Lucy Sandahl ripped five aces Monday, sparking Coupeville to a big win. (Brian Vick photos)
They closed like killers.
The Coupeville High School varsity volleyball team wasn’t flawless Monday night in Sultan, but it was ruthless when it mattered most.
Wrapping up all three frames with a bang, the Wolves swept the Turks in straight sets, a cut above the team’s first meeting, when it took Coupeville four sets to escape with the W.
Winning 25-23, 25-17, 25-18, CHS put a bow on its regular season, finishing 8-2 in North Sound Conference play, 13-2 overall.
The Wolves claimed 2nd place in their six-team league for the second-straight season, with their only losses to King’s, which is ranked #2 in 1A headed into the playoffs.
The postseason begins with the district tournament, which runs Nov. 2 and 5.
As the #2 seed from the North Sound Conference, Coupeville opens against the #3 team from the Northwest Conference, which should be Nooksack Valley or Meridian.
To see the bracket, pop over to:
http://www.nscathletics.com/tournament.php?tournament_id=3120&sport=10
With 13 wins heading into the playoffs, this year’s team has tied the 2017 Wolves for the second-most victories in a single season in program history.
The all-time record of 14 wins was set by the 2004 CHS squad.
Hannah Davidson (left) and Emma Mathusek are 13-2 heading into the playoffs.
Now 48-18 under Cory Whitmore over the past four seasons, the senior-dominated Wolves came out with a roar Monday, jumping out to a quick 9-2 lead in the opening set.
With Zoe Trujillo dancing and firing darts at the service line, setting up big kills for herself, Maya Toomey-Stout, and Maddie Vondrak, Coupeville was rolling.
And then the wheels on the car started to wobble, while thankfully not completely falling off.
Playing with emotion on their Senior Night, the Turks came roaring all the way back to snatch the lead away at 18-17, then twice stretched the margin out to two points.
While that might not sound like a lot, it felt like it in the moment, as Coupeville, despite big plays from numerous players, couldn’t seem to get back in gear.
Facing a 22-20 deficit, and the very real possibility of dropping the opening set, the Wolves finally found the key.
It was in the hand of senior Lucy Sandahl, who bounded off the bench, twirled the volleyball across her palm, then lit the Turks up.
A genuinely nasty service ace, which left a noticeable burn mark on the hand of the Sultan player unlucky enough to try and return it (or so I’d like to think), kicked things off.
Not letting up, Sandahl kept pouring heat out of her cannon of a serving arm, and the Turks melted under the onslaught.
One bad hit pulled Sultan back within 24-23 for a hot second, but then Toomey-Stout came strolling along, shaking her head in a silent “not gonna happen” moment.
Rising up from the ground like a phoenix reborn, “The Gazelle” tore the cover off the ball on set point, her kill ripping cross court and burying itself in the gym wall, never to be pulled back out again.
After that, the momentum had definitely shifted towards the young women in the black uniforms, which greatly pleased the large contingent of Wolf fans who made the trek to the hinterlands of Sultan.
“Take that one!” whispered Craig Trujillo, and, down on the floor, his daughter Zoe responded, elevating and lashing a frozen rope of a winner.
Zoe Trujillo brought her A-game, delivering five kills, two aces, and seven digs.
“Blow the gym up, baby!!” screamed Lisa Toomey (OK, maybe I’m paraphrasing on this one, but I think I’m close…) and, down on the floor, Maya Toomey-Stout dropped a few nuclear bombs disguised as kills.
With Scout Smith bobbing and weaving, firing up graceful sets for her big hitters to wallop, then running and diving, scraping balls off the floor, freeze-framing the Turks, before twisting in mid-air to flick winners off her fingertips, mom Charlotte Young nodded ever so slightly.
“Girl’s OK … I guess.”
And then she smiled the big smile of a mom whose heart soars each time her offspring dazzles and delights.
Which is often.
While the second set went back and forth, with seven ties, Coupeville never trailed, thanks to big plays from freshman Lucy Tenore, stuffing a would-be kill, and senior Hannah Davidson, ruthlessly dominating at the net.
With Sultan still hanging around at 19-17, Toomey-Stout dropped the hammer, reeling off six straight points on serve – the final coming on a dramatic ace which snagged the top of the net, then flopped over, falling to the ground and piercing the heart of everyone in Turk Nation.
After the comeback in set #1, and the often-tense action of set #2, the final set was almost anticlimactic, but in a good way for the Wolves and their fans.
Up early, up big, and never really pushed, Coupeville relied on big serving from Trujillo, Sandahl, and Raven Vick, plus tons more bashin’ of the ball from Toomey-Stout, Davidson, and Vondrak to close out the evening.
Sultan fought hard to stay alive, holding off four-straight match points at the end, but its fate was already written.
Putting an appropriate cap on things, Trujillo whipped a cross-court kill, a slicer ‘n dicer of a shot, to end things and send the Wolf faithful to the exits with smiles on their faces.
Toomey-Stout (16 kills), Smith (27 assists), Sandahl (five aces), and Trujillo (seven digs) topped the stat line, with Smith and Tenore each collecting a block.
“Playoffs, here we come!!”
