Every team has to face and overcome adversity before achieving success and perhaps the 2015 edition of SHS Volleyball began on that path to success last night at Plainfield as the team got their first win of the season in a 2-1 match win (22-25, 25-20, 27-25) behind clutch hitting and sound defense.
The Cardinals proved to be a great early season test for a Hilltopper squad missing 2 of its starters due to injury as the team attempted to bounce back from a 2-0 defeat to New Providence in a match that yielded more questions than answers for the team. Summit trailed early 6-4 and the Cardinals had extended the lead to 10-6 as the Hilltopper offense was just generating too many errors and too few kills. Sandra Bazalar rattled off 3 service points to knot the score at 10 but Plainfield responded with a 6-0 run that saw SHS behind 16-11. SHS got as close as 18-20 behind Val Guzman's serving but Plainfield seemed to be able to do enough to keep a 2-3 point cushion till the end as the Hilltopper offense just couldn't get consistent.
In game 2, Plainfield and Summit were fairly even through 6 rotations as neither team was able to generate consistent offense (12-11 Cardinals). Tabatha Meneses was the difference in the set from a serving perspective as her consistent balls had Summit up 17-16 late in game 2. Val Guzman and Angela Scott's offense then got on track and key kills propelled SHS to 22-18 lead after a 5-2 mini run. Summit closed out the game 25-20 as the Cardinals just could not overcome the deficit.
Could the Hilltopper squad close out the match in game 3? Summit looked like it was going to make it a laugher early as the team jumped out to a 7-3 lead behind solid serving by Guzman and Meneses. At the end of the first rotation through the lineup however, SHS was deadlocked at 11 but Val Guzman stepped up as she had all match and pushed the Hilltoppers to a 15-11 lead from the service line. The Hilltoppers still led 19-16 late and the game had seemed to settle to a back and forth affair when the errors began from the offensive side of the ball and Plainfield took full advantage, jumping to a 21-20 lead before SHS broke serve. With the score 24-23 Summit, SHS had a serving error but the Cardinal celebration was short lived as a Casey Nardino kill had the Hilltoppers up again 25-24. Once again a service error unnerved the SHS faithful but a Grace Galuppo ace after another Nardino kill sealed the match at 27-25.
SHS improves to 1W-1L overall and in division.
Look at MaxPreps for stats and Player of the match.
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