Mounts Ace Warriors

If Taylor Haupt isn’t quite 6 feet, she’s close.

“I’d say in shoes, I’m about 6 foot,” the Ephrata senior outside hitter said.

Shoes or no shoes, Haupt stood tall — literally and figuratively - on Monday night, recording a matchhigh 14 kills as the Mounts shut out Warwick 3-0 (2517, 25-13, 25-11) in a nonleague battle of back-yard rivals in Lititz.

She had nine of those in the second and third games when the Ephrata girls capitalized on a couple of long runs to pull away.

“(Taylor) is a dominant player,” Warwick coach Megan Obetz said. “She is somebody that is consistent, swings hard and makes smart choices. She shows a lot of maturity and leadership on the court.”

But it’s not just Haupt who has the Mounts clicking along at a perfect 7-0 (4-0 Section Two). To name a few, junior Courtney Smith chipped in with three blocks and six kills, junior Zoe Wales added five kills, and sophomore Sofia Rios quarterbacked the offense with 28 assists.

"Definitely, there's threats across the whole net,” Haupt said. “There’s not just one where (opponents) can shift their block to. Everybody’s going to score on our team, which is great.”

More than anything else on this night, however, it was Ephrata’s ability to serve the ball tough against the Warriors (1-3 Section Three, 1-5 overall) which made a big differ ence. Wales led the way with a match-high seven aces.

“Serving-wise, we had a bunch of aces, so serving definitely carried us,” said Ephrata coach Mike Elliott, whose squad was coming off a run to the Hempfield Tournament quarterfinals on Saturday, with wins over District Three powers Central York and Twin Valley. “Focus is a big thing for us, and I could see in the middle of that first set that we started to lose that focus. We had a seven or eight-point lead and then (Warwick) chipped back. So my charge to them for the second and third was, ‘You play (Tuesday) night. Just focus, push through, no let up and finish games because you’ve got to do this again tomorrow.’” Indeed, Smith’s tip gave the Mounts a quick 7-1 advantage in game one, only to see the Warwick girls climb back to 9-7 on back-to-back aces by senior Marilea Miller.

Later, junior Zoe Velez’s kill cut Warriors' deficit to 16-15 and junior Bryn Fassnacht’s push got the red-andblack within 17-16.

“I think that we really hung with them,” Obetz said. “Ephrata is a team that we cannot afford to make a lot of mistakes against, so even though we played well, some of those little mistakes got the best of us the end. But I think that we really showed our true potential for competing.”

With the Mounts still leading 18-17, Haupt’s kill and ace started her team on a game-ending 7-0 run which clinched the first game.

Velez’s kill early in game two gave the Warwick girls a 2-1 edge and Ephrata responded by taking leads of 6-2 and 15-8.

Still, though, the Warriors were battling tough and trailing just 16-11 when Sydney Weaver put down back-toback kills.

But they would get no closer, as the Mounts closed things out with a 9-2 burst, capped by Haupt’s kill.

“We did a good job of moving the ball around and running different things," Haupt said. "I think in the first game, we were still learning their tendencies and how we can score. I think we started serving better in the next couple of sets, keeping them out of system. Once we capitalized on that part of the game, then that’s kinda how we took off." That continued in the third, when Wales book-ended a 9-0 Ephrata run with a kill and ace. A Mountaineer serving error cut the Warriors' deficit to 12-6, but the Ephrata girls were able to pull away from there.

“I think (I take away) two things,” Obetz said. “Just focusing on the fact that we can compete at that high level. And then also not settling. We have things to work on, we know what we can be and we just have to get there consistently.”

Last Thursday, Haupt had 16 kills, while Olivia Horst stepped up with four aces and 13 digs in Ephrata’s 3-0 Section Two win (25-8, 25-20, 25-20) over Manheim Central.

Erin Eby also had 13 digs, Smith chipped in with three blocks, and Rios dished out 29 assists.

Last Tuesday, Sept. 13, the Mounts won the first two games, then held off an Elizabethtown rally to earn a 3-2 decision (25-23, 25-16, 1725, 23-25, 17-15) in a thrilling Section Two clash.

Haupt led the way with 21 kills, Smith had four blocks, Eby helped out with 25 digs and Rios finished with 52 assists.

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