The 9th Graders opened up their season with a 2-0 win versus SPF 25-22, 25-14... The squad has been working a lot on serve receive formations and serve receive and it showed today as the team used their improved passing to secure a win, their first in the 2025 campaign.
JV struggled early in the match versus SPF dropping the first set 25-13 but bounced back nicely in set 2 despite a 23-25 loss. The squad will look to carry the momentum of set 2 into tomorrow's matchup versus the Vikings of Union Catholic.
VARSITY AND SPF GO THE DISTANCE
The Summit and Scotch-Plains Fanwood rivalry goes back years and always seems to be a classic matchup decided by a few points each time. This one was no different and repeated an earlier matchup in Summer League versus the Raiders.
SET 1
SHS started off nervously despite 3 perfect serve receive passes by Ayina as the Top hit for an error on the deciding third touch on 4 of the first 5 points. Molly was able to put away a ball out of the middle and Summit saw a 1-4 deficit as Molly stepped up to serve after receiving a ball back into SPF's court that was left unplayed. This sparked a 4-0 run in which Catherine and Mackenna both notched kills to get SHS to a 5-4 lead. With the team trailing 6-7, SHS ran off a 7-1 run with kills by Claire and Mackenna and an ace by Maren to give the Black and Gold the 14-7 lead. Summit did not let up and ran off another 4 points (kill Nat and 2 kills Mackenna) after a brak of serve and it all looked all but over with an 18-8 lead.
Someone forgot to tell SPF that fact and after a 13-0 home team run, SHS unbelievable were down 18-21. A service error and a hitting error got SHS to 20-21. Teams traded points and SHS missed a serve to flip the scoreboard to the 21-23. Rachel though had a monster solo block on the Raider's OH and Summit was only down 22-23. A net call negated any good feelings as the Top were facing a set point against.
Lynn put up a decent pass that Mackenna dropped in the path of Claire who crushed it line for a 23-24 scoreline. Claire then stepped up in this crucial moment and the Soph delivered a great serve that was overpassed to the delight of Catherine who put it down for a kill to stave off a set point.
SPF forces an errant pass by the Top, 25-24 SPF.
Serving error home team, SHS 25- SPF 25.
Another clutch serve by Ayina, Sophie with a key dig sent over by Ayina, Maren with a dig followed up by another Sophie dig which led to a SPF hitting error, 26-25 SHS. Maren closed things out with a great short serve that was overpassed by the SPF OH which led to a Mackenna overpass kill to put the exclamation point on a 27-25 set 1 win.
Summit out-killed SPF 10-4, each team notched 2 blocks while SPF held a 6-3 ace advantage. SHS outscored SPF 15-12 to take the set despite passing at a paltry 1.30 while SPF clicked on a 1.71 rating.
SET 2
In a set that saw the home side out-score SHS 13-9 by a 5-2 block and ace combined advantage while only mustering a 1.29 pass rating to SPF's 1.70, it was no surprise that -despite a Molly kill getting SHS to within 1 at 12-13- SPF was bound a deciding run at some point. A 9-2 run ripped the set wide open with SHS trailing 22-14. Summit did not give up, marking kills from Madison and Claire but at 18-22, SPF called a TO and rattled off the 3 points off of that timeout to seal the victory.
SET 3
Although the squad was out-passed again by a 1.81-1.63 rating advantage, this was by far the best passing rating of the night by the Top. This led to an increase in offense with Summit winning the kill battle 13-8 but the best part and most important, 13 kills to 0 errors while SPF notched 8 kills and 5 errors. SHS out-scored the home side 16-14 and had only 8 errors in the set to SPF's 10.
The highlights of the set were clear. Summit early on was tied at 4 all after a Claire kill, Ayina was introduced as a server and the junior ripped off 3 consecutive aces to settle the squad and Summit responded, expanding the lead to 12-5 after a 4th consecutive SPF error. Scotch Plains again relied on the serving to crawl back into the match and by the tail end of the set, SHS was clinging to an 18-17 lead.
Claire puts up a decent pass and gets it back from Mack which she probably puts down for a 19-17 lead. Teams traded points, often through errors and a serving error late in the set by SPF gave the Hilltoppers the cushion they needed at 21-19. Maren again was instrumental from the service line and allowed good transition offense to happen in the key points in the set. Molly, Mackenna and Natalie all hit for kills down the stretch as Summit committed only 2 errors from the 21-19 scoreline on to seal the set and match victory.
MATCH LEADERS
ACES: Ayina 3, Mackenna 2, Nadia/Maren/Nat 1
SERVE RATING (4=ace, 0=err) : Ayina 2.33, Claire 2.17, Maren 2.15
RECEIVE PERFECT PASS (3): Ayina 6, Maren 2, Lynn/Sophie/Rachel/Nat/Claire 1
PERFECT PASS %: Ayina 50, Rachel 20, Maren 16.7
RECEIVE RATING (3=perfect, 0=gave up ace): Ayina 1.92, Nat 1.42, Lynn 1.33
KILLS: Molly 11, Claire and Mackenna 6
HIT EFF. (k-e/total att) : Mackenna .385, Molly .353, Claire .200
KILL %: Molly 58.8, Mackenna 46.2, Claire 40
DIGS: Sophie 9, Maren 5, Claire/Mackenna 4
BLOCKS: Rachel and Catherine 1 each
ASSISTS: Mackenna 27
BEST POINT SCORERS: Molly 10, Mackenna 8, Claire 6
BEST NET POINT SCORERS: Rachel/Catherine with +0
Home Cookin' next few days ! UC tomorrow and New Prov on Friday!
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