Friday, October 10, 2014

HILLTOPPERS TAMED BY THE FARMERS OF UNION

Summit was looking to break its losing streak in Union and sweep the Farmers in the season series but it was not in the cards unfortunately. Summit played well and were competitive with the Farmers but key errors at inopportune times sealed the Hilltoppers' fate.

In set 1, a tight 1 point set was completely changed when Summit missed 4 serves in a row giving Union an automatic 4 point cushion that turned into 6 after a few Union kills in transition.  A 12-11 deficit turned into a 20-14 by the time Summit got a serve over and the set was lost a few points later at 25-16.  Summit got 2 aces by Angela Scott and hit for 9 kills in the set (Kathleen Morano, Casey Nardino and Cassidy O'Malley with 2 apiece) but also committed 6 hitting and 4 service errors which gave the Union Farmers 10 easy points in the set.  Summit got 6 of its 12 digs from Julianne Smolyn and gave up only 2 aces in the set but it was not enough to hold back the Farmer charge.

In set 2,  Summit managed only 5 kills but also had only 1 error in a battle that was decided late on serving and transition offense.  Summit trailed again late 13-15 and 3 of its 5 service errors occurred during this late stage.  The team also could not convert on its transition opportunities and was unable to keep the Union attacks in play.  Summit did have 4 blocks in this set (3 by Casey Nardino) but the Union offense proved to be too much in the end and Summit yielded the set and match on a  16-25 score.  Of note, Summit gave up only 2 aces this set but did have 5 serving errors, 1 hitting error and 2 blocking errors which accounted for 8 of Union's 25 points.  Summit on the other hand, had 5 kills, 4 blocks and 1 ace which accounted for 10 of their 16 points (Union 17 scored points and Summit 10).


JV DESTROYED IN FIRST MEETING WITH UNION SHOW TREMENDOUS GROWTH IN LOSS

The Summit JV Squad had reason to fear this matchup with the Farmers of Union.  In their first match, the team was out-served, out-hit and out-played in defense which turned the match into a rout early at Summit.

This time though, the squad passed better and generated quite a bit of offense which kept the team in the mix each set.  Summit passed fairly effectively in set 1 but failed to convert on opportunities to score and that cost the team dearly as Union out-killed the Hilltoppers 10-4 which proved to be a vital statistic in the 16-25 set loss.

In set 2, numerous Union errors along with precise serving by the Hilltoppers from the beginning had the team up 11-2.  Union began to pass better and started to capitalize yet again on weak offensive attempts by the Hilltoppers and in the latter part of the set, the Farmers had retaken the lead 21-20.  Summit just couldn't find an answer from either the service line or front-row as the Farmers pulled away and won the set and match 25-20.

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