Summit opened the week against Chatham looking to break their 4 game losing streak and finally win at home. The Hilltoppers played well but key errors late in each set cost the Summit squad their first home win in a 25-16, 25-23 loss to Chatham.
Summit opened game 1 with a slightly different serving order and it didn't seem to make much of a difference early as the team trailed 10-6 after an ace by the Cougars. Sandra Bazalar cut the lead to 1 after an ace had the Hilltoppers down only 10-9. But the Cougars responded with a 5-0 burst fueled by 3 aces that had Summit on the ropes. Casey Nardino ripped a kill to stall the momentum and Angela Scott pulled SHS within 2 after an ace at 15-13. But the Cougars went on another 5-0 run after a Summit service error and only a Chatham hitting error stopped the damage at 20-14. Summit gave up a few more aces in a game loss of 25-16 that saw no kills by SHS in the last 7 points.
Summit got out-aced 8-3 and out-killed 7-3 in the game which was the main difference in game 1.
Summit couldn't have reacted any better than they did in game 2 after a disappointing close to game 1. Val Guzman and Angela Scott combined to serve SHS into an 11-3 lead with 5 aces mixed in with a Scott and a Nardino kill. Later in the game, Nardino hammered down another kill and Chatham had a serving error and SHS looked like it had the game locked up with a 17-9 lead. But a hitting error opened the door for the Cougars to start climbing back into the game. A few aces had Chatham down by only 5 at 17-12. The Cougars had a service error that seemed to give Summit some breathing room but SHS had a serving error which opened the door yet again for the Cougars at 18-13. Chatham had 2 kills that pulled them to within 2 at 18-16. Val Guzman had a huge kill to get Summit a 3 point lead at 19-16 but the second consecutive missed serve by SHS again kept the door open for Chatham. Nardino got a kill to push Summit to a 20-18 lead and Scott hit for an ace to get Summit close to a win at 22-19. But the Chatham hit for 2 aces and 2 kills to get to a 24-22 lead. The Hilltoppers were stunned but took a hitting error from the right-side Cougar hitter as a good sign as SHS saw life only down 24-23. But Summit gave it all back with a service error (3rd in 5 rotations) to close out game 2 25-23.
The 3 service errors late in the game were the only service errors SHS had the entire game as the team had hit for 6 aces and no errors up to that point. Chatham had 7 kills to Summit's 5 and added 1 block and both teams hit for 6 aces and 3 errors.
Despite the late serving miscues, SHS served for 88% and had a 22.5% serving %. Summit hit 9 kills and had 9 errors and although Chatham had 14 kills, they also had 13 errors. The difference in the match was the Cougar's 14 aces to SHS's 9.
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