The Summit Hilltoppers hosted the Roselle Catholic Lions yesterday and took both the Varsity and JV matches for the first time since 2011. RC was ranked as the #7 team in the county on the Varsity level but was just coming off a mild upset loss to Kent Place earlier in the week.
Summit felt pretty good about their performance against Westfield and their ability to be competitive against the best in the county. Taking that confidence in this match, Summit jumped out to a 4-0 lead behind 2 aces by Valerie Guzman and a kill by Angela Scott. Two aces and 2 kills by Casey Nardino, 2 kills by Val Guzman and a kill apiece by Rau Soares and Angela Scott had SHS up 17-4 in a 10-0 run that saw the best of Hilltopper volleyball on display. Despite Roselle Catholic outscoring Summit 11-8 the rest of the way, Summit was never threatned in the set and won 25-15.
Nardino and Scott combined for 7 of Summit's 11 kills and hit a combined .461 to lead the Hilltopper offense. Nardino also led the team defensively with 6 digs and was a perfect 10/10 from the serving line with 2 aces. The team hammered down 11 kills with a .250 efficiency while serving at 86%.
Set 2 had a different feel as the set was tight through the early stages. Although SHS held a 7-5 lead early thanks to an Angela Scott kill, the Lions came roaring back to take the lead at 8-7 fueled by 2 Summit hitting errors. Summit kept finding Nardino on offense and the junior kept the Lions at bay with key kills during the set such as the one that got SHS tied at 9-9. But it was the reemergence of Valerie Guzman on the outside that sparked the Hilltoppers on another dominant run as Summit went on an 11-4 run to jump out to a 20-13 lead that saw Nardino and Tabatha Meneses hit for 2 aces and Guzman nail 3 kills. Although RC crawled back to within 4 at 21-17, Nardino hit for a crucial kill after she passed up a perfect pass and dug another ball in transition to stop the Lion momentum cold at 22-17. Guzman and Scott kills wrapped up the set and match 25-19 for the first Summit win over a top 10 opponent since 2011.
Summit hit for 13 kills in the set at a .275 efficiency and added 6 aces to run away with the set by scoring 19 of the 25 points in the set. Val Guzman scored 7 points in the set with 5 kills and 2 aces and was the team leader in the set in kills, aces and digs.
For the match, Casey Nardino and Val Guzman led the way with 7 kills apiece and they both hit for 4 aces although Nardino was a perfect 18/18 from the service line. Summit gave up only 4 aces in the match and Gabby Mejia and Grace Galuppo ran a lethal offense with 22 assists combined.
Varsity is now 7W-11L.
JV Routs RC
For the second year in a row, the Hilltoppers took on the higher seeded Lions and came away with the win on the JV side. The squad rebounded back from their tough loss to Rahway by fixing the service and passing errors that plagued them versus the Indians. Summit won 25-12, 25-16 in a match that was a total team game and sam many players on the court. JV is now 11W-7L and 4 wins away from the program record of 15W-10L.
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