Saturday Tournaments are an opportunity for the teams to work on consistency, new offensive or serve receive patterns and to give the future of the program an opportunity to get some invaluable experience.
This tournament was no different as Mackenna got to set 3.5 times in round robin play and got to play as an OH the rest of the time which opened the door for Nadia to run the squad as the setter. With Natalie and Lynn taking the ACT during the round robin portion of the tournament, Ayina and Rylen got lots of opportunities to pass and play D throughout the sets and Maddie got to roll through the OH position a few times. Lily also got in replacing Catherine in the MB spot but unfortunately left early due to illness.
Once Natalie and Lynn arrived, they were used in the playoffs so they could get some Saturday reps, especially after a minor injury to Ayina opened up a playing spot for a DS.
RAHWAY
Summit ripped off a series of aces late and had key kills out of the middle to beat the Indians 25-21 late in set 1 after trailing most of the set.
Summit dropped set 2 to Rahway 25-21 as the serving errors and quick consecutive aces by the Indians proved to be the difference at the midpoint of the set.
ROSELLE PARK
RP dominated the SHS crew from the service line which stifled the Summit offense and led to a comfortable 25-19 win by the Roselle Park team
Set 2 semed to be going much the same route as the scrappy and opportunistic team were leading late 20-16 but then the service attack from the Top came to life and in 2 rotations the Summit squad had aced their way to a 23-22 lead and closed it out through their OH 25-22.
SCOTCH-PLAINS FANWOOD
In their 2nd meeting of the week and 4th and 5th set overall, the SPF team took the first set 25-19 relying on a nearly perfect serving attack that kept the squad at bay despite Mackenna getting some great production from the OH position. Serving errors proved to be a major factor in the set loss.
In set 2 however the script flipped as it was the Summit squad who dominated from the service line and allowed the team to come back from a slight deficit late to get multiple match points, fight off one and eventually ace their way to a 30-28 set win.
PLAYOFFS
Madison #1 1st round bye
SPF #2 1st Round Bye
Rahway #3 vs. Roselle Park #6
Summit #4 vs. Roselle Catholic #5
QUARTER-FINALS - Roselle Catholic
With Lynn and Natalie playing for the first time all day, the squad had a new OH combination and a new serve receive partnership with Lynn filling in for Ayina (out with minor ankle injury).
Lynn served for Natalie out of rotation 2 and picked up where she left off as a serving specialist blowing the one set elimination wide open with a point service run (3 aces) and Mackenna finished it off late with a 6 point run to lead the Top to a 25-12 set win. Natalie led the squad with 4 kills.
SEMI-FINALS - SPF
Madison vs Roselle Park (upset Rahway 25-22)
RP beats Madison in a nail-biter to reach 2nd consecutive final
SPF vs. Summit (defeated RC 25-12)
Summit took a near perfect serving attack (2 errors to 6 aces) and key kills from the OHs Claire and Natalie to power the Top to the win. Serve receive was solid with Sophie, Rylen and Maren leading the way and Lynn coming up with key digs late to help the transition attack.
FINALS - ROSELLE PARK
Summit split the round robin, winning their set with late service runs that propelled them to a split but the Park squad really won the transition game and stifled the SHS offense. In the finals, SHS was able to pass better, serve with more consistency to match the RP efforts and held a lead late 20-16 lead before 2 consecutive hitting errors led to a 21-22 RP scoreline. SHS managed to ride Molly's serving to a 24-23 lead late and the tourney game point was an anti-climactic foot fault by RP to give SHS the 25-23 Tourney win!
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