The Hilltoppers came off their first win versus the Plainfield Cardinals and were looking to start a winning streak against the conference leading and town rival Oak Knoll Royals. Despite an amazing 2nd and 3rd game performance, Summit lost in 3, 11-25, 25-22, 23-25, in a match that the Hilltoppers looked like they had in their hand in game 3 with a 20-17 lead and the serve.
Game 1 saw the Royals get out to an early lead and never really be challenged as the Hilltoppers tentative attacks were no match for the aggression of Oak Knoll's offense. The team was down 21-7 after 6 rotations and despite committing very few errors, Summit could not get closer than 25-11. SHS hit for only 3 kills, went 11/12 from the service line and had 10 digs in a lackluster offensive game.
Game 2 proved to be more of what Coach Martins was looking for as the Maroon and White tallied 8 kills, 7 aces and 1 block to pace a 25-22 game 2 victory. Summit trailed early again (6-3 and 8-4) but Casey Nardino ripped 7 service points ( 4 aces) to bring the Hilltoppers to their first lead at 11-9. But the lead as short lived however as the Royals struck for 4 points and had SHS down 13-12 after 4 rotations. After rotation 6, Oak Knoll led 18-17 as both teams were siding out pretty efficiently. After a Casey Nardino kill had Summit within 1 at 19-18, Gabby Mejia provided another classic service run that sealed the fate of Oak Knoll in game 2. Mejia went 4/4 with 1 ace to spot SHS a 22-20 lead. Oak Knoll got to within 1 at 21-22 but a Val Guzman kill gave the team its 2 point cushion at 23-21. Guzman followed up with a tough serve that caused a hitting error by the Royals and Summit was 24-21 up. Despite an Oak Knoll kill, Summit closed out the tough game 25-22 after another Nardino serve.
The scene was set for one of the biggest wins in recent history for the SHS program or another heartbreaking loss in the 2016 season. Summit and Oak Knoll were tied after rotation 3 (8-8) as both teams threw everything they had at each other in every facet of the game. After Grace Galuppo was done serving in rotation 4, SHS looked like it had a slight edge in play with an 11-9 lead. Despite a mini Royal run in rotation 5 that had the game knotted at 11 again, Katie Samay hit for 4 service points, including 2 aces, to give the Hilltoppers the momentum and the lead at 16-11. Summit had the crowd, the momentum and were applying all the pressure on Oak Knoll.
To the Royals' credit, the team did not wilt and key kills had the Royals within 1 at 17-18 by rotation 7. Val Guzman fired off an ace to get SHS a 20-17 lead after a Royal missed serve which forced Oak Knoll to call a time-out to break the Maroon and White's momentum. Summit came off the time-out poised to finish the match but a key missed serve stunted the momentum and gave the Royals some hope at 20-18. Three service points later (1 ace and 2 hitting errors later), Summit was staring at the wrong end of a 21-20 score. A Samay kill brought the team even at 21 But Oak Knoll had a side-out to rip the lead back at 22-21. SHS got a Guzman kill to tie the score at 22 and another tough serve later that led to a free ball error by the Royals seemingly turned the game on its head as the Hilltoppers had stormed back to a 23-22 lead. But that was to be the last point the team would score as SHS hit for 2 errors and allowed an ace on match point to fall to the Royals 25-23.
Summit hit for a game high 10 kills in game 3, added 5 aces in a 21/23 serving performance and had 10 digs while only giving up 2 aces. Captain Val Guzman tried to lead the team by example as she had 4 kills in the game and hit a .429 for the deciding game. Katie Samay dug up a team leading 4 balls in game 3 to keep the Hilltoppers alive and joined teammate Grace Galuppo as the team leaders with 4 service points apiece.
For the match, Guzman and Jocelyn Mendez led the way defensively with 9 and 6 digs respectively. They also received 41 of the team's 59 serve receptions and scored a 1.93 rating. Summit only gave up 4 aces for the match and had 2 blocks (Nardino and Galuppo). The team's leading scorer was KAtie Samay with 12 points off of a team leading 8 kills (.238 hitting %) and 4 aces (40% ace% and a serve % of 90%). Casey Nardino had a quiet 5 kills from the front row but ripped a team leading 6 aces (ace % 35%, serve % 88%).
The team will next compete at the Morristown-Beard Tournament on Saturday.
JV Service Miscues Result in Loss to Royals
Coming off their 5th win versus the Cardinals, Summit felt ready to take on the Royals as they continue their assault on the 15 win record set last year. Despite the win versus the Cardinals, a disturbing trend of multiple rotations missing serves was starting to emerge. Unfortunately for the Hilltoppers, not even the comeback of Bella D'Ambrosi could fix this problem on this day.
Summit missed 10 serves in route to a 25-19 loss in game 1 versus the Royals. Despite a very productive defense and offense, Summit could not gain any momentum as the team continuously missed a big serve at the wrong time. Oak Knoll had a 20-14 lead after 11 rotations and Summit got to within 3 at 21-18 by rotation 12 but the Maroon and White commited its 9th service error then to give the Royals the ball. Oak Knoll pushed Summit to the wall with 3 service points at 24-19 and Summit ended the game as it had begun, with a service error to close out game 1.
Game 2 was much of the same as both teams found themselves deadlocked at 11 with Summit producing another 3 service errors in 6 rotations. SHS cleaned up its serving though and found themselves in a 19-19 tie by rotation 11 as Kate McPhearson, Olivia Elko and Bela D'Ambrosi pounded out 7 kills combined to keep the Maroon and White's hopes alive. But another missed serve and a Royal kill gave Oak Knoll the lead at 21-19 and they never looked back as the Hilltoppers gave up an ace, committed 2 hitting errors and had a free ball error with a Royal missed serve in between to finish with a 25-20 loss.
Summit missed a combined 15 serves in the match but hit for 12 kills, 8 aces and 13 digs in the loss, all of which are season highs for a 2 game match.
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