SUMMIT AND ALJ JOINED FORCES TO SPIKE OUT CANCER

This past Halloween, the Summit Hilltoppers faced off against the Crusaders from ALJ in a non-conference match-up that celebrated the sport's efforts to battle Stage IV cancer through the Side-Out Foundation.  Since 2010, the Side-Out Foundation has been dedicated to funding breast cancer education and cutting-edge breast cancer research/treatment in order to extend the lives of those living with stage IV. Their journey has produced a series of volleyball sponsored clinical trials, funded and managed by Side-Out and its team of leading breast cancer oncologists and molecular biologists. Side-Out’s clinical trials go above and beyond “Standard of Care”, proving multi-omic molecular profiling (including genomic, proteomic, and phosphoproteomic analysis) is beneficial in selecting treatment for late-stage breast cancer.

Prior to the match, friends and family of the Summit Hilltoppers raised $1875 online through the Hilltoppers' Side-Out Foundation web page.  On the 31st,  friends and family of ALJ players and Summit staff and students helped raised an additional $780 to bring the total contribution for the Side-Out Foundation to $2655.

Fans were treated to a great competitive match on JV where the Hilltoppers took set 1 with the upperclasswomen pulling away late.  In set 2, the 9th graders for the Summit squad played an exceptionally competitive match with ALJ and won the key points in the middle of the match to pull away and maintain a lead throughout to give the JV Squad their 16th win of the season and the 3rd best record in program history.

Varsity followed and took a competitive first set 25-23 but failed to capitalize in set 2 as the Crusader blocking and serving forced the Hilltoppers into numerous errors and stalled their offense for a 25-15 loss.  Set 3 was more of the same as the Summit squad could not solve the ALJ service attack and their defense despite 75 attack attempts.  SHS hit for only a 5.3% that reflected the struggles the team had in converting attack opportunities into points as well as producing too many errors in those attacks.

Summit stays at 9 wins for the season but the importance of the day was clearly not on the result but on the efforts and work that the families and athletes of the Summit Lady Hilltoppers Volleyball community who made this an outstandingly successful endeavor.

From Coach Ross and myself, a sincere THANK YOU!