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Posts Tagged ‘SWHS Falcons’

All the chills, all the thrills

Posted in Volleyball, tagged , , , , , on October 18, 2019| Leave a Comment »

Zoe Trujillo stepped up big Thursday night, helping Coupeville volleyball sweep South Whidbey in straight sets. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)

Emma Mathusek and friends are 11-1 heading into Senior Night.

The freight train keeps rumblin’ down the track, wrecking almost everything in its way.

Overcoming a young, but feisty South Whidbey squad Thursday, the Coupeville High School varsity volleyball team continues to match the best start in program history.

Pulling out a 25-20, 25-17, 25-23 win on the road in Langley, during a rumble in which they came back from a 10-1 deficit in the final set, the Wolves improve to 6-1 in North Sound Conference play, 11-1 overall.

Coupeville sits a game off of King’s (7-0, 11-0) in the race for a title, and is a win away from clinching at least second-place in league play.

The Wolves, who have three regular season bouts left, starting with Senior Night Tuesday against Granite Falls, have matched the 2004 CHS spikers for the best record through 12 matches.

But, while they won in straight sets Thursday, it wasn’t a walk-over.

The Falcons, led by freshman Morgan Batchelor, who was ferocious at the net all night, led in every set, but ultimately broke when the much-more experienced Wolves fully bared their teeth.

Eight of Coupeville’s 12 varsity players are seniors, and they are a pack which has played together through middle and high school.

Their CHS days have come under the guidance of coach Cory Whitmore, who took the helm of the program as the current seniors arrived on campus as freshmen.

Together, coach and players have produced four straight seasons of 11 or more wins, two league titles (so far), and a trip to state in 2017.

They may bend at times, but the Wolves rarely break, as South Whidbey was reminded once again.

With a hyped-up crowd behind them, the Falcons jumped out to an 8-5 lead in the first set, before Coupeville used its strong team-wide serving to take control.

Maya Toomey-Stout was the first Wolf to go off, putting together a run of four straight points, with a huge spike from Zoe Trujillo and a Hannah Davidson kill which caught the top of the net and flopped over, helping to spark things.

With the score knotted at 10-10, that brought Wolf captain Scout Smith to the line, and the Falcon faithful to their feet.

To their credit, the South Whidbey student section brought the hootin’, the hollerin’, and the good-natured harassin’, yet they forgot one thing.

Nothing ruffles Scout Smith. Nothing.

Perhaps her insides are a cauldron of bubbling anxiety, but, if so, she never, ever betrays it.

Instead, Smith, like her brothers before her, just placidly stares ahead, ignores the din, and unleashes winner after winner.

With her serves, and her flawless passes, paving the way, Scoutosaurus Rex set the table, and Trujillo and Maddie Vondrak dined out, lashing winners and leading group cheers afterwards.

Up 16-10 after Smith’s service run, the Wolves got a five-spot from Raven Vick, who was crackin’ off lasers on her serve, and Coupeville stretched the lead out.

Batchelor refused to bend the knee, however, crashing a pair of eye-popping kills off the back corner, including one which held off set point, at least for a moment.

But what was meant to be was meant to be, as Toomey-Stout, once herself a preternaturally-talented freshman, and now a battle-hardened senior, came flying in to finish off the set.

Exploding skyward, scanning the Falcons for a weakness, “The Gazelle” locked and loaded, her arm rearranging the molecules of the volleyball as she pounded a final kill, angling it off a rival’s arm and out of bounds.

The second set was more of the same, with Batchelor playing like a star, but Coupeville responding with danger from every angle.

Lucy Sandahl was a delight at the service stripe, while Toomey-Stout, Davidson, Trujillo and Vondrak brought the heat with a tantalizing variety of kills, stuffs, and tips.

Coupeville took the lead quicker in set two, never surrendering it once up 4-3.

Trujillo, playing in front of big sis Valen, herself a CHS volleyball all-timer, upheld family honor with an especially-strong performance.

A late service ace off of Zoe’s fingertips was a true marvel, diving and burrowing under a Falcon player’s arms.

The less said about the first third of the final set, probably the better, as the Wolves, for a few minutes, seemed to collectively forget how to play their chosen sport.

But, a few quiet words from Whitmore later, Coupeville righted the ship and did so in a hurry.

Sandahl started the comeback with a six-point run at the line, several big kills from Davidson pulled the Wolves closer, and then, bam, Trujillo was once again the woman on the spot, slamming a ball off of a Falcon’s chin to push CHS up 15-14.

Even then, Batchelor and Co. kept coming, yanking the lead back and going up as far as 23-19.

With the crowd noise surging, and momentum seemingly slipping away from the Wolves, Coupeville needed a big-time play to turn the tide a final time.

Enter Toomey-Stout, who forced a side-out with a floor-shaking kill, and Vondrak, who ended the match with a five-point run at the line.

And exit to the bus a happy Whitmore, who has guided Coupeville volleyball to a .730 winning percentage (46-17) during his time on the Wolf bench.

“It was good to come out on top versus an improved South Whidbey team,” he said.

If he scanned the stat sheet on the short jaunt back to Cow Town, Whitmore saw a very-balanced attack, with Smith (25 assists, seven digs, two aces, two kills) and Toomey-Stout (11 kills, 16 digs, two aces) leading the way.

Davidson (eight kills, two blocks), Trujillo (five kills, three aces, four digs), Vondrak (four kills, two aces), Vick (two digs), Sandahl (two aces, four digs), Emma Mathusek (seven digs) and Lucy Tenore also joined in on the fun.

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Kylie Chernikoff will rock you

Posted in Volleyball, tagged , , , , on October 17, 2019| Leave a Comment »

Kylie Chernikoff brings the thunder and the lightning. (Brian Vick photo)

It helps when you have the best player on the floor.

Thursday night’s JV volleyball match-up between South Whidbey and visiting Coupeville was competitive, tense, a back-and-forth rumble.

And then Kylie Chernikoff went off, plucking every last feather off the Falcons.

Paced by their stellar star, who rocketed her way to a 13 kill, eight dig, three service ace performance, the Wolves came out on top 25-21, 21-25, 25-15.

With the win, Coupeville rises to 6-1 in North Sound Conference play, 9-2 overall.

To get to the finish line and take a season sweep from their next door neighbors, the Wolves had to overcome a few rough moments along the way.

All of that faded into the mist which hung over the SWHS parking lot, as Coupeville exited on a major high, riding big-time serving and bigger-time kills to run wild in the third, and deciding set.

Every Wolf to step to the line in the final set went off on a run, with Jaimee Masters and Taygin Jump leading the way with four straight points on their serve.

Jump lashed back-to-back aces to bust open the set, but it was Chernikoff, lurking, waiting, anticipating, then exploding and decimating, who put the fear of God into her rivals.

One spike tore off a Falcon player’s arm, leaving it flopping uselessly on the floor (maybe I’m slightly exaggerating, but just slightly…), while another Chernikoff masterpiece was delivered from her own back-court, yet still ripped a chunk out of South Whidbey’s back line.

A sweet little running tip for a winner from Jump sweetened the deal, before scorching serves from Maddie Georges, Heidi Meyers, and Abby Mulholland softened up the defense.

And then … oh, good sweet lord, hide the women and children … Kylie is trying to kill people again!!

Chernikoff’s final thunderous spike, which put Coupeville a point away from winning the match, erupted off of her hand like a bolt of lightning, made every hair on the back of Wolf coach Chris Smith’s neck stand up and salute, and almost broke the universe itself.

Six South Whidbey players saw the blast coming, and six South Whidbey players decided they’d rather stay out of the way and live to breathe another day.

After that, the final point of the match, a low, screaming, extremely nasty ace from Mulholland, was impressive, and yet almost an afterthought as the gym support beams continued to shake from Chernikoff’s spike.

The strong finish brought a positive ending to a match which went back-and-forth for much of the way.

Despite getting strong work at the net from Anya Leavell (slicing winners left and right) and Jill Prince (rejecting and stuffing would-be Falcon kills), the Wolves didn’t lead in the opening set until 10-9.

The frame was tied as late as 16-16, and each time CHS started to pull away, thanks to Georges winning a tip battle or Masters flicking a winner over the heads of a pulled-in defense, South Whidbey rallied.

Down by five points, back within two, and then, ladies and gentlemen, we have Ms. Chernikoff getting, as my notes put it, “freakin’ savage.”

With the set hanging in the balance, the JV’s most dangerous assassin crunched a mammoth shot which parted the fleeing Falcons like Moses doing his thing at the Red Sea.

The Wolves almost repeated the scenario in the second set, with Mulholland holding court at the service line, Leavell floating tip winners, and Chernikoff abusing every last volleyball which dared to enter her air space.

South Whidbey fought hard, though, and found a little something extra to take the set and send things to a deciding showdown.

Where Chernikoff was waiting to whack ’em.

She got plenty of support, with Georges (three aces, four assists), Jump (four kills, three aces), Mulholland (two kills, four aces), and Alita Blouin (three digs, two assists) also filling up the stat sheet.

Masters (two kills, one ace), Leavell (four kills), Prince (two kills) and Meyers (two digs) added to the strong team effort, with Ivy Leedy providing advice and support while in street clothes on the bench.

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Big kicks, big pics

Posted in Girls Soccer, tagged , , , , , on October 2, 2019| Leave a Comment »

Lily Leedy, showing her colors on a night when Coupeville High School soccer honored those fighting against cancer, gets artful with the ball. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)

Carolyn Lhamon launches a missile.

Izzy Wells eyeballs the defense, looking for an open teammate.

Natalie Castano fights for control of the ball in the open field.

Tia Wurzrainer’s moment of Zen – chipping a perfect shot without ever having to open her eyes to see where the ball sits. She just knows.

Natalie Hollrigel, killin’ it.

They are fast, brutal, and efficient.

There’s many reasons the South Whidbey High School girls soccer squad is undefeated this season, and all were on display Tuesday during a 4-0 win at Coupeville.

The Falcons have an explosive offense, a lock-down defense and high-caliber players at every position.

As it heads into a first-place showdown with King’s Thursday, South Whidbey sits at 4-0 in North Sound Conference play, 7-0 overall.

Coupeville, which lost its top scorer to injury in the first half of the season opener, is headed in the right direction, showing growth across the board, even if the record doesn’t always reflect it.

With the loss to their Island rivals, the Wolves sit at 0-4 in league play, 0-6-2 overall.

That puts them a game off of a playoff berth with six conference tilts to go, as they are chasing Granite Falls (1-3, 3-5), who they face Thursday on the road, and Sultan (1-3, 1-5-2).

King’s (4-0, 6-2) sits in a tie with South Whidbey atop the league standings, while Cedar Park Christian (2-2, 5-3) holds the middle.

Coupeville coach Kyle Nelson knew Tuesday’s game would feature probably the toughest foe on the schedule, but he came away pleased with a lot of what he saw from his team.

“I felt pretty good with our effort,” he said. “A few mental errors cost us, but
mostly a great effort and continued improvement.”

 

JV blanked:

No score was reported, but word on the street was that South Whidbey shut out Coupeville, which leaves the Wolf young guns sitting at 0-3 in league, 0-4 overall.

 

To see more photos from both varsity and JV action, pop over to:

https://www.johnsphotos.net/Sports/Coupeville-Soccer/GS-2019-10-01-vs-South-Whidbey/

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Drive home safely, Falcons

Posted in Volleyball, tagged , , , , , on October 2, 2019| Leave a Comment »

Chelsea Prescott was on fire Tuesday as the undefeated Coupeville High School varsity volleyball team swatted arch-rival South Whidbey in straight sets. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

Raven Vick (left) and Maddie Vondrak, key components on a 5-0 Wolf squad which sits atop the North Sound Conference standings. (Brian Vick photo)

The future is bright for South Whidbey, but the present is even brighter for Coupeville.

While the Falcon volleyball squad has tons of young talent, led by big-hitting, sweet-serving freshman Morgan Batchelor, the Wolves have earned their moment in the spotlight.

Eight of the 12 players on Coupeville’s varsity roster are seniors, with three juniors and one freshman rounding out the team.

Those veterans have gone all the way with Wolf coach Cory Whitmore, now in his fourth season at the helm of the program, and they’re primed to make a run at returning to state for the second time in three seasons.

Tuesday night Coupeville took another step down that path, sending their next-door neighbors back home after blistering them 25-16, 25-17, 25-17.

The victory lifts the Wolves to 2-0 in North Sound Conference play, 5-0 overall.

It’s the second-straight season CHS has opened with five wins in as many matches, and the Island rivalry triumph was a milestone for Whitmore, who is now 40-16 while working in Cow Town.

Coupeville sits atop the league standings, in a dead-heat with King’s (2-0, 5-0), a game up on Cedar Park Christian (1-1, 6-2) and South Whidbey (1-1, 2-3).

Granite Falls (0-2, 3-3), which hosts the Wolves Thursday, and Sultan (0-2, 3-4) are currently in the basement.

What is shaping up as a contender for match-of-the-year arrives next Monday, Oct. 7, when King’s travels to Whidbey Island to face Coupeville.

For now, though, Whitmore and his squad, having stayed perfect through the first third of the regular season, are content to remain locked in the moment.

Against South Whidbey, that meant attacking as a unit, all players firing as one.

“I was very excited with our consistency tonight, keeping almost the same scores set to set, and staying focused start to finish,” Whitmore said.

“We had very few errors, and a balanced attack, and that goes to Scout (Smith’s) distribution and just good sets,” he added. “It was a solid team effort; we were throwing the ball around and staying ahead of the game.”

Coupeville controlled play from first serve to last smash, and only trailed by more than a single point just once during the match, at 8-6 early in the second set.

It was the smallest of burps, though, as the Wolves promptly reeled off a 10-1 surge to quell any Falcon hopes of stretching the match out.

The night’s first big blow came from junior Chelsea Prescott, who launched a titanic evening by crushing an ear-popping spike to knot the first set up at 2-2.

That launched a run of different Wolves stepping up big at the net, with Maya Toomey-Stout, Zoe Trujillo, and Hannah Davidson all connecting on ferocious putaways in the opening set.

In between, Prescott bobbed and weaved, artfully spinning little tips for winners, before flexing her guns and erupting with pure power.

“Chelsea was on her game tonight,” Whitmore said as he scanned the stat sheet. “28 swings and just one error!

“Every one of our hitters came in above average, and that’s the payoff of good team passing.”

The Wolves closed the first set with two beautiful plays.

On the first, Smith won a tip war at the net, skying up, then out-muscling a rival player who made a play for the same ball.

Then Trujillo, who put an extra little zing on all of her kills Tuesday, walloped a smash that scattered a pack of Falcon players who could only watch in frustration as it ripped past.

Keeping alive the team first, team last, team always concept, the Wolves opened the second set with yet another player rising to the moment.

This time it was the Mad Masher herself, junior Maddie Vondrak, who cracked a huge spike to buckle the knees of the Falcon players.

There were longer rallies in the middle set, but almost every time Coupeville came up with something special, whether it was Davidson smoking a kill or Smith twirling like a ballerina while looking one way and dropping a tip winner the other.

Prescott was a whiz kid who couldn’t be stopped, blasting one shot with enough sizzle on it to completely bowl over a Falcon player, who tried, and failed, to stop it with her chest.

Batchelor did her best to keep South Whidbey in the mix, and made an often-impenetrable wall at the net, but the well-seasoned Wolves had too many weapons.

Whether it was Trujillo roaring up the middle of the court like a runaway freight train, Toomey-Stout trying to pop the volleyball through sheer brute strength, or Vondrak slicin’ ‘n dicin’, Coupeville had an answer for everything South Whidbey could offer this time around.

The match ended, appropriately, with one final eruption of power from Toomey-Stout, which pleased her coaches, and the rockin’, rollin’, and floor-thumpin’ CHS student section.

It also came to a close with a remarkably well-balanced stat sheet, led off by Prescott, who delivered 11 kills, seven digs and six aces.

Smith tossed in 25 assists, four kills, and nine digs, Toomey-Stout collected 10 kills, eight digs, and two aces, and that was just the start.

Trujillo (five kills), Emma Mathusek (nine digs and a million floor burns), Vondrak (four kills and a solo block), Davidson (four kills, three aces), Raven Vick (three aces), and Lucy Sandahl (three digs and an ace) all delivered strong work as well.

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South Whidbey, you’ve been served

Posted in Volleyball, tagged , , , , , on October 1, 2019| Leave a Comment »

Maddie Georges was electric at the service line Tuesday, leading the Coupeville High School JV volleyball team to another win. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

Incoming!

Zinging nasty serves from every angle Tuesday, the Coupeville High School JV volleyball spikers were more than visiting South Whidbey could handle.

Much more.

Riding their saucy service game, the Wolves romped to a 25-9, 26-24 win, then played a third set just for kicks and (somewhat surprisingly) dropped that one 25-21.

Not that it mattered much, as the W was already recorded in the big book, lifting Coupeville’s young guns to 2-0 in North Sound Conference play, 3-1 overall.

The JV’s only defeat came against 2A Anacortes in a closely-fought rumble, but there would be no such shenanigans on this night.

Coupeville came out swinging hot from the first serve — which was actually put up in the air by the visiting Falcons.

After a brief rally, Lucy Tenore buried a kill down the middle of the floor, and once the ball was in the Wolves hands, the set was as good as done.

Maddie Georges led off for CHS, and Mad Dog was barkin’ big time, running off eight points on her serve as Coupeville blew out to a 9-0 lead.

The Wolves ended up not even going through their full rotation of servers in the first set, as they only needed four players to get the job done.

Taygin Jump followed Georges by throwing down seven straight points of her own on serve, before Alita Blouin and Jaimee Masters closed out the set with aces that smashed off of faces, tore arms off of rival players, and left burn marks on the gym floor.

South Whidbey did get some of the serves back in play, but then quickly ran into a rampaging Kylie Chernikoff, who spent the night flexing mad skills, as she bashed the life out of the volleyball.

Chernikoff mixed in a couple of sweet tips, freezing the Falcon players in position, before sliding the ball into tiny gaps, but it was her power game which left a lasting impression.

There were several moments to choose from, but her best play probably came at 17-6, when she came thundering towards the net, elevated, and launched a smoking hot kill which exploded down the left sideline and vanished out the gym door.

The Wolves didn’t let up in the second set, though they did have to dig a little deeper to get over the top and close out the win.

Blouin had the magic touch at the service stripe this time around, zipping a series of aces, and getting some help from her teammates.

Abby Mulholland made a nice running save to keep a rally alive, while she and Ivy Leedy teamed up to stuff a South Whidbey hitter at the net right after Georges slid across the floor on her stomach to prevent the Falcons from ending the point.

Everyone chipped in, with Jump, Tenore, and Chernikoff spraying winners, Anya Leavell and Heidi Meyers chipping in with hustle plays, and the win was sealed on a play which perfectly summed up the night.

Hanging in the air, Chernikoff crushed a kill, and the ball hit the top of the net with an audible bang.

For a second, it looked like the shot wouldn’t clear the barrier, but then the net, already in serious pain, whimpered and gave up, shrinking away and letting the ball gently flop over and drop to the floor with a pleasing plop for point #50.

With no ferries to catch, and plenty of time left before the scheduled start of the varsity match, the two teams agreed to get a little exhibition-style work in with a third set.

Masters brought out some appropriately scary service winners to spark the Wolves, while Jump was everywhere in the third set, with most of her shots exploding off of Falcon bodies.

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