The Lady Hilltoppers took on New Providence in the second of a possible 3 matches this year as Summit looked to improve on the 25-13, 25-16 loss earlier this year in New Providence. Summit started off well with a well contested 25-18 set 1 win but New Providence erased that advantage with a 25-13 set 2 win. In the 3rd set that the Hilltoppers worked very hard to take a 4 point lead late, it was also the stage of yet another late set collapse that saw New Providence pull away late and win with a 25-21 set 3 win.
The start of the match showed the capacity of the Hilltoppers to play with one of the better teams in the county. Summit went down 2-0 early but proceeded to rip off 6 straight points behind Casey Nardino's serving which forced New Providence into 4 hitting errors. New Providence fought back to take a 10-8 lead but a couple of kills by Kathleen Morano had the Hilltoppers up 13-11. Summit did not yield the lead but rather extended it with a couple of aces by Emani Miles that had SHS up by 5 at 17-12.
New Providence closed to within 3 at 20-17 but a couple of kills by Cassidy O'Malley helped put the set away at 25-18. Kathy Morano led the Hilltopper offense with 3 kills. Julianne Smolyn dug up 5 balls and Emani Miles scored on 2 aces to lead SHS to the first set victory. After giving up 16 aces in match 1, Summit yielded only 2 aces to New Providence in the first set.
Set 2 was a radically different story unfortunately. Summit couldn't find its passing game and was trailing 11-3 early on. Summit was outscored 14-10 the rest of the way in a set that the Hilltoppers gave up 10 aces which sealed the team's fate. The team still managed to hit for 7 kills and a match high .263 hitting % despite limited offensive opportunities. Casey Nardino and Cassidy O'Malley led the way with 2 kills apiece. Emani Miles led defensively with 4 digs.
Both teams had rough starts to set 3 with numerous errors being committed on both sides. An ace by Julianne Smolyn had Summit 8-6 up but the lead was short-lived as New Providence quickly tied the score and both teams battled to a 10-10 tie. Then the set seemed to break Summit's way as kills by Cassidy O'Malley and Casey Nardino and an ace by Nardino had the Hilltoppers up by 4 at 16-12.
A timeout by New Providence seemed to break Summit's momentum as the team gave up the next 9 points and trailed 21-16. With the match seemingly lost, the Hilltoppers found their second life behind Angela Scott's serving which netted 1 ace and led to numerous errors by New Providence. Summit fought back to within 1 at 22-21 but the team ran out of time and answers on offense as New Providence took advantage of 2 passing errors and a hitting error to close out the set and match 25-21.
Nicole Bazalar and Cassidy O'Malley had 2 kills apiece to lead the Hilltopper offense. Gabbie Mejia and Julianne Smolyn had 3 digs apiece to lead the team defensively.
Jess Salter led the team for the match with 9 assists. Cassidy O'Malley hit for 6 kills to lead the team offensively. Julianne Smolyn had 10 digs to lead the squad defensively.
The team will look to rebound tomorrow vs. Plainfield on the road.
JV SHOWS GROWTH
After a very inconsistent 1st set where the Hilltoppers had trouble generating any offense due to poor passing (25-7 loss), Summit came out 2nd set and really showed how far they had come as they passed and defended at a higher level to allow them to be competitive and challenge for the set win. The squad lost 26-24 but showed dramatic improvement in the set in all phases of the game.
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