BY RYAN O'CONNOR
Lauren Delaney began varsity play as a sophomore setter, backing up a senior on a successful Blue Devils volleyball squad.
The prognosis didn’t include much court time. But when the elder setter came down with mononucleosis, Delaney stepped in and prescribed unprecedented success for her team and herself.
Now a senior captain, Delaney, an all-state setter last season, has one championship and more than 1,000 assists.
Delaney and her coach, Dan Young, don’t know the record for assists at Salem High School, though both speculate she now holds the prestigious honor.
Though Delaney collected her 1,000th assist in the Blue Devils’ only loss in two seasons, she said her team and personal goals remain untouched by the 3-1 blemish against Londonderry on Sept. 26.
Delaney needed 11 assists entering the contest and achieved the task by setting her teammates up for success on 13 occasions in the first game, Salem’s lone victory.
“In my mind, I had two separate goals for the season: one was another state championship and the other was to reach 1,000 assists. I did that,” she said. “Now I just want to set a new goal and try to reach that, too.
I don’t want to stop at 1,000.”
A title defense, she added, remains the ultimate prize.
While Delaney has made assisting others look easy, her career high, 42, came as a sophomore against rival Pinkerton.
This season, she averages roughly 30 a contest and 10 a game.
It is that very fact, said her coach, that makes the accomplishment so special.
“The thing is, we don’t play five games against anybody. We tend to only play three, so sometimes that number isn’t fair,” said Young of the opportunity for other players, including a Methuen, Mass., athlete who recently set a school record with 51 assists in a match, to achieve higher assist totals. “A player on a mediocre team is going to get more chances to set because they are going to play more games. Lauren is one of the reasons we don’t have to.”
In 2006, the Blue Devils’ beat all but three opponents in straight sets, and the aberrations were 3-1 victories.
This season, Salem has played one game over the minimum in its 11 wins through Tuesday, Oct. 9.
“There are two kinds of successful teams. There are very talented teams and teams with a very good setter, and I think Lauren makes us both,” said Young. “About 70 percent of coaches, unless they have a solid returning setter, are worried going into season.
“You can have a good hitter and you can have good passers, but having the kind of consistency at setter we’ve had the last few years is one less thing I as a coach have to worry about,” added the coach. “And not having that fear is a wonderful thing.”
Delaney, on the other hand, gives credit to Young and the captains who proceeded her, especially Lindsay Burrill and Beth White, who graduated following her sophomore season.
Young said Delaney, in addition to making those around her better, even humbles him at times.
“I really don’t coach Lauren anymore. She, in a lot of ways, assists me,” he said. “If she has questions, she asks, and when she has suggestions, she suggests. When I’m on her about something, she now has the right to say, ‘Relax, I’ve been here a thousand times.’”