ORWIGSBURG - The Tide, both literally and figuratively, turned late in the second game of Thursday's Schuylkill League Division I match at Blue Mountain High School.
"Our serving has always been a factor for us," Pottsville head coach Lauren Shandor said after the Crimson Tide beat Blue Mountain 23-25, 25-20, 25-13, 25-22 in a battle of division title contenders. "Especially in rally scoring, if you don't have your serving, you're in trouble."
After Blue Mountain won the first game and with the second game deadlocked at 20-20, Pottsville's Mariah Curry stepped behind the service line.
Suddenly, everything seemed to change. Curry's first serve found the back line of Blue Mountain's court. Her second landed between two Eagles players. Three serves later and capped by Hannah Corbacio's kill through a double block, Pottsville had a 25-20 triumph and momentum.
From that point, Blue Mountain head coach Nick Marrongelle said the youth of Blue Mountain's roster betrayed its chances.
"Something I always preach to the girls is consistency," he said. "Last night (in a 3-2 loss) at Muhlenberg, we had excellent serve receive. Tonight, the serve receive wasn't there. If it was there, the tide
might have turned, and that'd be a little bit ironic, but it was just the consistency."
Pottsville was the team that struggled early. Led by two of junior Brittney Moyer's 21 kills, the Eagles broke away from a 6-6 tie and led most of the first game.
The Crimson Tide rallied for a 23-23 deadlock, but one shot went into the net and then Pottsville was whistled for contact with the net, allowing Blue Mountain to take the 25-23 victory.
"We had to play our own game and start off fresh in Game 2," Shandor said. "Game 1 was basically a game of our own mistakes. We were playing to not lose. We weren't playing to win, and we basically handed it to Blue Mountain."
Corbacio said Shandor tried to reassure the team.
"We started out a little shaky, but she said we had to play our game, play the way we usually play, and bring it together as a team," Corbacio said.
The second game featured eight ties and neither squad held more than a four-point edge. Curry's service run then tied the match.
Pottsville rolled out to an eight-point edge, 15-7, in the third game before Blue Mountain (2-2, 2-1) cut the deficit to four points behind two kills from Moyer and an ace by freshman Jordan Skoff.
However, the Tide pulled away as the Eagles could not control of three of senior Haley Drum's final four serves of the game.
"In Game 2, we weren't as aggressive, and that carried over to Game 3 and Game 4," Marrongelle said. "When we're aggressive, we're tough to handle. We have the hitters to dominate the net."
Blue Mountain took a 2-1 lead in the fourth game, but Pottsville used errant kill attempts by the Eagles to break away from a 2-2 tie.
The Eagles finally caught the Tide at 17 and four more ties followed before the Eagles lost serve on an kill attempt that sailed wide to give Pottsville a 22-21 lead.
Pottsville took a 24-21 lead, setting up match point, but Blue Mountain averted the loss when Moyer slammed a spike from the back row. Curry clinched the match when her spike ricocheted off a double block and out of bounds.
"It's definitely the biggest rival we have all year," Corbacio said. "It's always intense with the crowd that comes to support us."
Shandor already was prepared to put Thursday's victory behind her after the final shot fell to the floor.
"We have a tournament on Saturday, and we'll be playing all different teams in that one, and then we'll take it from there," she said.
Meanwhile, Marrongelle was not worried about any carryover from Thursday's loss.
"You never want to hit your peak in September. You want to hit your peak in October," he said. "We have a lot of work to do. We're behind the 8-ball a little bit, but we're very resilient."