FROSH HILLTOPPERS DROP A TOUGH 2-1 DECISION TO LANCERS; JV CONTINUE TO IMPROVE IN LOSS; VARSITY STRUGGLE TO SCORE WITHOUT DEVANEY

 The 9th Graders continue to show improvement despite their 2nd loss of the season.  The serve receive was much improved after some technical changes and the team seems to have found some consistency from the service line and on offense... GL out defended them in transition and the visitors were able to score more often in that phase of the game which was the difference in the match.

JV faced off against another tough serving and hitting team and again showed resiliency in their game as the team was able to mitigate some of the Lancers power with key digs and serving runs of their own.  The consistency in the GL attack eventually wore down the Top and in the 2nd set,  the Hilltoppers were within 3 points late but a late ace and a kill by GL after a Hilltopper hitting error sealed the deal but the young crew (mainly Sophs) continues to show improvement as they face stiff opposition on a game by game basis.

Varsity was without the services of Ayina and Molly but were looking to use their serving and consistent attack to match the GL attack led by A. Kim.  The match was ripped open on the Kim service spot as the GL OH went on a 10-0 service run that gave the Lancers an 11 point cushion that remained until the end of the set at 25-12.  The only silver lining was that the Top were able to stymie her service run the 2nd time around and played even the rest of the way, hope for the 2nd set.

Unfortunately the 2nd set went much the same way of the first with the Hilltoppers yielding too many hitting errors and wasting opportunities to score while the GL crew got some key kills to extend service runs in transition to beat the SHS side by an average of 2-1 or 3-1 in any given service rotation due to the serve receive woes of the squad.  Final score of 25-12 again served as a reminder of the recent offensive struggles by the team.  with a 2W-3L record,  the team face a tough week versus the Royals of Oak Knoll on Monday on the road,  the Minutewomen of Elizabeth and SPF at home Wednesday and Thursday respectively.  The Top has handled their Summit neighbors in recent history, split with Elizabeth last year and so far this year has had a razor this advantage over SPF, winning 4 of 6 sets by an average of only 3.2 points across all sets.

MATCH LEADERS

ACES: Sophie and Mackenna 1

SERVE RATING (4=ace, 0=err) : Sophie 2.29

RECEIVE PERFECT PASS (3): Maren 4

PERFECT PASS %: Maren 28.6%

RECEIVE RATING (3=perfect, 0=gave up ace): Rylen and Maren 1.68

KILLS: Madison 2

HIT EFF. (k-e/total att) : Madison .250

KILL %: Madison 50%

DIGS: Lynn and Maren 5

BLOCKS: none

ASSISTS:  Mackenna 4

BEST POINT SCORERS: Madison 2, Sophie/Natalie/Claire/Mackenna with 1

BEST NET POINT SCORERS (0 or higher w/at least 1 earned pt.): none

BLUE DEVILS TOO MUCH FOR THE HILLTOPPERS

The Summit Program traveled to Westfield to take on the Blue Devils across all 3 levels.  The Blue Devils proved yet again that not only are they a perennial top 2 team in the county but also one of the top 15 programs in the state.

Summit finally dropped a match at the 9th grade level for the first time in over one year (amazing feat !!!) going down to the Blue Devils 25-12, 25-18.  Although the team showed some of the positives of the past 3 matches,  its serve receive faltered due to a Westfield consistent serving attack.

Junior Varsity dropped set 1to the Blue Devils as the Westfield side kept the Top at bay on the serve and dominated on attack.  Set 2 was the reverse,  Summit used a very consistent and nearly flawless serve attack (1 error all set) with an efficient attack and opportunistic defensive stops (2 blocks, 5 digs) to take the set from the Westfield side in a surprising result.  Set 3 unfortunately saw the home side again trouble the Top from the service line and the Summit crew could not adjust or match their effort and succumbed to a very good WF squad 2-1.

Varsity dropped a 2 set decision to Westfield by a 25-13, 25-9 score line.  The numbers show a clear Blue Devil advantage with the Top losing the kill battle 14-11,  out blocked 4-1 and out-aced 5-3 for a WF total scoring advantage of 23-15 but that would indicate a much closer match than it turned out to be... but when one factors in the combined 18 service and attack errors by the Top,  you don't need a PHD in vball analytics to identify the problem.  Summit will try to regain the consistency they showed at the Healing the Children Tourney this past weekend with a tough matchup against the potent GL squad.  

Despite the error numbers,  SHS matched the Westfield serve receive rating with a 1.67 a very big silver lining which could yield great results for the future if the consistency game to game remains.  

MATCH LEADERS

ACES: Nadia, Lynn, Molly 1

SERVE RATING (4=ace, 0=err) : Lynn 2.50

RECEIVE PERFECT PASS (3): Maren 4

PERFECT PASS %: Maren 44.4%

RECEIVE RATING (3=perfect, 0=gave up ace): Lynn 2.29

KILLS: Claire 6

HIT EFF. (k-e/total att) : Claire .154

KILL %: Claire 46.2%

DIGS: Mackenna 3

BLOCKS: Molly, Mackenna 1

ASSISTS:  Mackenna 7

BEST POINT SCORERS: Claire 6, Molly 3, Mackenna 3

BEST NET POINT SCORERS (0 or higher): Lynn +1

VARSITY REPEATS AS HEALING THE CHILDREN TOURNEY CHAMPION

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!

FROSH ROLL TO WINS 2 AND 3 / JV SHOWS IMPROVEMENT VS UC AND GETS WIN OVER PIONEERS / VARSITY FIGHTS HARD VS VIKINGS AND EARNS A TOUGH WIN VS NEW PROV

 9th GRADERS GO TO 3 WINS - 0L

The 9th grade squad continued its march toward improvement with a 2-0 win over the Vikings of UC after using a dominant serving attack to take set 1 25-10.  Set 2 proved to be a bit more challenging for the Top as the squad saw the UC team come back late in the set to within 3 but the Hilltoppers hung tough  together and took the set and win 25-21.

The Frosh continued their stellar serving and much improved serve receive in their match vs the Pioneers of New Prov as the team pressured the visitors in set 1 with their serving and near flawless defense to take set 1 25-10.  Set 2 was going much the same way early as the young athletes held a 10-3 lead but NP got on a 3 rotation serving run sandwiched around some Hilltopper kills and service errors and soon the Pioneers were within striking distance late at 21-19.  But the 9th graders got their key serves in and did not allow an ace down the stretch as the team closed it out 25-21 for their 3rd win of the season.

JV SPLIT WITH VIKINGS AND PIONEERS TO MOVE TO 1W-2L

JV struggled a bit on serve receive early and couldn't find any rhythm on offense until late in set 1 but the damage was done early and UC took set 1.  Set 2 proved to be a much more difficult affair for the visitors as SHS kept fighting back to within 1 or 2 points but the Vikings converted on key transition plays down the stretch to close out the Top 25-22 in a match that showed the JV they had a lot of potential and were starting to develop some chemistry.

That potential and team chemistry was seen against the match vs New Prov as the team was locked in a tight duel with NP at 16-15 but ended up going on a 9-1 run to take set 1 25-16.  Set 2 was a bit more dominant from the service line as the Top rattled off serve after serve to control the tempo of the game and allow SHS to earn their first win with a 25-14 win off great pressured hitting and serving. 

VARSITY GOES TO 2W-1L AFTER A HARD FOUGHT 3 SET BATTLE WITH THE PIONEERS

SET 1 25-23 SHS        SET 2  20-25        SET 3  25-22 

SHS trailed early 3-1 but Claire got a kill to get the Top going and Molly ripped an ace to get SHS to 3-3.  Both teams continued to trade kills and aces over the next few rotations and Molly again found the floor with a quick 1 after an Ayina dig and the Hilltoppers were up 9-8.  But a service error and an error on attack flipped the score again to 9-11 New Prov.  The set then progressed through a series of mini runs which had each team feeling like they had control of the set.  First,  Claire put down a transition kill which was followed by a Pioneer attack error and an ace by Rylen and SHS went up 14-12.  That was promptly followed by a 2-0 visitor run to knot up the teams at 14.  Both squads traded points over the next few rotations and then a kill by Nat started a 4-1 run (Molly kill, Mackenna ace) which forced a Pioneer TO trailing 21-19.

Off the TO,  both teams kept trading points off hitting or service errors,  a reflection of early season nerves.  Result was SHS with a set point at 24-22 but a service error gave the ball back to New Prov at 24-23.  Claire then put up a good reception that Mackenna quickly set the soph up with and Claire put it away for a kill and the set win.

Summit passed at a 1.95 rating, best of the year,  but served at only a 1.74 rating (8 service errors), a key factor in keeping New Prov in the set.  But the Hilltopper offense was stellar in the set,  hitting for 12 kills and only 4 errors for a .258 efficiency and nearly a 40% kill % led by Claire's 5 kiils.

Set 2

Before the fans had a chance to come off the relief of a close set 1 win,  New Prov had run off with a 6-1 lead to open set 2.  The offense kept chipping away at the lead relying on Claire to lead the way and after a quick 2 kills by the soph,  SHS had gotten to within 2 at 6-8.  The set was fairly even from that point and the Pioneers had a 12-9 lead midway but again the Top allowed a quick 3 point burst and the lead ballooned to 15-9.  

A Mackenna dump kill and a Claire kill got the Top some momentum but again 2 quick errors had NP up by 17-12.  An ace by Claire and a block by Mackenna had the Summit crew within 3 again at 19-16 but SHS just could not get any sustained run going to make up for the 6-1 opening run and the final 25-20 reflected the impact of that early run.

SHS again struggled to keep serves in with another 5 errors and only a 1.67 rating.  The passing also dropped off to a 1.66 rating but the offense continued to click despite all of that with a .318 efficiency off a 9 kill 2 error effort led again by Claire's 5 kills and a 41% kill %.

SET 3

With the Top down 2-3 early,  Rachel got the team going with a kill that sparked a 5-0 run (2 kills Molly, 2 kills Claire) to give Summit a 7-3 lead.  New Prov responded with a 5-0 run of their own after a Summit service error but yet again SHS looked to Claire for a change of momentum and another kill by the soph halted the run at 8-8.  Catherine chipped in with a block and Mackenna destroyed an overpass as Ayina served the Pioneers into trouble to get the home side a 14-9 lead.  Maren continued the serving pressure which led to 2 consecutive New Prov errors and a Summit 16-10 lead that forced a visitor's TO.

Off the time-out the SHS crew continued to roll to an 18-11 lead but 3 consecutive Summit attack errors got New Prov to within 4 at 18-14.  A service error by the visitors led to another Claire kill to seemingly give the Top an insurmountable 20-14 lead late in the match.  It seemed inevitable after another Catherine block and a Green and White hitting error and the scoreboard showing 22-15.  

But then,  a kill by NP and an ace had SHS up 22-17.  Dump kill by Catherine, 23-17.  Hitting error Summit,  23-19.  Claire kill 24-18, match point... Kill New Prov x 3 after 3 poor receptions by Summit and Coach was forced into a TO at 24-21.  Another tough serve by the visitors led to another Pioneer kill (24-22) but a Sophie reception that had the team in system lead to a sequence that drew a net call against the Pioneers and the Top, finally, ended the match and set at 25-22.

Summit's serving yielded 3 more errors and only an ace but was so consistently tough that it was the best rated serve rating of the match at 2.12.  The passing struggled at times with only a 1.62 rating but Maren managed to pass nearly perfectly 40% of the time and led the squad with a 2.06 rating which helped SHS continue their highly efficient offense (.261) which was the most lethal of the 3 sets (43.5%).  Led by Claire's 6 kills for the set.  

 MATCH LEADERS

ACES: Molly 3

SERVE RATING (4=ace, 0=err) : Mackenna-Rylen 2.20

RECEIVE PERFECT PASS (3): Maren-Claire 4

PERFECT PASS %: Claire 33.3%

RECEIVE RATING (3=perfect, 0=gave up ace): Maren 1.70

KILLS: Claire 16

HIT EFF. (k-e/total att) : Claire .400

KILL %: Claire 53.3%

DIGS: Maren 11

BLOCKS: Catherine 2

ASSISTS:  Mackenna 26

BEST POINT SCORERS: Claire 17, Molly 10, Mackenna 6

BEST NET POINT SCORERS: Claire +9, Catherine 4, Rachel-Molly +2

FROSH TAKE 2 FROM THE RAIDERS, JV DROPS A 2-0 DECISION AND VARSITY WINS 2-1 IN A THRILLING CONTEST

 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!

BUSY WEEK FOR THE TOP ACROSS ALL LEVELS

All levels are in action this week against the same opponents, Scotch-Plains Fanwood,  Union Catholic and New Providence.

9th Graders have been working hard to improve their serve receive and hope to show their progress from the service line and receive game this week against 3 of their tougher opponents in the schedule.

Junior Varsity last year took SPF 2-0 at homein a tight match,  dropped a 0-2 decision to UC both home and away and had a tough 2-1 win versus New Prov so the beginning of the season will be a tough test for the young Hilltoppers.

Varsity will begin their season with a perennial rival, SPF whom they took 2-0 at home last year in a very competitive 2 set sweep.  UC has never lost to Summit but last year,  although the Top dropped 0-2 decisions at home, on the road and at the County Semis to the Vikings,  the home match proved to be a very competitive one with SHS leading in both sets by a couple of points in the midpoint or late in each set.  New Prov is always a tough, scrappy opponent for the SHS squad.  Last year the Pioneers took Summit to 3 at their Pink Out match, a match SHS survived due to serving and attacking efficiency in the 3rd set.  Summit had only 

VARSITY SCRIMMAGE SEASON WRAPUP

 SHS out-killed their opposition by a 99-90 tally for the week.  The team out-blocked their opposition 10-5.  SHS was out-aced 48-36,  with Summit tallying a -7 ace to error ration while the opposition managed a +11.

However,  the overall pass rating was nearly identical at 1.53 SHS and 1.59 Opposition. 

Lots of options for the Hilltoppers with such a young crew on the pins available.  Can't wait for the season to start.

PRE-SEASON LEADERS

ACES: Molly 8,  Nadia 6, Mackenna 4

SERVE RATING (4=ace, 0=err) : Natalie 2.55, Nadia 2.29,  Rylen 2.17

RECEIVE PERFECT PASS (3): Maren 21, Rylen 5, Ayina 5

PERFECT PASS %: Maren 34.4, Mackenna 23.5, Rylen 20.0

RECEIVE RATING (3=perfect, 0=gave up ace): Mackenna 2.00, Maren 1.88, Sophie 1.67

KILLS: Mackenna 26, Molly 17, Claire 14

HIT EFF. (k-e/total att) : Molly .438,  Natalie .308,  Mackenna .243

KILL %: Molly 53.1, Rachel 40.0,  Natalie 38.5

DIGS: Maren 17,  Mackenna 16,  Nadia 14

BLOCKS: Molly 4,  Lily, Catherine and Mackenna 3

ASSISTS:  Nadia 40,  Mackenna 38

BEST POINT SCORERS: Mackenna 33,  Molly 29,  Claire 18

BEST NET POINT SCORERS: Molly +9,  Natalie +7,  Catherine +3