The Hilltoppers were up against the #1 team in the division, the Union Farmers, yesterday but, coming off the big HTC Tourney win on Saturday, the team felt good about their game. The squad would have to enter the match however without the services of Ava Williamson who had developed strep throat and was unavailable.
Much to the chagrin of the fans and team, the match played out similarly to their first match at Union High where late errors decided set 1 in favor of the Farmers (21-25) and set 2 saw the Hilltoppers lose the serve receive battle and get overwhelmed by the Union offense (9-25).
In the space of 2 minutes, SHS was down 0-4 to Union after 2 aces, 1 hitting error and 1 blocking error by the Hilltoppers. Coach Martins called a quick time-out to settle the troops but another kill by Union saw Summit staring at a 0-5 hole. That 5 point deficit remained fairly static as the Hilltoppers got their footing and began to play fairly evenly with the Farmers. Summit had cut the lead down to 3 at 13-16 after a Union service error but aquick attack out of the middle and another ace seemed to kill any chance the Hilltoppers had for a comeback. But the team has shown a steely resolve in the face of adversity and has continued to fight through difficult situations. Summit went on a 6-3 run that was punctuated by a Camille Della Piazza ace to knot the score at 19. Despite a Union block giving the Farmers a 19-20 lead, Katie McPherson followed up with a kill to square the set up again.
But then the mistakes came. SHS committed 2 attacking errors and 1 service error that allowed Union the room it needed to close out the set 21-25 after a 5-1 run.
Summit managed only 5 kills (McPherson 3), had 1 team block and 3 aces (2 McDonnell) for 9 total points. Union got 17 points, 6 of them on aces, that proved to be a factor at the end of the set.
The Hilltoppers were on the ropes again early at the onset of set 2. The Farmers opened up a 2-7 lead behind their serving that resulted in poor offensive options for the Hilltoppers. But similar to set 1, Summit fought back to within 3 at 6-9 after a Farmer serving error. Unfortunately, this time, Union would not relent in its serving pressure and the Farmers went on an 8-1 run fueled by 2 aces and 2 kills by UH to get the lead up to 7-17. Carmel Barsh gve Summit a brief glimmer of hope with a timely block but Union got right back on offense, generating another 7-2 run to close out the set and match.
Summit managed only 2 kills and 1 ace in the set, a major reason the team could not sustain any momentum.
That was only SHS's 2nd loss at Summit (4W-2L).
JV Squad was trying to push their record setting start of the season forward as the team took on Union in a rematch of the young Hilltopper's first match. Somebody forgot to tell Union that they were supposed to give up.
Union had a 14-4 lead after only 3 rotations as the Hilltoppers could not get their serve receive in sync. The fate of the first set was set but the squad kept fighting and actually ended the set on a 12-11 run that, despite the loss by a 16-25 score, gave SHS hope that they hadn't yet hit their stride.
Summit flipped the script in set 2 and SHS got out really well in the set and held a 15-9 lead at the midway point and never relinquished it, closing out the set 25-18 behind the serving and the defensive efforts of the team.
The deciding set was a close affair throughout until rotation 7 when Cassandra Hrehorovich ripped off 2 aces and 4 service points to get the team a 16-11 lead. Annabella Yorio continued her offensive production with a match leading 4 kills in set 3 that propelled Summit to a come-from-behind 25-16 win.
Yorio led all front row players with 7 kills. Ava Calabrese anchored a solid team defense with 4 digs and Abby Doyle led all players with 9 digs and 8 assists while also scoring with 4 aces.
The team will look to go undefeated before county seeding for JV Championships against Rahway on Thursday.
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