The Summit Hilltoppers took on the Roselle Rams at home looking to get their second win in a row and continue their quest to try to reach states.
SHS hit for a .216 efficiency and had a 16-11 ace to error ratio to take care of the Roselle Rams in 2, 25-10, 25-18. This is the 2nd straight match where the Hilltoppers hit for a positive number (.122 vs. Plainfield) and a good ace to error ratio (15-6 vs. Plainfield). In total, the last 2 matches that were wins 3 and 4 for SHS, the squad had a .167 hitting % and nearly a 2-1 ratio aces to errors (31-17). In comparison, in the losses to Chatham and New Providence, SHS hit for a -.54 and had only a 10-10 ace to error number. In the win versus Linden, Summit hit for a .181 and had a 12-8 ace to error ratio. It seems that if the team is to be successful in the future, these 2 numbers will be the determining factors of that success.
SHS had a dominant performance from the service line to set the tone for game 1. Val Guzman ripped off 2 quick aces to get the Hilltoppers off to a 2-0 lead and after Casey Nardino got a kill to get the ball back for Summit, Captain Angela Scott got 4 aces out of the next 5 serves to give SHS an 8-1 lead. Roselle couldn't muster any momentum off their serve and the Hilltoppers kept the pressure up, going on runs of 5-1 and 5-2 over the next 3 servers (Nardino, Gabby Mejia and Rau Soares) to shut the door on the Rams. Kills by Angela Scott and Casey Nardino along with a block by Sterling Sidebottom set up Casey Nardino to close out the game at 22-10. Nardino got back to back to back aces to close out the game 25-10.
Summit got 5 kills in the set but the damage was done from the service line as SHS hit for 11 aces and suffered only 4 errors. Nardino, Scott and Guzman combined for 10 aces to lead the Hilltopper barrage.
Game 2 started a bit auspiciously for the Hilltoppers. Roselle jumped out to a 3-0 lead but a service error relieved the pressure off the Hilltoppers and Val Guzman proceeded to hammer out 3 consecutive aces to give Summit the lead at 4-3. The game was fairly even at that point as both teams failed to garner any momentum, Summit due to service and hitting errors and Roselle due to a lack of terminating kills. Rau Soares hit an ace to knot the score at 11 after the Hilltoppers had fallen behind 9-11. Despite losing serve after the tie, the turning point of the game came to fruition when Val Guzman nailed 3 kills around a Ram hitting error to pull Summit ahead 17-12. A rotation later, Angela Scott pounded out a kill and served up an ace to get SHS a 22-15 lead. Sterling Sidebottom finished the late Ram run with a kill that had SHS 24-18 up and a Roselle hitting error later finished the game and match 25-18.
Summit had only 5 aces in the game but served up 7 errors. However, the team got 8 kills to only 2 errors led by Val Guzman's 4 kills. SHS gave up only 1 ace in a passing performance that was simply the best of the year with a 2.09 rating.
Next up for the Hilltoppers will be the Linden Tigers at home, next Thursday, October 15th.
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