The Coupeville High School volleyball team solved the Chimacum riddle.

The Wolves (2-2, 4-8) defeated the visiting Cowboys 3-1 Thursday, Oct. 22, to move into a second-place tie in the Olympic League 1A standings. The win also tightened the Wolves’ grip on a district tournament berth.

Coupeville played in pink jerseys to celebrate “Dig for the Cure” breast cancer awareness night.

Coupeville lost a non-league match to Chimacum 3-2 earlier this season. The Wolves took a 2-0 lead in the match before the Cowboys rallied.

In another meeting last week, Chimacum (2-2, 7-7) swept the Wolves 3-0.

In Thursday’s clash, the Cowboys won their seventh-straight set over the Wolves when they won the first game 25-20.

Coupeville responded by taking the next three: 25-13, 25-23, 25-15.

In the second game, the Wolves led 13-11, then finished the match on a 12-2 run. Katrina McGranahan served the final seven points, firing three aces.

The third set featured huge swings. Chimacum zipped to a 7-0 lead, then Coupeville ran off eight consecutive points with the help of three aces from Hope Lodell.

The Cowboys built a four-point lead, then Coupeville tied the match at 20, again with a boost from Lodell, who added two more aces.

Chimacum nearly put the set away, going up 23-20, but the Wolves rallied. Tiffany Briscoe got things going with a kill, then Lauren Rose finished off the Cowboys with three aces.

The Wolves steadily pulled away in the final game behind three kills from Kyla Briscoe and two kills and an ace from her sister Tiffany.

Lodell finished with nine aces, Valen Trujillo had 16 digs, Ally Roberts recorded eight kills without a hitting error, Tiffany Briscoe added eight kills and nine digs, and Sydney Autio and Rose each tallied 12 assists.

As a team, Coupeville posted 31 kills and 24 aces.

Coach Breanne Smedley liked the mental toughness of her team: “We focused won winning the next point instead of thinking ‘We have this’ when we took the lead. We stayed in a bubble, focusing on ourselves and nothing else.”

She liked the play of Lodell, who “tore it up,” and Roberts, who was “really effective on offense.”

Smedley also liked the steadiness of Rose while she served during the tense moments at the end of the close third game.

“There is no one else I would rather have back there,” Smedley said.

Two league matches remain. The Wolves go to Klahowya (3-0, 6-6) at 5 p.m. Monday, Oct. 26, and then return home to face Port Townsend (0-3, 1-8) at 6:15 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 29.

(Katrina McGranahan, left, and Tiffany Briscoe pass for the Wolves Thursday. Photos by John Fisken.)