The 14-year-old was part of Victoria’s 15 and under side which won bronze at the School Sport Australia national championships in Adelaide last week.

After being elevated from emergency to squad member in May, Lauryn capped a rewarding 11-game campaign by finishing with Victoria’s best kill rate for the tournament — the number of winning hits from overall spiking attempts.

“I played OK. We all played really well,” she said.

The middle blocker/spiker said she was ecstatic when Victoria closed out the bronze medal match against ACT in four sets.

“I was screaming a lot,” she said.

“It was really exciting to know the hard work had paid off.”

The hard work included training and playing in Melbourne most weekends for four months and a lot of driving by her parents Bruce and Julie.

It was reflected in Victoria’s seven wins from 11 matches at the championships, suffering losses only to fellow medal winners Queensland and South Australia.

While the year 9 Emmanuel College student savours the success, she wants more.

Lauryn is already mapping out a training and competition schedule she hopes will help her win a place in the state under 17 side early next year.

Instead of taking a rest after a gruelling lead-up to the national schools championships, she is planning on playing a number of tournaments in the next couple of months. 

She will join her South West Pirates teammates for a Bendigo junior tournament and then further her development by playing with state league club Heidelberg — a side she joined earlier this year to fast-track her rise through the ranks. “I really want to get a scholarship to a US college,” she said of her longer-term goals.