For fraternal twins Amanda and Allison Kupiec to make the Howard High varsity volleyball team as sophomores was enough to make their parents proud. But for Amanda Kupiec, who had surgery to correct severe scoliosis two years ago, to play competitive volleyball at all makes her "like a little miracle," said her mother, Michelle.

Because of the surgery, Amanda's spine, instead of being flexible, is rigid. Vertebrae have been fused together and her spine is stabilized by two titanium rods and 18 screws. She has very little range to bend or curl her upper body. Somersaults and cartwheels are out of the question, but in time, she should be able to touch her toes again, said Dr. Paul Sponseller, the Johns Hopkins orthopedic surgeon who performed her surgery.

Amanda and Allison began playing volleyball with Howard County Recreation and Parks as fifth-graders and showed an immediate knack for the sport. As middle-schoolers, they played for the Maryland Juniors Volleyball Club. They now play for the Columbia Volleyball Club when it's not high school season.

When Amanda was in the sixth grade, Michelle Kupiec started noticing a small hump on her daughter's back and that the sleeves on her shirt didn't fit quite right.

Although Amanda had scoliosis -- an irregular "S" shaped curving of the spine -- she continued to play volleyball.

"It didn't really affect me at all," said Amanda. "(But) I had lots of back pain when I'd dive and serve."

She played through the pain.

"She was always the kind of kid that said, 'I can do it, nothing's wrong.' She never wanted to be treated different," Michelle Kupiec said.

While Amanda was able to fit in on the volleyball court, it became increasingly difficult to fit in as a middle-schooler. By seventh grade, she was wearing a thoracic brace that was visible despite efforts to hide it under bulky clothes. Amanda wore the brace for eight months, 23 hours a day.

"She became very shy and withdrawn, and the curve got so much worse," Michelle Kupiec said.

At its worst, Amanda's spine was 57 degrees on the upper curve, and 67 on the lower curve.

A normal, healthy spine is zero degrees and only one in 10,000 children have scoliosis as severe as Amanda's, according to Dr. Sponseller.

Had Amanda not had the surgery, "She would have a much bigger curve and really be experiencing some pain," Sponseller said.

One of Amanda's biggest fears, beyond having her back opened and her spine rearranged, was that she wouldn't be able to play volleyball again.

"She learned to play volleyball with this twisted spine. She knew no other way," Michelle Kupiec said.

The Kupiecs, however, had a family friend, Tiffany Jacobson, who had gone through the same surgery, performed by the same surgeon.

Jacobson, an all-county setter, graduated from Reservoir High last spring and helped the Gators win a state title in 2007. She had good news for the Kupiecs.

"Tiffany told me I (would still be able to) play," Amanda Kupiec said.

But that didn't make the surgery, or recovery, easy.

Everything went as planned in the operating room Oct. 3, 2007, but then the long recovery process began.

"The surgery was really pretty awful, but it was definitely something we had to do," Michelle Kupiec said.

Amanda went into the surgery about 5-feet tall, but with a straightened spine she came out of the hospital at nearly 5-3.

She had to relearn how to play volleyball.

She spent her eighth-grade club season, and her freshman year on junior varsity, learning how to pass the ball, dive onto the court, and serve, all without flexing her back. Howard JV coach Kate Collins, as well as club coaches Dave Decker and Grant Scott "made her believe she could still play," Michelle Kupiec said. "That was a huge part of her mental recovery."

Whereas most volleyball players serve by throwing the ball up into the air over their head, rearing back and rocking forward to strike it with a whipping motion, Kupiec has had to develop a style that involves lobbing the ball up and out to her right side with her left hand and slapping it with her right hand while leaning back as if she's high-fiving Shaquille O'Neal.

"I think it is pretty amazing that she can do what she does with all of that steel in her back," said Scott, who is the Howard varsity volleyball coach.

And Kupiec has made her new serving style work effectively. In a recent match against Glenelg, she served nine straight points, including six aces.

"We're used to seeing middle and she got us out of system by serving us deep the whole time," Glenelg senior Casey Schmidt said after the match.

Two days later, in a win over Oakland Mills, Kupiec had 11 aces, including nine in a row.

Entering the playoffs -- Howard plays at Atholton Friday, Nov. 6 in the opening round of the 3A East regionals -- Amanda is fourth on the Lions in aces and digs. She is also the team's second most reliable serve receiver, with only 23 errors in 125 chances.

"Seeing her break through to (become) a new player made me so proud," said sister Allison, an outside hitter. She has mild scoliosis that will not require surgery.

Amanda is often sore after practices and games, and has to soak in a tub of cold water, but the pain is worth the time on the court, says her mother.

"It just warms my heart so much (to see her play). It took her a year to get her serve back (plus) seven months of physical therapy," Michelle Kupiec said.

And Amanda isn't just playing volleyball. She also ran the anchor leg -- seven miles -- on a relay team that included her mother in the Baltimore Marathon, and enjoys snow boarding.

As scary as the surgery was, she now can't imagine what life would have been like without it.

"I regretted it while I was going through the surgery, but I'm so happy now that I got it. My whole back would have been curved," Kupiec said.

She also has words of encouragement for other young athletes who have to undergo major surgery, or already have, and are afraid that it may mean an early retirement from athletics.

"It definitely took awhile to get my confidence back. (At first) I was scared to bend over or that if I fell it might break. I know a lot of people give up (after major surgery), and I don't like to see that."

Dr. Sponseller expected Kupiec to return to the court, even when she was recovering in a hospital bed, unable to move without great pain.

"She was a very motivated kid," Sponseller said. "She's a good role model."

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