The Hilltoppers came off their great match over Scotch-Plains looking to get a victory over another county rival they had not beaten since 2011. Summit faltered in the second set but prevailed in a highly competitive third set to take the match 25-18, 14-25, 25-21 for the team's 4th win and its 1st over Rahway since the 2011 season. JV completed the sweep after a 25-21, 25-21 victory over Rahway for their 6th win of the year.
Summit and Rahway started off slowly, with both teams missing numerous serves and committing unforced hitting errors. Rahway held a slim 14-12 lead just after the midpoint of the set but neither team had played particularly well to that point. The Hilltoppers' own Angela Scott stepped up and did what she has been doing all season long, scoring from the service line. She hit for 4 straight aces and pulled Summit from a 2 point deficit to a 2 point lead at 16-14. Summit never looked back and extended the lead to 24-16 behind Emani Miles' serving and after a Rahway service error, SHS had the set at 25-18.
Summit hit for only 6 kills but added 8 aces and gave up none (passed a 2.15) in the set 1 win.
In set 2, the serve receive deserted Summit for a bit and the Hilltoppers found themselves 21-9 down before too long. The team played even from that point on and although they lost the set 25-14, Summit seemed to have gotten its groove back. SHS got 8 kills in the set and had 1 ace but gave up 3 in the process and had a pass rating of only 1.73.
The 3rd set saw a Summit team that had a lot more life and refused to go down the path of the prior 3 set matches in which late collapses cost the team victories. Summit and Rahway were locked up in a 3-3 battle when Casey Nardino stepped up and got SHS the next 5 points behind the tough serving that yielded many easy attack opportunities for the Hilltoppers to convert. When the dust settled, the Hilltoppers held an 8-4 lead that they would not relinquish.
Summit extended the lead to 14-6 just after the midpoint of the set behind a Kathleen Morano kill and despite Rahway's best efforts, the Hilltoppers were able to match the Indians point by point and seemingly had the match in hand at 20-16 after a Cassidy O'Malley kill.
But a familiar thing occurred at that point, a timeout by Rahway. Typical of the team so far this season, the timeout seemed to break the momentum SHS had built and the team saw Rahway go on a 5-1 run that had the teams deadlocked at 21 after 3 consecutive Summit hitting errors. Kathleen Morano stepped up though and broke the momentum with a huge kill that lifted Summit to 22-21 and after 2 Emani Miles' aces, the Hilltoppers had the stranglehold on the set 24-21. Although the Hilltoppers lost serve, the team ran a successful attack and saw Rahway not be able to transition successfully which gave Summit its 25-22 set and match victory.
Casey Nardino led all scorers with 10 points behind 4 kills, 3 blocks and 3 aces in a very complete game. Margo Reigle was the top kill producer with 8 kills and Julianne Smolyn led the defensive effort with 9 digs and a 2.33 pass rating that yielded no errors. Angela Scott hit for 5 of the team's 13 aces and the team gave up only 4 aces (3 in second set).
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