The Hilltoppers traveled to Rahway to take on the Indians in
a divisional matchup and came up short 2-1 in a hard fought 24-26, 25-23, 22-25
defeat at the hands of the Indians.
As the first set score of 24-26 would indicate, this was a
hard fought battle between these two evenly matched sides. Rahway took a small lead into the midpoint of
the set at 8-5 but 2 aces by Emani Miles
had the Hilltoppers back tied at 8-8.
A few point later, a kill by Margo Reigle had the team up by
3 at 12-9 and a block by Casey Nardino kept the team in the lead at 13-10. Rahway then proceeded to go on a 5-0 run
which had Summit reeling at 13-15. A service error by the Indians broke the
momentum but Rahway kept the pressure on and got their lead up to 4 at 15-19
after the 3rd of a series of free ball errors by SHS.
Yet again a service error by the Indians broke momentum but
this time Summit responded with kills by Casey Nardino and Nicole Bazalar to
knot the score at 19-19.
An outside kill and ace later, the Indians got their lead
back to 2 at 22-20 but Summit’s offense came alive with kills from Reigle and
Nardino to take a 1 point lead at 23-22.
But the celebration was short-lived as 2 consecutive attack
errors gave the Rahway squad a 24-23 lead and a set point that was promptly
snuffed out by a hitting error. With the score at 24-24, A key service error by
Summit opened the door for the Indians and an ace later closed out the set
24-26 for Rahway.
Five different players had kills in a 9 kill effort in the
set led by Margo Reigle’s 3 kills. Emani
Miles hit for 2 aces and no misses from the service line in addition to being
the team dig leader with Julianne Smolyn with 4 digs.
The 2nd set started badly for Summit as they
trailed early 1-5 but the team went on an 8-0 run fueled by Casey Nardino’s
serving and Cassidy O’Malley’s offense (2 aces, 1 kill, respectively). SHS kept that 3-4 point buffer most of the
set until the Indians tied up the score at 16 in the latter stages of the
match. Rahway continued to mount the
pressure as Summit was unable to convert their hitting opportunities and
trailed 18-20 late. Two kills by the
Hilltoppers and a few Rahway errors had the team back even at 22-22 and a kill
by Caitlin Osmulski and another ace by Nardino wrapped up the comeback 25-23.
Summit’s offense was stellar, hitting for 12 kills and a
.409 hitting %. Three different hitters
had at least 3 kills in a balanced attack and the Summit serving yielded 2
aces. Margo Reigle led the team with 4
kills in the set
The 3rd set saw the Hilltoppers fall behind early to 1-5 but
kills by Casey Nardino, Cassidy O’Malley and an ace by Emani Miles had the
Hilltoppers all tied up at 5. After a
couple of aces by Julianne Smolyn, the Hilltoppers had climbed back from a 9-10
hole to jump out to an 11-10 lead.
The set stayed pretty even through the latter stages as the
teams battled to a 21-21 score after a Caitlin Osmulski kill. At 22-22, SHS committed 2 free ball errors
which swung the momentum of the set and match irreversibly to Rahway. A well
placed ace by the Indians wrapped up a heartbreaking set and match loss for the
Hilltoppers at 22-25.
Case Nardino’s 3 kills led the Summit offense but there was
little support as the team mustered only 4 kills in the set. Summit stayed in the set thanks to their
serving which produced 5 aces (Angela Scott with 3 aces and Emani Miles with 2
aces) on 20/22 (91%) serving. Defensively, the Hilltoppers did a great job
with 14 total digs led by Smolyn’s 4.
The 3 point loss reflected each team’s production from the front line as
Rahway received 7 kills from their front line and Summit only 4.
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