Tuesday, September 16, 2014

SUMMIT STORMS BACK TO BEAT UNION 2-1

The Hilltoppers took on county foe Union, a team they had not beaten since 2011. Summit came from behind in the 3rd set to beat the Farmers 2-1 and improve their overall record to 2W-5L (2W-2L in division, 2W-2L in county)

The match was tight early with both teams trading errors and kills but a kill from Margo Reigle and an ace from Angela Scott had the Hilltoppers up 7-4 and seemed to be in control.  A quick 3-0 run by Union quickly dispelled that thought but a key attack error by the Farmers sparked a 6-0 run by Summit led by 2 aces from Jess Salter that put SHS up 13-7.

Although the Farmers got the ball back after a free ball error by Summit, the Hilltoppers went on another long run (12-4) led by Margo Reigle with 2 kills and Casey Nardino and Gabby Mejia with 1 kill apiece.

Summit hit for 8 kills (.222 hit %) and Casey Nardino and Margo Reigle led the way with 5 kills combined.  Summit also tallied 5 aces and gave up only 1 ace in the set.

The second set was another tight battle early but Summit once again started to lead near the midpoint of the set at 9-7 before Union made another run and flipped the score on the Hilltoppers after a middle attack gave the Farmers a 10-12 lead.  Summit rallied and tied the set at 12 but it was Union's turn to generate a great run to put them over the top.  Union went on an 8-3 run which gave them enough cushion at 20-15 to finish out the set a few points later at 25-17.

Summit hit for only 4 kills and hit a -.062 for the set.  The team did hit for 3 aces but gave up 4 aces as well. Kathleen Morano led the Hilltoppers with 2 kills and Casey Nardino paced SHS from the service line with 2 aces.

The deciding set saw a much more spirited and aggressive Union team which put the Hilltoppers on the defensive right away.  Down 4-2, the Hilltoppers went on a 3-0 run sparked by Margo Reigle's 2 kills to give SHS the brief lead at 5-4.

With the score knotted at 6-6, Union went on a 3-0 run fueled by an ace and 2 Summit errors that gave the Farmers a 9-6 lead.  SHS got the ball back after a service error but they gave it right back with one of their own.  Down 8-12 after yet another service error, things looked worriesome for the Hilltoppers but Margo Reigle hit for 2 kills and Gabby Mejia added an ace to pull Summit to within 1 at 12-11.

Down 15-12, the Hilltoppers kept the pressure on the Farmers with precise serving and error free offense. Union was not able to match this and saw Summit jump out to a 17-15 lead, completely erasing the lead they had accrued at the midpoint of the match.  Union got to within 1 at 17-16 but 3 straight Farmer errors and a Jess Salter ace had Summit poised to win at 21-15.

Union got to within 4 at 23-19 but 2 aces by Emani Miles sealed the win to complete the comeback.

Margo Reigle led the Hilltopper offense with 4 of the team's 6 kills for the set.  Summit hit for 5 aces and gave up only 2 aces of their own in this crucial set thanks to the passing efforts of Emani Miles, Julianne Smolyn and Rau Soares who combined for a 2.27 pass rating for the set.

Margo Reigle and Julianne Smolyn were keys to the win as Julianne had only 1 passing error for the match and had a team leading 6 digs while Margo carried the team's offense, hitting for 8 of the team's 18 kills and tallying a team high .333 hitting %. Gabby Mejia and Jess Salter combined for 29/31 serving (94%) with 6 aces to lead the serving attack.

Margo Reigle was chosen as MaxPreps Player of the Match (see our MaxPreps site, link on team webpage).



JV Hilltoppers can't stop Union's power

The JV team's record fell to 2W-5L as the squad couldn't deal with Union's power serving or offensive prowess.  Summit bows out in 2-0 loss by 25-12, 25-12 scores.



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