The 2017 tournament will hopefully prove to be a sign of things to come as the Maroon and White finished the round robin phase with a 4W-2L record and a point differential of +20 which was good enough to give the Hilltoppers the #1 seed in the Gold Bracket.
Round Robin
Match 1 - Opponent: Scotch Plains-Fanwood
25-16 and 25-20 (2W-0L)
Summit made it 4 sets in a row versus SPF in 2017 with 2 very solid set wins.
Match 2 - Opponent: Rahway
23-25 and 25-16 (1W-1L)
6 hitting errors derailed an otherwise good set 1 performance but eliminating those gave SHS an easy 2nd set victory
Match 3 - Opponent: Bishop Ahr
21-25 and 25-22 (1W-1L)
Summit needed a split versus the #1 Divisional Seed and then a favorable point differential to secure a Gold Bracket spot. SHS did not disappoint despite a 21-25 loss in set 1. Key errors that have plagued the squad late in sets came back again but the team fixed those errors in set 2 as the serve attack picked up pace and helped the Maroon and White to a 25-22 victory.
Summit, Bishop Ahr and Rahway were all tied with 4W-2L record after round robin play but the Hilltoppers and Bishop Ahr took the Gold Bracket spots on point differential. Summit was seeded 1 and would face off against the #2 in the other division, Oak Knoll, in a classic cross-town match-up.
In the other semi-final, Piscataway, the other #1 seed, would face off versus Bishop-Ahr.
Semi-Finals: SUMMIT 25 - OAK KNOLL 21
Erasing the memories of 2 leads the team let slip away on Thursday versus the Royals, Summit got key kills and serves from its players to pull away late in the set and hold off a late Oak Knoll charge for a big win versus their city rival.
In the other semi-final, Piscataway took control midway through the set and dispatched of Bishop Ahr to set up a final between the two #1 seeds.
Finals: SUMMIT 29 - PISCATAWAY 27
SHS could not have asked for a better start to the finals of the Gold Bracket. The team dominated Piscataway in the early going and had a 16-7 lead past the midpoint in the match. The lead had dwindled to 19-15 after numerous key errors by the Maroon and White. After the squad exchanged a few points to get the lead to 22-17, Piscataway ran off 6 consecutive points to take a 23-22 lead. Summit tied it at 23 but a service error gave Piscataway, amazingly, a match point. Summit got a gift on a Piscataway service error and the game was again tied at 24. Summit got a serve in but the Piscataway offense had a side-out that gave them their second match point. Summit got a perfect reception by Williamson that allowed Summit to keep the ball in play and force a Piscataway offensive error to knot the score at 25. Feeling the nerves and stress of the situation, both teams, unbelievably, traded service errors and SHS had avoided the 2nd match point but now faced their 3rd. This time, a key kill by the SHS offense fought off another Piscataway match point. Tied at 26, Piscataway got another key kill to get their 4th match point which they squandered with another error, this time from the outside as the Hilltopper defense was not giving Piscataway much to target. That error put Williamson on the line whose serving pressure yielded a point for Summit's first match point at 28-27 and 1 serve later, the Hilltoppers had completed the unlikely and unbelievable 29-27 win.
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