Both levels played on Monday in Round 1 of the Union County Tournament. On the Varsity level, the #8 Summit Hilltoppers took on the #9 Governor Livingston Crusaders while on the JV level, #4 Summit took on #13 Roselle Catholic.
Varsity lost both sets on late runs by the Crusaders by scores of 25-15, 25-17 while JV moves on with a hard fought 25-12, 25-23 win.
VARSITY
The Maroon and White knew that an 8v9 matchup was going to be a tough one but their recent history in the UCT has been a positive one and the team was energized for the match. Despite the fact that GL started off set 1 with a 6-2 lead, the Hilltoppers kept fighting back and after Taylor Thompson served up an ace and forced the Crusaders into a couple of forced errors, Summit found itself knotted up at 6.
SHS started swinging well and forced the Crusaders to take a time-out leading 9-7 but Camille Della Piazza came off that time-out and served up an ace to extend the lead to 10-7. But a service error opened the door for GL and the Crusaders outscored Summit 9-2 over the next 3 service rotations to take a commanding 16-12 lead. Alisha McDonnell stepped up then and ripped off 2 service points (1 ace) and pulled the Maroon and White back in the match, down only 2 at 15-17. Unfortunately, the wheels seemed to come off at that point in the match as GL went on an 8-0 run to close out the set 25-15. SHS had many opportunities to put balls away but key digs, unforced errors and missed opportunities on defense shut the door on any Hilltopper run.
The second set was unusually similar to the first. GL took a 6-2 lead again just to see it evaporate after Thompson again ran off 3 service points to tie the score at 6. The Crusaders held an 11-10 lead nearing the midpoint of the match but Katie Sammy stepped up and generated 3 points off her serve, helping her own cause with a dig in transition, to get SHS a 13-11 lead which forced a Crusader time-out. If you are feeling like you read this before, you have. Despite the fact that GL jumped out front after a 4-0 run by a 15-13 score, Summit again fought back to tie up the score at 16 behind an ace by Alisha McDonnell. But an uncharacteristic miss by McDonnell on her serve let GL take the ball and an 8-0 run later had Summit just about out at 24-16. Lauren Trindell kept the faint tournament hopes alive with a key block to pull SHS to a deficit of 17-24 but the Crusaders shut the door with a right-side kill to knock off the Hilltoppers out of the County Tournament.
Tessa Pulsar led the squad with 6 digs, Lauren Trindell played the wall with 2 solo blocks, and Taylor Thompson led the squad offensively with 4 kills. Camille Della Piazza and Alisha McDonnell chipped in with a team leading 2 aces apiece and Ava Williamson led the team with a 1.78 pass rating, passing 22/23 serves safely.
JV MOVES ON TO ROUND 2 WITH VICTORY OVER ROSELLE CATHOLIC
The JV Squad improved their record to 13W-1L after a 25-12, 25-23 win versus the Roselle Catholic Lions.
Despite a game Lions Squad that did not allow the Hilltoppers to score on their attack attempts, Summit's pressure serving did the damage on its own as the team hit for 6 aces in set 1 to pace an easy 25-12 first set victory.
Set 2 was a far more competitive set with the Lions getting aces of their own and not only thwarting repeated SHS attacks but effectively attacking themselves to pace RC to a 13-10 lead after 6 rotations. Summit looked to have the match in hand after 3 service points late in the match gave them a 20-16 lead but the Lions roared back with a 4-0 run to tie up the score at 20. With service errors on both sides, the teams couldn't find any offensive flow and found themselves knotted up at 23. But Summit did not commit any error after that and closed out the set and match with a 25-23 close fought victory.
No comments:
Post a Comment