The Lady Hilltoppers hosted the Linden Tigers fresh off their victory over Rahway and looking to get an unlikely victory if you looked at the matchup on paper. Despite the supposed advantage on paper, Summit gave Linden everything they could handle and then some.
Game one started auspiciously for the Hilltoppers as the Linden Tigers jumped out to a 7-0 lead that forced Coach Martins to call a time-out. The momentum was broken but SHS couldn't get much going and saw themselves down 10-2 as Val Guzman stepped up to serve. Guzman did what she has done over the last couple of years and scored 4 points off her serve to get Summit within striking distance at 7-11. The teams stayed fairly even through the next 4 rotations with great passing and offense and the 15-11 Tiger lead reflected the tight match it had become. Neither the Hilltoppers nor the Tigers could do much to change the nature of the match as it had evolved as both teams were evenly matched and could not get a dominant foothold in the game. Key side-outs and defensive plays by both sides kept any long runs from developing and by the beginning of rotation 10, with Linden leading 19-15, it was obvious that any long run would be decisive at this point. That run came from in the form of an ace suffered and hitting error committed by SHS that had the Tigers seemingly in control at 21-15. A kill by Val Guzman gave Summit a chance to stay in the match but 2 rotations later Linden had the lead at 23-18 as the 7-0 run at the start seemed more and more like the difference in the match.
But then Jocelyn Mendez went to serve under a high pressure situation and delivered as you would expect a captain to do so. Mendez' serving yielded 5 service points (1 ace) and the trouble Linden had passing her serves gave Summit easy opportunities to put away as the Hilltoppers knotted the score at 23 and forced a Linden time-out. Unfortunately, the Tigers were able to side-out and closed out the game on a Hilltopper hitting error.
Guzman was a stalwart offensively hitting for 4 kills at a .300 efficiency and Casey Nardino collected another 4 kills as well as both girls had 8 of the 12 team kills. Summit hit .152 in the game but the 10 combined hitting and serving errors proved to be too much to overcome for the squad. Summit out hit Linden 12-8 but got out-served 6-1 in aces (4 in that 7-0 run) that swung this tight match.
SHS felt pretty confident entering the 2nd game and it showed in their play as the squad opened 5-0 lead behind Gabby Mejia who would end up with the most service points on the team. The game settled in as game 1 had after Linden's initial run and after Mendez rattled off another 4 service points in rotation 6, SHS was where it had begun the game, with a 5 point cushion at 16-11.
The turning point of the match occurred at this juncture as the Hilltoppers could sense they had the Tigers on the ropes and tried to make every play possible to put them away. To their detriment, the Maroon and White played 3 balls that were traveling out of bounds off a serve, an attack and a block which netted 3 points to Linden and brought the opponent to within 1 at 15-16. Summit was forced to call a time-out but the writing was on the wall. The team that would be able to play the cleanest volleyball would win he game. Summit had 1 serving error and 3 hitting errors after leading 19-18 and lost the game on a 4-0 run by Linden which began with an SHS hitting error. The last Linden burst came off great serving and Summit could not generate enough good passes to counter-act the Tiger serving attack. Linden ended the match with an ace to punctuate an 8-1 run that was made up by 4 Hilltopper hitting and serving errors, 2 Linden kills and 2 aces.
Summit scored 11 points in game 2 (6 kills-3aces-2 blocks) but gave away 11 as well with 8 hitting and 3 serving errors. The difference in game 2 was yet again the serving attack as Linden had 7 aces to Summit's 3.
SHS ended game 2 with 6-5 advantage in kills and overall an 18-13 offensive advantage for the match. Summit also won the defensive battle in the middle as the Hilltoppers out-blocked Linden 3-2. But the service attack cost the Hilltoppers as the Linden passing out-performed Summit. Linden hit for 13 aces while Summit managed only 4. That gave Linden a 28-25 point scoring advantage in the match. While SHS committed 6 service errors, Linden committed only 3. That extended the point differential to 6 with Linden at 34 and Summit at 28. In a match decided by a mere 7 points, the Linden serving advantage of 19-7 proved to be too much for Summit to overcome through their superior offense and defense throughout the match.
Summit shut down the Linden MB who scored 18 kills in their first encounter, limiting her to a mere 5 kills in the 2nd matchup, a tribute to the adjustments and defensive intensity displayed by the squad.
Guzman and Nardino led the Hilltopper offense with 6 kills apiece while Mendez and Mejia combined for 3 of the 4 aces and 16 of the team's service points. Mendez and Amanda Fonseca were defensive stalwarts digging up 9 of the team's 22 digs.
JV GETS 8th WIN THE THE HARD WAY
The JV Squad has always found the Linden matchup to be a difficult one. Earlier this season, a 27-25, 25-23 2 game sweep in Linden did not tell the story of how close the team was to losing. SHS was facing a match point before a Linden serving error allowed Olivia Elko to serve game 1 out. In game 2, despite a 23-17 lead, Summit found themselves knotted at 23 through bad passing and hitting errors. Cheryl Liu cam through that time with 2 key serves to close out the match 25-23.
In the rematch at Summit, the Hilltoppers destroyed the Tigers 25-10 thanks to Olivia Elko who blew the game open with 7 service points (3 aces) to give SHS a 13-3 lead they would not give up. Summit was flawless in its passing and serving and shut down any Linden runs in the game.
In game 2, Summit looked to play the same flawless passing game but that was not to be despite the 11-8 lead the team held through 6 rotations as the Hilltoppers had missed some serves and given up a couple of aces at that point. Leading 16-12, the passing errors finally became an issue as the Tigers went on a 6-0 run fueled by multiple Hilltopper passing errors that gave Linden an 18-16 lead. By rotation 13 Linden was close to match point at 23-21 but a missed serve opened the door for the Hilltoppers to come back. Summit relied on Elko once again as the Captain hit 2 key serves (1 ace) to give the Hilltoppers a 24-23 lead. After a Linden kill knotted up the score at 24, Summit hit for a kill and Micaela Nardino hit the crucial serve that sealed the victory at 26-24.
Despite the win, Coach Ross expressed concern that the lack of serving and passing consistency will lead to problems in the county tournament later on in October. Summit will look to correct those in the next 3 vital match ups next week.
9th GRADERS EARN FIRST VICTORY
The 9th graders got a rare taste of a 9th grade only matchup as the team took on Linden's 9th graders. Summit lost the first set 25-21 after late missed serves and passing errors gave Linden the win.
In game 2, Krista Ann Clapp gave the Hilltoppers an early 6-1 lead and the team served pretty consistently to earn a 25-15 win to force a decisive game 3. Game 3 was an exciting affair and it wasn't decided until very late as both teams showed their nerves and committed a lot of passing and serving errors. Summit committed fewer of those down the stretch and on a close out call, SHS won its first match 17-15.
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