2015 SEASON WRAPS UP IN STYLE

The 2015 Season came to a close with the Volleyball Dinner and the 2nd Annual Walk For the Cure  that raised approximately $6000 for Memorial Sloan Kettering for research into cancer treatment.

2015 - AWARDS

Captains - V/JV

Emani Miles

Angela Scott

Maddie Young 

Hilltopper Award V/JV

Angela Scott

Madison Young 

Most Improved Award V/JV

Casey Nardino 

Rau Soares

Natalie Schluter 

Most Valuable Player V/JV

Val Guzman

Taylor Thompson 

2015 MaxPreps Player of the Year 

Casey Nardino

HILLTOPPERS COME CLOSE TO KNOCKING OFF ROYALS

Summit was feeling very confident after the 3 set victory over Rahway 2 days earlier as they got ready to face off against the Oak Knoll Royals.  Summit had demonstrated how far they had come this season with their performances against #5 Union, #7 Roselle Catholic, #10 Kent Place, #11 Dayton and #14 Rahway in the final 2 weeks of the season.  SHS had been overwhelmed by Union but came back and dominated Roselle Catholic a few days later.  Kent Place survived versus the Hilltoppers in a match that saw Summit swing for the win at 25-24 but unable to close it out and a day later, Dayton's offense proved to be too much for a Hilltopper squad that played competitively but was unable to match Dayton's firepower.  Summit bounced back on the road against Rahway in a tight 3 set win and the team was looking to finish out the season on another road win at Oak Knoll.

Despite playing outstanding volleyball for the most of the match, the Hilltoppers were unable to maintain their amazing play from set 1 and fell to the Royals 25-21, 22-25 and 12-25.  The difference in the match was the Hilltopper offensive production as Summit got 14 kills with a .281 hitting % in set 1, dropped to 10 kills and a .024 in set 2 and a mere 5 kills with a .000 in set 3.

Summit was down 5-10 early in set 1 but 2 aces by Rau Soares and 2 kills by Val Guzman had the Hilltoppers within 1 at 9-10.  Angela Scott hit for a kill and Grace Galuppo nailed an ace a few points later which had SHS up for the first time in the set 12-11.  Oak Knoll reacted to this setback by going on a 6-3 run that had the Royals up late 17-15 but a Casey Nardino kill and a Royal hitting error had Summit knotted up at 17.  SHS allowed Oak Knoll to take control back at 20-18 and it looked like the Royals would finish off the Hilltoppers quickly enough.  A serving error by the Royals gave Summit the opening it needed and Jocelyn Mendez got a crucial dig/kill to tie up the score at 20.  But as had been the pattern all set long, the Royals didn't allow SHS to continue its momentum and after a free ball passing error by the Hilltoppers, Oak Knoll had its lead back at 21-20.  The Summit serving attack came to the rescue though as Galuppo served out the last 4 balls as Scott and Guzman hit for 3 kills to give Summit a 25-21 set win after a 5-1 run.

Summit scored a whopping 19 points in the set and hit for a .281 average led by Val Guzman who hit for a .455 with 5 kills and 0 errors.  Summit also had 5 aces spread out through 4 servers and had only 2 errors.  Most importantly, SHS gave up only 5 aces and out-killed Oak Knoll 14-6.

Set 2 was a microcosm of the entire Hilltopper season.  Summit was at times dominant in the set, to the point that the Royals did not look like they had an answer for anything Summit had to give.  At other times, Summit looked flawed and unsure of itself as the team got numerous opportunities to re-establish its dominance but could not convert when it mattered.  And on brief stretches, SHS did not look like it belonged on the court with the Royals.

Summit took a 6-0 lead behind Val Guzman's serving as the Royals were kept out of system and forced into numerous errors.  Once Oak Knoll broke serve though, Summit couldn't get its offense and passing in gear and the Royals took advantage, going on a 10-4 run that had both teams tied at 10 thanks to 3 hitting errors, 2 passing errors and a serving error by the Hilltoppers.  Summit reacted well to the setback though and went on a 9-4 run of its own fueled by 6 kills (3 by Nardino) and 1 ace by the Hilltoppers to give SHS a 19-14 lead that forced a time-out by the Royals and had Summit seemingly ready to win a 2nd match this season versus a top 10 opponent.

But the Hilltoppers could not close the deal as the team allowed the Royals to go on a 11-3 run that gave the set to Oak Knoll 25-22.  During this run, Oak Knoll hit for 4 kills and 0 errors with 2 aces.  Oak Knoll had only 1 error overall during this stretch.  In contrast, Summit had only 1 kill but added 4 hitting errors and 1 free ball passing error. Up until this point in the match, Summit had played nearly a perfect game but this last stretch ruined an otherwise outstanding effort.

The deciding set was not quite as exciting as the first 2 sets.  Summit trailed 8-1 early and never really got in gear as the Royals kept the pressure on throughout the set, getting the lead up to 14-5 and 20-10 before closing Summit out 25-12.  Oak Knoll out-killed SHS 12-5 in the set and out-aced the Hilltoppers 5-1, scoring a total of 19 points in the set versus Summit's 6.

A great effort versus the #6 team in the county which showed the growth in the team over the last 2 years.

SUMMIT TAKES RUBBER MATCH VS. RAHWAY IN HUGE ROAD WIN

In a much anticipated JV rematch with Rahway, Summit came into the game playing its best volleyball of the season having defeated Kent Place, Roselle Catholic and Dayton after their surprising loss to Rahway in the county tournament.  Rahway was also looking to prove that the earlier Summit win at SHS had been a fluke in this rubber match.

Summit played a good first set but lost late 24-26 despite getting 9 service points from Christina Gangi and Alisha McDonnell.  Summit's offense was effective but late serve receive errors cost the team the first set.

Coach Ross sent in the 9th graders in set 2 and the combination of some "veteran" JV players with the core of the 9th graders yielded great results as the squad in the 2nd set led 6-2 early and never really lost control of the set thanks to the serving of Taylor Thompson who came up with SHS holding a tenuous 9-8 lead and after a couple of aces had the team up 13-9, reestablishing the 4 point lead they had enjoyed early.  Summit maintained that lead as it entered the latter stages of set 2 (17-13) and Katie Samay blew the game open by hitting for an ace and forcing the Indians into numerous errors as her rotation increased the lead to 21-13, a lead they would never relinquish in route to a 25-16 set 2 win.

Set 3 saw the return of the most experienced JV players and the set did not start off as the coaching staff had hoped.  Despite the team opening up a 5-1 lead,  the Hilltoppers gave it all back in one rotation as the squad gave up 2 consecutive aces and saw Rahway tie the score at 5.  The inconsistent serve receive continued to be a problem for the Hilltoppers as the squad couldn't find any offensive consistency due to the poor passing.  Rahway took advantage, getting kills off easy free balls that saw the Indians take control of the deciding set 11-8 after 6 rotations.  Trailing 15-9, Christina Gangi stepped up and served 3 consecutive service points to get SHS within reach at 15-12.  Olivia Elko followed up after a service break with 2 service points of her own to get Summit to within 2 at 16-18.  The celebration was short lived though as Rahway served often and served tough in the next rotation to take a seemingly insurmountable lead at 22-17.

A fortuitous foot fault gave the ball back to Summit and Taylor Thompson trailing 22-18.  Thompson hit for 3 aces in a stretch of serves that had the Indians all out of system and gave Gangi 2 opportunities to kill the ball, which she did not miss.  Thompson had 7 straight service points as the Hilltopper defense and offense was flawless during the stretch.

JV's record stands at 14W-6L and should the team beat Oak Knoll, they will have sole possession of the record of wins and winning % in program history.

HILLTOPPERS AVENGE EARLIES LOSS TO RAHWAY WITH BIG ROAD WIN

Summit traveled to Rahway to take on the Indians to close out the divisional match-ups for the year.  Rahway had handled the Hilltoppers at Summit  earlier in October rather easily in a 25-21, 25-16 with Summit not being able to muster much offense, hitting for 11 kills but also tallying 14 errors.  The team had also only served at 83.3%.  The combined lack of serving accuracy with the lack of offense spelled the end for the Hilltoppers in game 1.   However, in the return match, Summit served at 94% and hit for 29 kills while only committing 19 errors.  The improved serving and offensive performance was the spark that fueled the 25-23, 20-25, 25-21 SHS victory.

In set 1, Summit won a tight 25-23 set in large part because of the 12 kills the team generated in the set while also hitting .193 for the set led by Val Guzman's 4 kills.  The team also served at an 92% clip with 3 aces and dug up 18 balls.

The set was close throughout with neither team being able to get more than a 4 point lead at any point in the set.  An Angela Scott kill had Summit knotted up at 9 but Rahway went won a 4-2 run fueled by 2 kills and 2 Summit errors.  A Rau Soares kill trimmed the lead to 12-14 and a Guzman kill had Summit tied at 14.  A 5-1 Indian run had Summit on its heels (19-15) but a service error gave the ball back to Summit to spark a 7-1 run in which the Hilltopper serving caused many hitting errors by Rahway.

Casey Nardino pounded a kill and Angela Scott hit another key ball after a long rally to get Summit to 23-21.  Scott followed up with an ace and a Soares attack got the Indians all out of system and led to a free ball error which gave the set win the the Hilltoppers 25-23.

Set 2 saw the Hilltoppers hit for only 7 kills - 4 by Nardino- and despite a 5 ace output with 0 serving errors, the squad just could not muster enough offense to overcome some poor passing in a few rotations.  Summit opened up set 2 much the same way set 1 ended.  A Rau Soares kill capped off a run that had Summit up 7-2.  Soares nailed an ace later on to get SHS up 10-7 after a brief Rahway run.  The good feeling lasted briefly as the Indians ran off 6 points before an Angela Scott kill stopped the damage.  Rahway hit for 3 aces in the stretch that saw Rahway jump to a 13-12 lead.

Two aces by Scott got Summit knotted again at 17 and SHS went up by 1 at 20-19 after a Rahway hitting error .  However, that was the last point scored by Summit as Rahway hit for 2 aces and 2 kills to spark a 6-0 run that closed out the set 25-20.

In the deciding set Summit hit for double digits in kills again (10) as 5 different players registered at least 1 kill.  Summit also hit for 2 aces and dug up 17 balls in a set which the Hilltoppers passed as a 2.05 as a team.

A Casey Nardino ace had the Hilltoppers up 8-4 early and Angela Scott kept the Hilltoppers on top 12-6 with 2 kills at the midpoint in the match.  Rahway kept pressuring the Hilltoppers but the squad responded each time preventing a run by Rahway.  Summit was enjoying a 16-9 lead after an Indian hitting error when Rahway called a time-out.

The time-out worked as Rahway fought for every point and forced the Hilltoppers into multiple hitting and passing errors that pushed Rahway to a 16-16 tie.  Nardino got a crucial kill to give SHS an 18-17 lead.  Although the Indians tied it back up, a hitting error and a key kill by Rau Soares had Summit up 20-18.  A Val Guzman kill got Summit closer to the win at 22-19 but a kill out of the middle by the Indians got them the ball back at 22-20.  A perfect serve receive by Emani Miles who played in her first match of the year today allowed SHS to run an offensive set to Guzman again who hit again to increase the lead to 23-20.  Both teams exchanged points and the Hilltoppers could taste the victory at 24-21.  But the match ended on the next point as Summit did what it had been doing all set, making good plays out of bad situations.  A less than perfect pass by Guzman forced Nardino to set the ball back to the middle where Scott placed a perfect ball to the sideline for the final kill of the match and the Summit win 25-21.