HAGERSTOWN, Md. – Lauryn Copenhaver proved reading is more than just fundamental on Tuesday.
It was almost a requirement for the North Hagerstown volleyball team that helped it turn the page on arch-rival South Hagerstown.
Just about the time it looked as if the match might be slipping away from the Hubs, Copenhaver locked in on reading South’s player movements to find openings to score. The flurry of action righted North (7-3) in the second half of the fourth set, leading to a 25-22, 25-19, 18-25, 25-18 home victory over the Rebels (3-5).
After battling to wins in the first two sets, the Hubs sputtered in the third against the Rebels, who used an injury to captain Tenley Yost as a rallying call to win the set. The fourth set was tight before Copenhaver asserted herself.
“We were falling down a bit,” said North’s middle blocker. “I was trying to get a way to bring us and the energy back up. It was kind of a big thing of adrenaline.
“I started watching where the (South’s) middles on the other side were hitting, and I moved my hands and I just caught where they were. I was reading eyes and their footwork to see where they were planning to hit.”
It became a crash course in speedreading.
With North up two sets to one and the game tied at 11, Copenhaver kicked it into gear.
Patrolling in front of the net, she was involved with seven of North’s final 14 points to close out the game.
“Lauryn has really improved this year,” said North coach Lacie Johnson. “She’s becoming an offensive and a defensive threat up at the net. Her confidence has grown and she’s really become a key player up there for us.
“She started to move really well with what South was doing offensively and she was able to find the ball. Her timing’s always been there. She really started to see the ball in that fourth set, it worked out really well for her.”
Copenhaver moved from side to side on the front line to help her flanking teammates.
She stuffed Rebels’ shots at the net and forced down shots at the net. She teamed with Lily Hajel to reject a pair of South kills for two points during the final five-point run to end the match.
“Like I said, I just tried to bring up a lot of the energy, and I think that worked whenever I was doing it,” Copenhaver said. “(North) started to get more hyped in the back row and then we started getting more kills, so I think we just got more confident.
It was all reading. There’s been a lot of hard work for me to do it. I’ve been working very hard in middle, because I’m not the tallest. I’ve been working to get my vertical (jumping) up, It’s 30 inches now.”
It all put an end to what became a incredibly tight matchup.
There were 25 ties across the four sets, including 10 in the last one until North scored eight of the final nine points to close out the match. Neither team led by more than seven points in any of the four games.
“It was a good loss, and there’s nothing to be disappointed about with today’s game,” said South coach Erin Helman. “They are really fighting hard. They’re doing everything they need to do. We just got to work as a team, not as individuals. They worked their butts off.
“We just go back to practice and work hard the next day and then we move on. Playoffs are really what matters at this point.”
But this game was rather important, even if just for bragging rights.
“North and South always has that rivalry,” Johnson said. “You know, it’s the school across town, so you always want to go in and get that win.
“We definitely had some highs and lows. We had some times where we were making a few too many errors in a row, but we were able to step out of that and get the job done.”
Although the first two games were tight, North used scoring flurries to close them out.
Momentum started to shift in the third set as South made its move.
“I think that a fire just came in. They were like ‘We gotta play,’” Helman said. “They started living up to it, and they just started playing. They were playing smart, finding the spots they needed to do, and they just got into it.”
The Rebels were on a roll, coming back from a 12-8 deficit. At 12-10, with both teams moving to play a ball over the net, Yost fell to the floor hard in pain. Coaches and trainers worked on her right leg, and she was helped to the bench in pain.
“What really got the girls to push and start digging deep was for Tenley,” Helman said. “She’s a captain of the team. She’s a fighter for our team. So, I think when they saw the injury, they were like, ‘We really got to work for her,’ and they did …
“She’s a really huge asset to our team, so with her having that injury, the girls were, like ‘let me fight for her’.”
South tied North at 14 and 16 before running off nine of the final 11 points to take the game. Jaliah Morgan notched three big points in the run while North helped with long serves and errant shots to keep South in the match.
“They started beating us in the third set, we all started losing confidence,” Copenhaver said. I think we went in a little too strong, but everybody, during the fourth set, was like, ‘We need to put the ball away and finish.’”
After opening with four ties to start the fourth set, North opened up a 10-6 lead with some power kills, but South battled back. The set was tied at 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, and 17 as Copenhaver started to get a read on the situation to help guide the Hubs to the win.
“Anytime you get stuff blocks, it kind of gets everybody excited,” Johnson said. “You have to feed off of that energy. Volleyball is definitely a game of momentum and we kind of took it there at the end of that fourth set and ran with it until the end.”
It was a lot of back-and-forth volleyball. You’re trying to hold serve and really capitalize on when you have some of your bigger hitters in the front row. Our defense played really well, our blocking really turned on there in the end. That really helped us in the long run.”
GIRLS SOCCER
Monday
Varsity
Thomas Johnson 10, South Hagerstown 0
JV
Thomas Johnson 8, South Hagerstown 0
Tuesday
Varsity
North Hagerstown 12, South Hagerstown 0
