Summit had high hopes for the week coming off another good Saturday tournament performance this past weekend but this time, the team´s undoing came at the hand of an illness. Summit lost both Sammy Auerbach (DS/SS) and starting MB Casey Nardino to illness for this match (future matches day-to-day) and despite the team´s best efforts, the offense just was not there on a consistent basis. The Hilltoppers fell 25-17 and 25-15 in very different ways in each game but the constant theme was the lack of offensive production.
Summit held the fort in game 1 until the last third of the game when the Maroon and White trailed only 13-16. In rotation 11, Summit allowed a 3-0 run that extended Union´s lead to 20-13 and SHS could only cut it back to 15-20 before the next loss of serve. That was as close as the Hilltoppers would get as the Farmers outscored SHS 5-2 to close out the game.
Val Guzman and Lauren Trindell got 2 kills apiece to account for the entire offense and Summit's serving, usually a source of strength, yielded only 1 ace to 4 errors. The team passed at an effective rate (1.95) with Jocelyn Mendez leading the way with a 2.25 rating handling almost 50% of the serves sent over the net. Mendez and Guzman also led the team in the game with 5 digs apiece and team dug up 17 balls in the game.
In game 2, the suspense was over within 6 rotations but the team seemed to be in a good place after 3 rotations, up 6-3 and looking like a much more inspired squad. However, a Union kill stopped any momentum the team had and the Farmers regained the lead 12-8 by rotation 6. After Summit could not generate anything off rotations 4, 5 and 6, Union ran off 5 straight service points to take a commanding 18-9 lead that the Farmers would not relinquish. Summit was outscored 7-6from that point on but could not muster any consistent offensive output that would threaten the Union defense.
Lauren Trindell and Katie Samay led the team with 2 kills apiece and the team hit for 2 aces (Guzman and Alisha McDonnell) while committing only 1 error. Summit passed at an amazing 2.05 led again by Mendez who tallied a 2.27, handling 11 of the 18 Union serves.
Lauren Trindell was the woman of the match for SHS in the absence of both Auerbach and Nardino as she scored 4 points with 4 kills, leading the SHS offense for the day. More impressively, Trindell hit for a .429 efficiency and was very active on defense getting a team leading 6 block touches.
The team hopes to be healthier for Rahway on Thursday at home as they search for that elusive 2nd win.
JV GETS 6TH VICTORY IN 3 GAME BATTLE
The Hilltoppers improved to 6W-3L with a 2-1 victory over the Farmers (25-21, 18-25, 25-14) . Summit turned a sloppy game 1 performance into a win despite only scoring 9 points in the game behind Olivia Elkoś serving that netted 4 service points and opened up the game for the Hilltoppers with an 8-3 lead. That lead was never really challenged as both teams traded points fairly evenly throughout the next 8 rotations before Summit took it 25-21.
The second game saw SHS go from an 8-8 score to trailing by 16-11 within 2 rotations (5 and 6) as the Farmers pressured the Hilltopper serve receive with each and every serve. Despite SHS cutting into the lead late behind Elko´s serving (16-18), Union outscored Summit 7-2 the rest of the way to seal game 2.
The decisive game 3 was a great display of volleyball for the fans as both teams dug and hit with aggression as neither team wanted to give in to the other. Summit found itself ahead 8-2 after Micaela Nardino ran off 4 service points and 2 rotations later, behind Elko´s serving again, SHS went on a 6-0 run that put away any doubts that the team would win as the Hilltoppers held a 16-5 lead. Summit and Union each scored 9 points apiece the rest of the way but the Farmers never threatened due to Katie McPhearson´s offense and Caitlin Thompson´s defense in key points in the game.
Nardino scored 7 points in the match all on kills and Eloko led the squad from the service line with 4 aces. Olivia Skrobala notched 4 points as well with 3 kills and 1 block and tallied 6 digs and 5 assists. McPhearson was a menace in the front row as she hit for 7 kills (4 in the 3rd game) to lead the team offensively. Caitlin Thompson was the key defensive performer in game 3 as she dug up 5 balls in the game to lead her team and was perfect on serve receive.
The team hopes to avenge an earlier loss to Rahway on Thursday.
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