Summit traveled to Roselle Catholic looking for its first win of the week but the team was without the services of starters Lauren Trindell, Ava Williamson and its DS backup, Kiera Stocks.
SHS played a great match despite having to deal with new serve receive rotations and defensive alignments but fell short on the road by a 23-25, 25-23, 20-25.
The team found itself in a dog fight in set 1 as it trailed a very scrappy Lion team 16-14 through 6 rotations. But the Roselle Catholic crew exploited the Hilltopper nerves at this stage of the match and expanded the lead to 20-16 after the 8th rotation mainly due to Summit hitting errors. SHS did not buckle and Katie Samay dropped 2 aces to knot up the score at 23, forcing a Lion time-out. The time-out broke the Summit momentum and after a missed serve, RC served out the set and closed it out at 25-23. The difference in the match was, yer again, Summit's inability to get kills consistently. SHS managed only 8 kills but also had 6 errors. The Lions, on the other hand, scored 11 kills but only erred on 5 hits. In a set decided by 2 points, this was the difference between the teams.
Facing another tough loss, the short-handed Hilltoppers had to salvage the trip by being more efficient on offense and continuing their stellar defense as the team dug up a season high 22 balls in the first set.
The Maroon and White struggled to keep any momentum in the set after RC opened up the set with a 5-0 run in the very first rotation to take the lead 5-2. Summit couldn't overcome that bad start as it still trailed 14-11 after 6 rotations. Just as it has been all season, the team had to rely on a spark from the service line and that came, yet again, from one of the team's Captain, Slisha McDonnell. McDonnell ripped off an ace and force an errant pass on the next serve to square the score at 15. Summit then slowly took control with their offense and size, eliminating unnecessary errors and finding themselves up 19-18 late in the set. Samay was yet again instrumental in extending the SHS lead, hitting for another ace and forcing an errant Lion pass which led to a 22-18 lead. A Lion time-out broke momentum again and led to a service error which gave RCA the momentum it needed to go on a 5-1 run that had the teams tied up at 23, forcing a Hilltopper time-out. Yet again, the team had to find a way to score a kill if they were to survive and a perfect Tessa Pulgar pass led to a McDonnell set to Co-Captain Taylor Thompson who crushed a kill down to zone 1 to give the Hilltoppers a 24-23 lead. McDonnell then stepped up with the fate of the team on her shoulders and delivered a blistering serve to zone 5 that was mishandled and led to an RC error that sealed set 25-23 in favor of the Hilltoppers.
Summit dug up 24 balls in the set, a new season record, and hit for 10 kills. The key stat however was that SHS only yielded 2 hitting errors, for a .211 hitting efficiency while RC, although out-killed Summit by a 14-10 margin, it had 6 errors. That stat again was key in determining the winner of the set.
In the deciding set, SHS looked to carry the momentum of the previous set's win and capitalize on their offensive momentum they had generated at the end of the set. The set was, as expected, tight and had many long rallies early decided by either hitting errors or kills as both teams' passing game was on point. But in rotation 6, the Maroon and White stalled offensively and the Lions capitalized with a 4-1 run that gave Roselle Catholic a 10-7 lead. The lead expanded to 4 1 rotation later and by rotation 9 the match had become a side-out affair with neither team being able to go on any extended run. Although RC got the lead to 16-10 in rotation 9, Thompson rattled off an ace and added another tough serve that led to a Green and White error to get SHS to that 4 point deficit again. Hilltopper fans were not hopeful however as it was evident that although the team was playing an incredibly tight defensive game, the offense was not consistent enough to yield the points it needed to mount a comeback.
That became the reality of rotation 10 as the Lions ripped off 5 service points to take a commanding 22-13 lead. Summit could not get a kill to get out of the rotation despite many great passes and sets, a result of both Lion defensive prowess and lack of Hilltopper offensive answers. A service error managed to break the Lion run but Summit needed to outscore RC 12-3 to win the set, a statistically incredible comeback if it were to happen. Camille Della Piazza struck for 2 points and after a Lion kill SHS looked at a 23-15 deficit. A side-out and 2 more points later, thanks to Samay again, 23-18 was the deficit and Roselle Catholic called a time-out to settle the troops. The team lost the next point and, staring at match-point with a 24-18 deficit the comeback seemed impossible. Carmel Barsh then hit for a kill -her team high and team season best 11 kill performance- and ripped an ace to get Summit to within 4 at 24-20, forcing a Lion time-out. But that was to be as close as the team would get, losing in 3, 23-25, 25-23, 25-20.
Summit did get 11 kills in the set and yielded only 4 errors for a .206 but served only 85% in the set with only 1 ace. The Hilltoppers actually outscored RC from the front line but the difference in the match was the service line play by each team. Roselle Catholic went 23/25 with 2 aces while Summit went only 17/20 with only 1 ace.
The match was a season best for the team in terms of digs (69), kills (29), attack attempts (107) and service points (33) but as the summary highlights, the kill % was only 27%. The Hilltoppers will try to improve on its kills-per-attempt number of 3.69 in the Fall Classic Tournament at Morristown-Beard this upcoming Saturday.
JV FALTERS ON THE ROAD FOR 3RD LOSS
The Squad entered the Lion's den after only the 2nd loss of the season versus New Providence. The Hilltoppers continued to be a little less than consistent on the serve and the usually consistent attack yielded few kills as the Hilltoppers folded in 2, 25-23, 25-23 with serving errors and hitting errors being the difference in the match. Both set 1 and 2 ended for the Hilltoppers on a service error and a hitting error. Maldonado led the team in kills with 5 and Doyle hit for 3 aces but there wasn't much consistency from the squad to complement the team effort needed to win the crucial points down the stretch.
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