Summit took on the Roselle Park Panthers in the first match of the UCIAC Tournament looking to move on past the first match for the 3rd consecutive year and to avenge an earlier loss last week to the Panthers in 3 games. Summit relied on its serving power (13 aces, 26.5 ace %) and its hitting efficiency (18 kills, .139 efficiency) to score a 2-0 victory on the road, 25-18, 25-13.
Captains Gabby Mejia and Val Guzman started the first game on fire, giving the team 10 service points and (6 aces) in the first 2 rotations which opened up an 11-2 lead for the Hilltoppers that they would not relinquish. The game became a fairly even affair from that point on and Summit held the lead late at 23-14 despite 4 of 6 serving errors late that allowed Roselle Park to get to 18 points.
Casey Nardino paced the Hilltopper offense in game 1 with 4 kills in 6 attacks but Guzman led all scorers with 6 points on the strength of 5 aces and 1 kill. Summit scored 15 points with a balanced 8 kill-7 ace performance.
Having seen a similar outcome in the first match at Roselle Park, SHS was determined not to allow the Panthers to gain any momentum early in game 2. To this end, the Hilltoppers achieved this, jumping out to a 5-0 lead behind Gabby Mejia's serving as she got another ace and 4 service points. To the Panther's credit, their serving and offense came around and by rotation 6, Summit found itself on the wrong end of a 15-7 run that had Roselle Park up 15-12. The Maroon and White found it difficult to produce offensively due to the Panther's serving game and the team could not find the aces it needed and relied upon in game 1. With both teams settling into a back and forth affair, Summit looked to be running out of points as the Panthers got to within 3 points of the game 2 victory after a middle attack at 22-19.
But then Grace Galuppo stepped up to the serving line with the match on the line and proceeded to rattle off 2 aces and hit another 2 serves which led to manageable digs that Katie Samay was able to convert for 2 kills to pull Summit into the lead at 23-22. This forced a time-out by the Panthers but it was to no avail as Galuppo ripped another serve out of the stoppage that led to a Jocelyn Mendez dig which was set up beautifully bu Mejia for Samay who put the kill down to give SHS a 24-23 lead and get Summit to within 1 point of the upset victory. A side-out by the Panthers gave the ball back to Roselle Park but the Hilltoppers were able to deal with the subsequent serve and forced Roselle Park into an unforced error to end the game and match at 25-23.
The Hilltoppers were led by Samay offensively as she hit for 4 kills in 10 attempts without an error to her stat line, 3 of those in the crucial moments of game 2. Galuppo went 9/9 from the service line and got those 2 late aces to lead the team in service points while adding a key kill late in game 2 to create the change in rotation that got Galuppo to the service line at the right time.
SHS got 10 kills and hit .200 for game 2 and scored another 6 points on aces while adding 2 blocks for a game high 18 points to earn the UCIAC win in its first match of the 2016 tournament.
Nardino scored 15 points for the match (7 kills- 3 aces- 2 blocks) and Samay was only 1 kill behind Nardino with 6 kills and a .217 hitting efficiency. Guzman was lethal from the service line with team leading 5 aces and a second best 7 service points while also digging up a team leading 7 balls. Jocelyn Mendez also dug up 6 balls but had another outstanding passing day, earning a 2.00 pass rating suffering only 1 ace as the team gave up only 5 the entire match.
But the woman of the match was Galuppo whose serving late in the match and key kill that got her to that serving rotation was the turning point of the match.
Summit will now face the #1 team in the tournament Union Catholic who, according to njo.com, is also the #11 ranked team in the state on Monday, on the road, at 5:30pm.
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