UNION CATHOLIC / GOVERNOR LIVINGSTON AND ELIZABETH CLOSE OUT TOUGH WEEK

 The JV Hilltoppers finished the week with a stunning victory over UC,  a tough 2 set loss to the GL Highlanders and closed it out with a 2-0 win versus the Minutewomen of Elizabeth to solidify the #3 seed in the Union County Tournament and to improve to 9W-5L!

The 9th graders continued their winning ways with 2-0 wins versus University HS,  Governor Livingston and Union Catholic even though the crew had kids sick,  injured and out of sorts but the team held together and got themselves 3 more wins that pushed them to a 13W-0L record for the season!

Varsity pushed the #2 team in NJ to a very uncomfortable place as the squad dropped a 25-20, 25-16 decision to UC but SHS was up late in set 1 and had been within a few points of the Vikings midway through set 2.  

Varsity really pushed their neighbors in GL to overtime but came up short 25-20, 28-26 as the squad nearly pulled off an upset against the #8 team in the state.

The team came back and got revenge over an earlier loss to Elizabeth with a 25-23, 25-17 score line which helped the Hilltoppers solidify the #5 seed in the Union County Tournament this week,  the highest seed since 2011! 

MATCH STATS: BEASTS - BY THE NUMBERS:

ACE - Henry 7, Ge 4

SERVE RATING (at least 7% of team attempts) - Henry 2.58, Ge 2.35

SERVE % (at least 7% of team attempts) - Henry 96.2%, Handal 95.2%

PASS RATING (1.8 or higher) - A Feuerstake 1.88,  Henry 1.85

PERFECT PASSES - Ge and A Feuerstake 8

KILLS - Ge 18,  Deyonge 10

EFFICIENCY (at least 10% of team attempts) - Deyonge .263,  Ge .200 

KILL % (at least 10% of team attempts) - Deyonge 52.6%,  Ge 32.7%

DIGS - Henry 27,  Ge 26

BLOCKS - Herring, N Feuerstake, Deyonge, Welsh 2

ASSISTS - Welsh 44

***TOP POINT SCORERS (Kills, Aces, Blocks***)

Ge 22,  Deyonge 12,  N Feuerstake 11

SUMMIT SHOWS DRASTIC IMPROVEMENT IN RETURN BOUT VERSUS THE BLUE DEVILS

 Summit traveled to Westfield in their only match of the week to see if they could prove to themselves and the conference that they would be a team to be reckoned with at the county tournament and in states based on their performance against the #12 Blue Devils.  

SHS fell to Westfield 25-17, 25-10 in their first meeting as the Summit squad lost their serve receive in set 2 which led to the Blue Devils out-scoring the Top for the match 37-19 from a 23-15 kill lead and a 9-4 ace advantage and a 5-0 block advantage.  The silver lining was that the Hilltoppers were very close late in set 1 as the home team were only outscored by a 15-11 margin mainly because of a 4-1 ace advantage which was earned by the Blue Devils late in set 1.

Could the Summit squad do better the second time around and on the road?

An ace by Welsh and a dump kill by N Feuerstake had the Top up by 2 early and 2 rotations later,  the serving pressure of Henry led to a Nowicka kill and 2 Westfield errors to see the SHS side up 6-3.  Ge and Deyonge combined for a couple of kills a few rotations later and suddenly,  near the midway point of set 1,  SHS was up 9-7.  Westfield kept fighting back the entire set from 2 or 3 down to tie or get within one and after a Ge dump kill and an A Feuerstake back row attack hjad given the Top a 13-10 lead,  Summit allowed a 4-0 run by the Blue Devils (2 free ball errors, 1 hitting error SHS) that put the Westfield side up 14-13.  A serving error by the Westfield side knotted up the score at 14 and opened the door for Summit to make a move and with an ace by Ge,  the Top did just that.  Then Herring stuff blocked their OH and followed up with a kill that had the Hilltoppers up 17-15 which forced a Westfield TO.  But off the TO,  SHS suffered through a 7-0 run by the Blue Devils even after SHS called their own TO to trail 22-17.  The unfortunate thing was that the team gave away 3 points on hitting errors and one free ball return error in the midst of the run that could've been the difference to ending the home team's run.  

To the Hilltoppers' credit,  even when down 24-19,  the team kept fighting off match points with A Feuerstake getting a kill to pull SHS to within 3 at 24-21 but the next rally was unsuccessful by the Top and Westfield closed it out 25-21.

The set saw the Top out-score the Blue Devils 13-11 but the Westfield side had 3 less hitting errors and the Summit side got called on 4 faults to only one by the home side which,  at the end of the set,  were the difference in the result.

Set 2 was saw a 14-11 point lead by the Blue Devils but yet again,  SHS showed a massive competitive improvement from match day 1.  The set however,  started quite badly for the Top as the team had 2 consecutive hitting errors followed up by 2 serving errors and a free ball return error which gave Westfield a 9-5 lead.  Ge and Basaman led the Hilltoppers to a 3-0 run which had Summit down 9-8 but another 3-0 Westfield run had the Blue Devils up 12-8.  SHS continued to fight off Westfield's offensive sets and started to go point for point with the #12 squad but SHS was going to need a run if they were to win the second set.  Trailing 17-13 late things did not look good,  especially when the home side got a late 5-1 run that had Summit on the ropes 22-14.  Ge again found a way to score and stopped the run but WF reestablished control and had a 24-15 lead and 9 match points in the next rotation.  Herring kept SHS alive with another huge block and Ge followed it up with an ace but the Summit ladies ran out of points and saw a 25-17 set 2 loss that was both a silver lining and a frustrating result as the Top had gotten very close to knocking off the #12 team if not for some unforced errors.

                KILLS                    ACES                    BLOCKS                TOTAL POINTS

SHS            18                            3                                3                                    24

WF             19                            5                                1                                     25

Lesson:  Summit is good enough to go against some of the heavyweights in the county (Kent Place,  Westfield) but the squad needs to get better at not hurting themselves in key moments,  such as service errors or hitting errors or net/ball handling faults in tight game situations.  

Westfield had only a combined 7 hitting and fault errors.... SHS tallied 14... add in WF's only 1 free ball return error and SHS's 5 and it adds up to 8 points from the Blue Devils and 19 from Summit.  

Summit was close but not clean enough yet to knock off a top 15 team.  #progressionnotperfection

MATCH STATS: BEASTS - BY THE NUMBERS:

ACE - Ge 2,  Welsh 1

SERVE RATING (at least 7% of team attempts) - Ge 2.00,  A Feuerstake 1.86

SERVE % (at least 7% of team attempts) - Basaman 100%,  Ge 89.9%

PASS RATING (1.8 or higher) - Ge and A Feuerstake 1.89

PERFECT PASSES - Henry, Ge and A Feuerstake 3

KILLS - Ge 9,  Nowicka 2

EFFICIENCY (at least 10% of team attempts) - Ge .368,  Nowicka .000 

KILL % (at least 10% of team attempts) - Ge 47.4%,  Nowicka 22.2%

DIGS - Henry 9,  Ge 8

BLOCKS - Herring 3,  N Feuerstake 2

ASSISTS - Welsh 16

***TOP POINT SCORERS (Kills, Aces, Blocks***)

Ge 11,  Herring 5,  N Feuerstake 4

2024 HEALING THE CHILDREN TOURNAMENT

2022 - SUMMIT LOSES TO SPF IN FINALS, COMES BACK WEEK LATER AND DEFEATS SPF IN REGULAR SEASON MATCHUP 25-23, 25-23

2023- SUMMIT VS SPF AGAIN IN FINALS,  SUMMIT SWEEPS SPF IN POOL PLAY AND LOSES 26-24 IN FINALS

2024

The Hilltoppers opened Pool Play with Roselle Park and beat the Panthers 2-0 comfortable.

Next for the Hilltoppers were the Rahway Indians and again the SHS crew continued its dominance from the service line,  sweeping the RHS side 2-0

After a short break,  the Top took on the SPF Raiders and this year, the Hilltoppers had too many weapons for the opponents and the Top slowly broke down the Blue and White side to take the 2 sets somewhat comfortably

In the last 2 sets of Pool Play,  SHS took on the Mother Seton Setters,  a team who is always a tough opponent for the Top.  Last time these 2 teams met in Summer League,  MSR and SHS split the sets while in 2023,  MSR swept both sets in tight affairs.  This year,  the result was quite different as the Top took the 2 sets but not without a fight as MSR was up late in set #2 before SHS was able to break down the MSR serve receive.

SEMI-FINALS (Opponent - Rahway)

The rematch of one set was to start at 0-0 and go to 25 for a berth into the finals.  The team was confident but very tired at this point.  Unfortunately for the Hilltoppers,  Rahway was HIGHLY motivated to upend the Summit Squad.  Rahway took a lead early and hung with the Hilltoppers most of the match until late in set one when the Top finally took control with a couple of service runs that gave the team a 24-21 lead.  SHS again missed a serve on set point and saw RHS get to within 1 point but the Indians missed the next serve and the team surviced to the finals versus upset minded Roselle Park!

FINALS (Opponent - Roselle Park)

The Panthers of Roselle Park had made it to the finals by upsetting the MSR Setters in the Semis and the Top had just survived Rahway so the matchup was intriguing.  Summit was in charge of the set from the onset but the Panthers were within striking distance the entire set.  It wasn't until late in the set when Summit finally broke the game open thanks to error free serving, hitting and the wall called Deyonge.  

A BAD LOSS, A GOOD LOSS, A DOMINANT WIN - AN INFLECTION POINT IN THE SEASON

ELIZABETH SURPRISES SUMMIT 

Varsity was looking at a tricky match versus Elizabeth,  a highly anticipated rematch with Kent Place and an important rematch with a dangerous Rahway to close out the week before embarking on another run in the Healing the Children Tournament on Saturday.

The Top lost the battle of points by a 25-24 margin against Elizabeth.  Elizabeth matched the Top with 19 kills but out-aced the Hilltoppers 6-3.  But the real problem was that the Minutewomen were just a bit better on receive (2.11 -1.98) and it allowed what generally is an inconsistent offense to be much more effective and match the Hilltopper offensive output.

The start of the match though,  looked incredibly promising for the Summit squad.  SHS had gotten kills from 4 different players and had kept Elizabeth to 2 points as SHS forced an Elizabeth TO down 9-2.  Nothing much changed after the TO as the Top continued to lead 12-4 a few rotations later but then 3 hitting errors and a net fault by the SHS crew had the lead down to 13-8.  Then an ace and a kill by EHS around another hitting error saw the home squad get closer at 13-11.  But the Top settled into the game and hit on 5 consecutive offensive sets that negated EHS's serving attack and late in the set,  Elizabeth called its final TO as the Top has pulled away to a 19-15 lead.  Unfortunately,  a hitting error off the TO gave the ball back to EHS but yet again, all seemed well after another Ge kill gave the Top a 20-16 lead.  

But then the Hilltoppers began to feel the pressure of the Elizabeth "D" despite the lead.  

Kill EHS, Ace EHS, Hitting error SHS... 20-19... Hitting error EHS, 21-19, a sigh of relief... 

Kill EHS, Kill EHS, Ace EHS... 21-22... Block Deyonge, 22-22...

Attack error SHS... 22-23... Ball Handling error EHS, 23-23...Long Rally which saw the Summit D notch 4 digs and a block that was retrieved by the EHS defense and ended in a free ball return error by the Top gave EHS a 24-23 lead and a set point... Next play saw the Hilltoppers get 2 rips at the set tying point that were handled by EHS until the SHS side was unable to keep a free ball in play on set point to give EHS the set 1 win.

Set 2 saw a much more even match with EHS leading Summit 14-10 but then SHS got an ace by N Feuerstake on a serving rotation that got the Top back to within one at 14-13.  Elizabeth got the serve back at 15-13 but an A Feuerstake kill and a Deyonge kill had the visitors back to a tie at 15 and looking like they were about to take control.  The Minutewomen coaching staff saw the same after a Ge kill had Summit chomping at their heels at 16-17 and the TO seemed to do the trick as the Summit team gave up the next few points and trailed 19-17 a rotation later.  Summit kept fighting but Elizabeth refused to allow a run and at 22-20 it seemed that the next few points would be vital to the Hilltoppers' chances to take set 2.  EHS thought the same and the home squad not only won the next point,  it won the next 3 with SHS giving up 2 aces late which gave the Elizabeth squad the victory.

KENT PLACE BRINGS OPPORTUNITY TO RIGHT THE SHIP

The Hilltoppers reset themselves at practice and walked to Kent Place looking to redeem their loss by a 26-24 score in set 3 in their first meeting of 2024.  The task this time would be a bit more difficult as Kent Place had their best hitter back from injury and were a far more dangerous team than the version that the Hilltoppers faced in their first match.  

Summit was in for a big challenge and the squad rose to the challenge in a big way.  Despite the perceived offensive advantage for the Dragons,  SHS only lost the kill battle 26-28... Summit won the block battle 5-2 and barely lost the ace battle 11-10 for a total point output of 41-41 for both teams!  The squad had far exceeded expectations but came up a little short of the win as Summit dropped set 1 26-24, won the 2nd 25-21,  and lost the 3rd 25-21.

Set 1 was a slugfest and the final tally of 14-13 point scoring edge by KP reflected the tightness of the final set score.  The only major difference between the 2 teams were the 3 faults the Hilltoppers were called on versus none for the Dragons.  The teams were locked in a sideout battle most of the set with no team up by more than 2 at any given point until the score read 19-17 SHS.  Then the Dragons got a service error gift from SHS and that began a 4-0 run by the home side that had Summit down 22-19 forcing a Martins TO.  Off the TO the Dragons missed the serve which put Captain Henry on the line and she delivered 3 consecutive aces to force a KP TO and give the Hilltoppers the edge at 23-22.  Off the time-out,  Summit forced a Dragon hitting error and just like that,  SHS was up 24-22 and held 2 set points.  Unfortunately,  the Dragons regained serve and forced the Top into a couple of bad passes which the Dragons took full advantage of to close out the set 26-24.

Set 2 was another carbon copy as both teams made some incredible plays and ran some effective defense so it was no surprise that the score read 14-14 midway through the match.  Summit clawed to a lead of 16-14 and 17-15 but both times the team missed a serve to open the door for the Dragons but the home side could not take advantage as it was the Kent Place side which committed the next few errors to give Summit a slight lead but after Basaman nailed the home side with an ace to give SHS a 21-17 lead,  the Dragons were forced to call a TO.  KP got the next 3 of 5 points thanks to 2 consecutive service errors by the SHS crew and it seemed that the same old story of missed serves at the wrong time would be the Top's undoing.  But at 23-20,  Summit just needed a few plays to flip the script and they got just that from Herring and Welsh despite another SHS service error to win the set 25-21.

Set 3 was, yes, yet again, another carbon copy of the first 2 sets as the Summit crew jumped out to a 9-4 lead just to see the Dragons come back and tie it at 10.  KP took a 14-10 lead with an ace and a kill to set that up but the Top had cut that to 14-15 after a Herring block and a N Feuerstake kill.  Henry even got into it with a deliberate free ball dump to zone 1 and suddenly, Summit was only down 15-16.  But a quick 3-0 run by KP off 2 KP kills and 1 SHS attack error forced a SHS TO at 19-15 KP.  

But the TO seemed to do the trick and the Summit side responded with a Ge kill and forced a Dragon hitting error to get within 2 at 19-17 but KP responded with a 5-0 run (4 kills 1 ace) to get itself a 24-17 lead and the comfortable win... until KP served into the net.  18-24 KP...

Basaman went up to serve and facing 6 match points, the junior went to work.  A tough serve still led to a KP attack which A Feuerstake dug up and it set up a huge Ge kill.  The Kent Place side saw the rise of emotion and quickly called a TO despite a 24-19 lead.  But it was to no avail... Basaman rattled off 2 straight aces to cut the lead to 21-24 and the place was deafening.   Another huge serve led to a KP attack up the middle and even though the team saved that one,  it was not enough to generate an attack and the squad finally gave up that 25th point.  

A disappointing loss,  no doubt,  but a tremendous improvement and an incredible effort against a team that would defeat the #9 team in the state the very next match.  

RAHWAY OVERWHELMED BY MORE EFFICIENT SUMMIT EFFORT

The Rahway Indians looked to finish the job they started at home earlier in September when they pushed the Hilltoppers to 3 sets and it took a very effective serving performance in set 3 for the Top to come away with the victory.  Based on the week,  which team would show up?  The Elizabeth squad or the Kent Place team?  

Well... Summit out-scored Rahway 35-6,  limiting Rahway to 2 kills and 4 aces for the 2 set match in a dominant 25-10, 25-15 win.  

With the score 11-5 Summit,  it was clear Rahway was in for a long afternoon as the 5 points the team had scored came from SHS hitting and service errors and 0 came from any RHS efforts.  After a 3-0 run fueled by a Herring and Ge kills and a Welsh ace,  Rahway took a TO with a 14-6 deficit.  The visitors had to do it again after a N Feuerstake kill and 3 consecutive Henry aces brough SHS to a 19-8 lead.  RHS managed to get to 10 points and then Summit ran another 4-0 run fueled by an A Feuerstake ace and a Deyonge kill to finish off the set 25-10.

Set 2 was more competitive but SHS still held control as Summit team responded to being down 2-0 early with 9 consecutive points (kills by Feuerstake sisters, ace Ge, Herring kill) to take a 9-2 lead forcing a TO.  RHS came off the TO and got a gift in the form of a Summit hitting error and that sparked a 4-0 run that had SHS only ahead 9-6.  The Indians stuck to the Hilltoppers midway through with SHS holding a 14-10 lead but a Rahway service error opened the door for a Basaman service run that saw the Junior strike for 3 aces to get the Top to a 19-10 lead which soon became 21-10 after a Ge kill.  

The rest was merely academic as the RHS side just could not cut into the lead and trailed 23-13 late which soon became 25-15 as both teams traded points.  

A week of growth as the team has seemed to figure out what it needs to do to be successful.

MATCH STATS: BEASTS - BY THE NUMBERS:

ACE - Henry 8,  Basaman 6

SERVE RATING (at least 7% of team attempts) - N Feuerstake 2.33,  Henry 2.29

SERVE % (at least 7% of team attempts) - A Feuerstake 96.3,  N Feuerstake 91.7

PASS RATING (1.8 or higher) - Heary 1.95,  Henry 1.85

PERFECT PASSES - Henry 12, Ge 10

KILLS - Ge 18, N Feuerstake 12

EFFICIENCY (at least 10% of team attempts) - N Feuerstake .219, Welsh .200 

KILL % (at least 10% of team attempts) - N Feuerstake 37.5,  Deyonge 31.0

DIGS - Henry 37,  Ge 26

BLOCKS - Deyonge 4,  Herring and Welsh 3

ASSISTS - Welsh 61

***TOP POINT SCORERS (Kills, Aces, Blocks***)

Ge 20,  N Feuerstake 17,  Welsh 14

JV BOUNCES BACK FROM EARLY WEEK LOSS WITH 2 STRAIGHT VICTORIES

 The JV Squad took their show on the road to Elizabeth and despite a 1st set loss 25-20 to the Minutewomen,  the squad rallied back from a 15-9 deficit to tie the score in set 2 thanks to Knight and her service run.  The Top continued to claw back and eventually take the victory behind Colon and Armstrong.  Unfortunately,  the Elizabeth JV was just a defensive juggernaut in set 3 keeping every SHS attack alive and out-serving the Top late in the match to take the victory and dropping Summit to a 5-3 record.

The Junior Varsity Squad did not have much time to mull over the loss as the Dragons of Kent Placed loomed a mere 48 hours later.  The team bounced back nicely on the road and took control early from the service line with key service pressure and great location attacks by Miles as well as a steady and predictable delivery of the great Top passing by Moghal which propelled the squad to a comfortable 2-0 victory which was quite a departure from the first game of the season when SHS needed a Wu service run to salvage a victory and was on the ropes.  This time,  on the road,  JV took control and never looked back.

The team finished off the week against the Rahway Indians who had given the Top everything they could handle on the road earlier in the season and nothing really changed at home.  As a matter of fact,  the visitors took the first set from the Top 25-21 and looked much improved but on this match day,  it was the Colon show as the Soph DS dropped 18 service points over the last 2 sets and hit for 6 aces to create the separation the Hilltoppers needed in each set.  Add to that serving the key hitting by Meltzer, Miles and Wu and there was no doubt about the outcome of set 2.  Set 3 saw the Indians get out to a 6-2 lead but again Colon saved the day with a 7 point service run (3 aces) that blew the set open and gave the Top the victory 2-1 to improve to 7W-3L.

Next up, Westfield on Tuesday on the road.

9TH GRADERS CONTINUE UNDEFEATED RUN

 The 9th Grade Squad continued to rely on consistent serving and passing to finish the week off on a 3-0 win streak to extend their winning streak to 9 consecutive wins as the squad continues to roll through the opposition.

The team began its run at Elizabeth and faced a tremendous challenge as the Minutewomen matched the Hilltoppers in serving and defensive play but at the closing stages of each set,  it was the Summit squad that kept their serving perfect and closed out each set with key passing and timely hits to walk away with the 2-0 win.

Next,  the young SHS squad took on Hanover Park and the result was much less dramatic as the team dominated from the service line and took control of each set early and never looked back in a 2-0 sweep of the Hanover Park Hornets.

The Team finished off the week with the Plainfield Cardinals on Friday and in the first set,  SHS never even made it through 6 rotations as the team took set one easily as the Cardinals young players could not deal with the Top's service attack.  The second set was more of the same as the Hilltoppers controlled the match from the service line not allowing the Cardinals any respite.

9 Wins 

This week,  9th graders face off against Hanover Park again at home on Tuesday.

HILLTOPPERS FACE A TRIFECTA OF RANKED OPPONENTS

 FROSH PROGRESSING WITH PERFECT RECORD

9th Graders started the week versus Westfield and came away with the 2-1 thrilling win by 25-22, 19-25, 25-23 score lines.  The Summit serving was perfection in the last 3 rotations which was the key to the victory! 

The young Hilltoppers continued their week with a matchup against their neighbors Governor Livingston on the road and the squad was in control the whole way as the team scored a 25-16, 25-15 win away to remain undefeated on the season.

And the last of the matchups for the week had the 9th Graders host Chatham and yet again the team was just the better of the squads on receive and in this matchup the 9th graders were highly effective on attack which allowed them to control the tempo of the sets in a comfortable 2-0 win that has the young squad at a 6-0 record for the year

JV SHOWS IMPROVEMENT VERSUS 3 RANKED OPPONENTS

The Junior Varsity has faced off versus GL, Westfield and Union Catholic over the years in county tournament situations and has generally come away with losses that have taken the Hilltoppers out of contention.  The feedback is usually the same, "this was the toughest opponent we had all year".  

With the move to the Watchung Division,  these once in a season matchups are now part of the regular schedule and the level of play and competition will be the toughest the JV program has ever faced.  First up,  the Westfield squad that knocked off the Hilltoppers in last year's county semis.  The Squad used key serving runs and timely offense to be in a position to win set one but in the latter points,  Westfield just out-gunned the Hilltoppers from the front row and took the set 25-22.  The team was just not able to recover emotionally from the set 1 loss as it could not match the energy and execution they displayed in the opening set whch led to a 25-9 score-line that sealed the loss.  

Next up would be the Union Catholic Vikings,  the other finalist in the 2023 JV County Tournament.  JV played without fear and generated a lot of offense in a match that the Vikings won 25-15, 25-21.  The untold storyline is the fact that SHS was neck and neck with the UC Squad,  leading 15-14 in set 1 before receive errors and unforced offensive errors derailed the set 1 effort.  In set 2,  the Hilltoppers actually held a 20-19 lead but a service error and a few uncharacteristic communication errors in the latter stages of the set derailed an upset in the making.  This was the most competitive score and match the JV Squad has ever had versus UC.

The last match of the week was against the Governor Livingston Highlanders.  Could the JV Squad figure out a way to win the late points to get a win against a ranked opponent.  The Hilltoppers stunned the Highlanders in set 1 25-23 with key offensive points and serves late in the set to hold a slim lead late and push the set win over the finish line.  Set 2 was a bit different as the GL crew out-served the Summit squad and opened up a lead they would not relinquish late in the set as they cruised to a 25-16 set win.  Set 3 looked to be more of the same with the Top down 13-9 midway through and 17-11 in the closing stages of the set but then a key serving run by Armstrong got the team back in it,  pulling the Hilltoppers to within one at 19-18 and the Top were the ones who out-served and out-passed the Highlanders in the late set moments as the home side upset the GL team by outscoring them 14-3 down the stretch and 5-0 after the score was knotted up at 20.  Truly a team effort to get the win and improve to 5-2.

VARSITY SHOWS SIGNS THEY CAN COMPETE BUT CAN'T SUSTAIN IT THE ENTIRE MATCH

The matchup versus Westfield was the first one in a trio of tough matches that had the SHS team go up against the aforementioned #9 in NJ,  the #8 Union Catholic and the #17 Governor Livingston.

Summit knew it had to keep balls in play versus the error free style of play of the Westfield Blue Devils but the opening rotation proved to be more of a difficult task than the Hilltoppers had expected and the team was down 9-1 before the 2nd rotation had even started.  In that run,  the Top committed 3 attack errors and gave up 2 aces,  not the start they wanted.  But after those initial nerves were assuaged with the actual game,  Summit kept up with the Blue Devils and saw a 16-16 score the rest of the way to give them hope for the second set.  Henry was outstanding in the receive game with a 2.22 rating, Handal scored the only ace for the Top and Ge led the way offensively with 4 kills. 

Set 2 saw the team falter in the receive game and get worn down by the defensive efforts of the Westfield crew as the team fell 25-10 in the set.  Summit was out-killed 12-5 and out-scored 21-8 in a forgettable set in which the Hilltoppers just could not finish the point scoring opportunities.

Summit did not have much time to ponder on the loss as the team would face off against the top team in Union County, the #8 team in the state, the Union Catholic Vikings.  What a difference in effort and belief in the Hilltoppers in just one day after the Westfield match.  This was not a matter of the Summit side out-scoring the Vikings in so much as it was a matter of the team keeping plays alive and forcing the UC side to play uncomfortable volleyball.  

SHS,  early on,  seemed to be doping just that.  A spike by Nowicka and a net error by UC had the Hilltoppers up 5-4 on the road.  Down 6-9,  Summit got a service error by the Vikings and a kill by Ge to fight back to 8-9.  Down 9-13,  SHS yet again benefitted from a Viking service error and things looked up at 10-13.  But a quick 2-0 run by UC forced a Summit TO and a few points later,  a N Feuerstake block and a hitting error by the Vikings had the Hilltoppers within shouting distance at 12-16.  SHS continued to fight and got opportunities to score but the UC defense stymied the Top at every turn until SHS had no choice but to take their final TO at 13-21.  Summit bounced back off the TO winning 4 of the next 6 points to close the gap to 17-23 and forcing a UC time-out.  That settled the Vikings down and the set ended on a 25-17 score.

Set 2 saw a much more determined Summit side.  UC jumped out to a 3-1 lead and still led 6-4 after another SHS Summit hitting error but the team forced UC into a down ball hitting error and then nailed an ace to knot up the score at 6.  UC built a lead back up again to 11-7 and eventually 16-9 forcing a SHS TO and the team responded with a 3-0 run capped by a N Feuerstake kill that brough the Hilltoppers back to within 4 at 12-16.  Summit held in there through the next few rotations at 14-18 but UC managed to extend the lead to 21-14 but the Top ripped two quick points via the Welsh - Deyonge connection going after the middle defense of the Vikings to get to 16-21..  Unfortunately the Top ran out of points to compete with as the teams traded points and UC out-lasts the Hilltoppers ultimately by a 25-18 score.

The Highlanders of Governor Livingston were the final test of the week for the Hilltoppers, a team that had not lost a set since their day 1 loss to the Vikings of UC,  and the Top seemed up for the task in set 1. A Ge kill and a Welsh ace had the Top up early 4-2 against the #17 squad.  Then Henry pulled out 2 aces after the GL team tied it and it sparked a 4-0 run that had Summit up 8-4.Things were looking up at 9-6 SHS but GL is known for its relentless serving pressure and Summit finally showed cracks allowing a 5-0 run where the Hilltopper serve receive gave up 3 aces.  But the team rebounded back with a Welsh dump kill and Summit had tied the score 11-11.  A kill by Deyonge and a hitting error forced by a Basaman serve forced a GL TO at 13-12 SHS that became 14-12 after the break.  A 3-0 Highlander run put the pressure back onto Summit but a Ge kill had the Top yet again even with the top 20 team. Another Ge kill, a Welsh dump kill and a N Feuerstake opp kill saw the Hilltoppers tie it up late 19-19 and the crowd was into it.  But then 5 unforced errors down the stretch by the Top (2 hitting and 3 serving errors) took the pressure off GL and essentially handed the set to the visitors by a 25-22 tally.

Summit proved it could hang with the best but had yet to prove it could sustain it through every point.  And so began set 2 with the score-line showing 4-4 and GL's points coming off of 3 serving errors and one free ball return error by SHS.  Yet Summit was really playing well,  Deyonge and Welsh connecting for another kill and Basaman ripping an ace to give SHS a 6-5 lead and,  early on,  Summit was outscoring the Highlanders 5-1 which made the unforced errors more glaring.  But then GL started to find its offense and ripped of a 7-2 run to force a SHS TO trailing 12-8.  Off the time-out, despite a service break,  another 3-0 run ensued off a hitting error and a free point off of an out of rotation penalty to spot the Highlanders a 15-9 lead before the run stopped off of a N Feuerstake kill.  But Governor Livingston responded with another 3-0 run and SHS called its final TO after yet another hitting error as the scoreboard showed 18-10 GL  

Things did not look much better after the time-out despite a Welsh dump kill to get SHS to 11-18 because Summit was called on 2 net errors, had 2 hitting errors and gave up 2 aces to seal the set for GL 25-11.  The set score would seem to indicate a GL point dominance but the gap was only 4 as Summit trailed GL by an 8-12 margin in scored points.  

Summit showed that it could play and compete with some of the most talented and highly ranked teams in the state but these 3 matchups also showed the level of consistency the team still lacks at times when it has control of the ball.  #ProgressionnotPerfection

A quick look at these last 3 opponents

 MATCH STATS: BEASTS - BY THE NUMBERS:

ACE - Heary 3,  Henry 2

SERVE RATING (at least 7% of team attempts) - Heary 2.50,  Henry 2.00

SERVE % (at least 7% of team attempts) - Basaman 88.9,  Heary 87.5

PASS RATING (1.8 or higher) - Henry 2.03,  Ge 2.00

PERFECT PASSES - Henry 21, Ge 12

KILLS - Ge 15, N Feuerstake and Welsh 6

EFFICIENCY (at least 10% of team attempts) - Welsh .211,  Ge .186

KILL % (at least 10% of team attempts) - Ge 34.9,  Welsh 31.6

DIGS - Henry 21,  A Feuerstake 11

BLOCKS - Herring and N Feuerstake 2

ASSISTS - Welsh 35

***TOP POINT SCORERS (Kills, Aces, Blocks***)

Ge 15,  N Feuerstake 8,  Welsh 7