.
With Teo Keilwitz and Gavin Knoblich pounding flag poles on the bleachers, the Wolves took advantage of their larger numbers and finally shouted down the frantic Falcon faithful.
Spurred on by their support crew, the Wolf spikers launched into overdrive, with Prescott and Davidson delivering tip winners that splashed down with a happy little sigh, while Ashley Menges crushed aces down the middle of the floor.
That opened up things for Emma Smith, who blocked back-to-back Falcon shots, one with the palms of her hands, the other with just the very tippy-tips of her fingertips.
With Menges on a final, decisive tear at the service stripe, Toomey-Stout soared airborne, hung there for a day-and-a-half, then knocked all the air out of the ball (and all the willpower out of the Falcons) with a mighty, mighty mash.
If South Whidbey thought it had a chance in the fourth, and final, set, that went away quickly.
Or in about the time it took Toomey-Stout to whip another spike off the back line and out into the parking lot. I’m thinking .002 of a second.
As they surged towards the win, and the final knockout punch, every Wolf on the floor was firing.
Scout Smith dropped a Kareem-style sky-hook for a surprise winner while Mathusek flicked a shot that slowly crawled up and over the net, before suddenly flopping to the floor on the other side, kicking away as an unlucky Falcon ripped out her back muscles trying to lunge for the runaway ball.
And Toomey-Stout?
Jabbing, jousting and jolting, in between filling her shirt collar with germy goodness from frequent coughs, she was in top form, her remarkable skill and soaring heart pulling her tired, battered body along for the giddy ride.
Take a look at a reporter’s notebook and the notations about Toomey-Stout’s play in the fourth set are filled with terms like “rise and destroy,” “launched the eruptor,” smoked a fool” and, finally, “Dang! Think she killed that girl.”
The match ended in the only way possible, as Toomey-Stout, coming up the left side of the floor like a semi-truck with no brakes about to turn a Kia Sorento into a grease spot on the open highway, blasted the ball off the face of a hapless rival.
In the moment, swept along by the joy of the win, the delight of reaching down deep and finding a gear maybe they didn’t know they had, the Wolves rejoiced.
As they did, their coach, Cory Whitmore, one of the few to have escaped the illness besetting the spikers, smiled, while keeping a healthy distance from any coughers.
“We had a mental gut check and came out on the other side of it, which is exciting,” he said. “I’m proud of our mental toughness. The girls don’t make excuses for themselves or for each other, they just raise their play.
“Now, it’s lozenges and orange juice for everyone tomorrow!”
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