2019 SEASON PREVIEW

The 9th graders will embark in their inaugural season with a home heavy schedule.  The young Lady Hilltoppers will host 4 matches in September and travel to 4 and will see an October of just home matches, 8 of them to be exact. 

The JV Squad will again see a packed schedule and will look to continue the amazing success the team has experienced recently.  As a matter of fact, the last 3 seasons have been the most successful in the entire program.

JV RECORD

#1 - 2016: 17W -6L  (.739 )

#2 - 2017: 16W - 6L (.727)

#3 - 2018: 17W - 7L  (.708) - 6 matches with 9th graders playing JV (3w-3l)

The Varsity Squad is coming off a 9W-15L season but went 7W-7L (.500) in division play,
first time that has occurred since 2010. The Squad also earned a victory over New Providence
last year (first time since 2011) and beat Chatham for the first time in program history
at the Varsity level.

The 9 wins were the 3rd highest number earned by the team since 2010 and last year the
Varsity Squad was the best defensive team Summit has seen, earning the record for the
total number of digs and digs/game in a season. The team will be looking to improve its
offensive numbers and match the production of the last 2 most productive seasons
in program history (2010-11) when the team earned 13.30 and 14.05 points per game
(#3 and #1 all-time) and saw their record climb to 15W-9L in 2010 and 21W-4L in 2011,
the best record by any Lady Hilltopper Volleyball Team.

The 2018 Team scored at 12.21 points per game and the 2019 Squad will look to improve
on that number with the goal to qualify for the Group 2 Championship Tournament for the
first time since 2012.

The Lady Hilltoppers will look for massive contributions from its brand new front-line
of hitters featuring the only middle returner to the offense, Captain, Sylvie Goudreau.
The defensive unit will also be brand new with Captain Kiera Stocks being the anchor of
the defense and serve receive as the Libero. The team will rely heavily on the trio of
setters, Kyra Guenther, Kasey Walsh and Abby Doyle to run a faster tempo offense.

The JV and Varsity Squad will open up at home on Wednesday, 9/4 against the Rams of Wardlaw-Hartridge and the 9th Graders will open up on Thursday, also at home, against Payne Tech.

All levels will play again on Friday, 9/6 at home versus the Crusaders of Governor Livingston.

2019 SCRIMMAGE SEASON CLOSES

The Lady Hilltoppers saw their pre-season come to a close with decisive 3-0 and 2-0 set wins on the Varsity and JV Levels respectively on Thursday against Morristown-Beard School.  The squads looked solid from the service line and used their serving attack to set the tone for their set sweeps of the Crimson.

Due to the bleacher installation in the main gym, the JV and 9th grade squads lost a previously scheduled match this past week. The results of the scrimmage season were very positive for the program.

The 9th graders (19 strong) took 3 sets from East Brunswick in their season debut.  The JV took 1 set from Millburn, 1 from Colonia, 1 from East Brunswick and swept Mo-Beard 2-0 for a preseason scrimmage record of 5W-5L.  Considering the squad is primarily 10th graders going up against teams filled with club players, it bodes well for the squad for this season.

Varsity went up against 4 of the toughest teams in Group 3 during scrimmage season:

1st Match lost 3 sets to Millburn, 2018 #1 ranked in Essex County, Semi-Finalist in County Tournament, Quarter-Finalist in Group 3 State Championship.

2nd Match lost 3 sets to Colonia, 2018 #1 ranked Middlesex County, Semi-Finalist in County Tournament, Quarter-Finalist in Group 3 State Championship.

3rd Match won 1 lost 2 to East Brunswick, #7 in Middlesex County, Quarter-Finalist in County Tournament, First Round Group 3 State Championship.

4th Match lost 3 sets to JP Stevens, #2 Middlesex County, County Champion,  Quarter-Finalist in Group 3 State Championship.

5th Match won 3 sets to Morristown-Beard.

The Varsity Squad will look to take their performance against the Crimson of Mo-Beard into next
week's opening match versus Wardlaw-Hartridge, a team that upset the Hilltoppers on the road by a 2-1 set score.

You can see the top ranked players during scrimmage season using this link:

SCRIMMAGE STATS

2019 ROSTER UPDATE

The 2019 Volleyball Roster
(as of 8/29/2019)

Due to the inception of the 9th grade team,  there were no cuts needed this year.  However, the Varsity and Junior Varsity Squad will be run very similarly and therefore playing time will be earned based on match to match and practice performance.

Congratulations to the following young ladies for earning a place in the 2019 Lady Hilltoppers Volleyball Team.

Varsity Squad

Captains:
Sylvie Goudreau, Sr. Middle Blocker/Opposite
Kiera Stocks, Jr. Libero
Kyra Guenther, Sr.  Setter/Opposite

Sarah Brennan, Jr.  Defensive Specialist
Krista-Ann Clapp, Sr.  Opposite
Abby Doyle, Sr.  Setter
Megan Gregory, Jr.  Outside Hitter
Gabbie Guidetti, Jr.  Defensive Specialist
Cassandra Hrehorovich, Sr.  Defensive Specialist
Julissa Lopez, Sr.  Defensive Specialist/Setter
Sarah Maldonado, Jr.  Outside Hitter
Meghan Tarashuk, Jr.  Defensive Specialist
Erin Vostal, Jr.  Middle Blocker
Kasey Walsh, Jr.  Setter
Annabella Yorio, Jr.  Outside Hitter

Junior Varsity Squad

Alexis Barnes, Jr.  Defensive Specialist
Hope Basaman, So. Opposite/Outside Hitter
Catherine Eldridge, Jr. Middle Blocker/Outside Hitter
Caroline Gange, So. Defensive Specialist
Sabrina Ippolito, So. Outside Hitter
Olivia Lawlor, So.  Setter/Outside Hitter
Melanie Lopez, So. Defensive Specialist
Victoria Macarthur, So. Defensive Specialist
Sarah Noa, So. Defensive Specialist/Outside Hitter
Eva Oberhuber, So. Outside Hitter/Middle Blocker
Jordan Parella, So. Setter
Natalie Peralta, So. Outside Hitter
Thea Rind, So. Defensive Specialist/Setter
Jackie Szabados, So. Outside Hitter
Rebekah Thompson, So. Outside Hitter

9TH GRADE SQUAD

Olivia Baldwin
Cameron Barrett
Kimberly Castañon
Jessica Clark
Bridget Dempsey
Ava Deutsch
Melissa Jiang
Naya Kim
Katelyn Leiter
Ally Lipschitz
Rachel Quartuccio
Vivian Roberts
Amber Smith
Amaya Spann
Alison Wauters
Cecelia Webb
Abby Wells
Delicia Williams
Stella Yarden

2019 SCHEDULE - LATEST UPDATE (7/1/2019)

Of note:

The Heal the Children Tournament on 9/28 will be attended by the JV Squad at this point in time.  This is a change from prior years.

The Varsity Squad will be involved in a regular season match on that Saturday.

Lots of 9th grade matches!!!

Scrimmage Season will be busy!!!


SCHEDULE

MEET OUR 2019 COACHING STAFF

It is my pleasure to introduce out staff for the 2019 Lady Hilltoppers Volleyball Team!

Link Below also available on Right-Hand Side Menu below About Me


2019 COACHES

2019 BAND SIGN IN LINK

Hey, join our '2019 Lady Hilltoppers Volleyball' group on BAND - The app for groups and communities!
https://band.us/n/a3a0Yb63TaW1e

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!