Summit looked to get on the winning side of the ledger in their home match-up with the Linden Tigers, a divisional battle with a familiar and difficult opponent. SHS prevailed in a hard fought 24-26, 25-23, 25-23 match that saw the Maroon and White overcome big odds in the latter phases of the match to complete a most unlikely comeback.
Set 1 saw the Tigers jump out to an 8-12 lead thanks to serving and passing miscues by the Maroon and White. But the team slowly began to make its comeback as for 5 consecutive rotations the Hilltoppers did not miss a serve. After an Ava Williamson hit had the Hilltoppers within 1 at 13-14, the squads settled back to their rhythm on offense and the teams found themselves tied up at 18. Kills by Barsh and Macpherson and some Tiger miscues had the team near the finish line with the 24-20 lead. But another missed serve helped spark the Linden offense and the Tigers soon had tied up the score at 24 and were within a 2 points of the set win. Despite a hard effort, SHS had a hitting error in the last moments and gave up a tip kill to seal the deal at 24-26.
Despite Summit out-killing Linden 10-7, tying for aces at 3-3 and adding a block, the reality was that 9 missed serves by the Hilltoppers helped drive the Linden win.
Set 2 was another close affair as the teams found themselved deadlocked at 9 after a net violation by Linden but a Macpherson overpass kill set up by an Ava Williamson jump float started a 4-1 run punctuated by a Tiger hitting error that had the Hilltoppers up 14-11. The celebration was short lived however as Linden stormed back to tie the score back up at 14 but Summit held their composure and after a few Tiger errors -combined with 2 kills by Macpherson-, the Maroon and White had what seemed to be an insurmountable 21-15 lead late in the set.
To Linden's credit, they never showed any panic as their best server stepped up and delivered 4 aces and saw Summit commit 2 hitting errors to get the score knotted at 21. Another Ace and kill later and Summit saw the set slipping away trailing 21-23 until Linden committed a key hitting error which opened the door for SHS to mount a comeback. Kiera Stocks stepped up to serve these last final points and, after a long, furious rally, Summit forced the Tigers into a hitting error and Inggs and Trindell combined for a block on the outside that had the Hilltoppers on the brink of a set win are 24-23. Stocks put a bow on the set comeback with an ace and SHS had their first set win of the season at 25-23.
SHS and Linden were locked in quite a battle in set 3 as the squads found themselves tied up at 10 near the midpoint of the match but SHS went on a 5-0 run which saw Carmel Barsh score on a block and 2 kills to fuel the surge. But the Tigers would not quit and went on a 8-1 run to knot things up at 16 as Summit could not manage the Linden serving power, yielding 3 aces in the run. Summit's offense came to the rescue as Katie Macpherson struck for 2 kills to help get the Maroon and White back within reach at 20-20. But the celebration was short lived as the Tigers hit for an ace, got a kill out of the middle and benefited from a Summit hitting error to seemingly put the game away. But then Stocks stepped up and her serving gave Georgia Inggs an opportunity for an overpass swing that she did not miss and later, at 22-23, she hit a sharp angle shot that propelled SHS to a 23-23 tie. Thanks to a tremendous dig by Stocks and a Tiger hitting error, the Hilltoppers took set 3 in a 25-23 decision.
Summit served at an 88% clip in the last 2 sets and hit for a .210 efficiency as a team for the match LED by Barsh who hit for a 42.1 kill % and a .263 efficiency as she led the team with 10 points (8 k, 2 blk) but the key to the match was the serving consistency of the Hilltoppers led by Trindell and Stocks who combined for an 85% serving efficiency and 7 aces (22%) to keep the Linden attack off-balance in the late moments of sets 2 and 3.
Summit travels to cross-town rival Oak Knoll today in a non-conference matchup.
JV DOMINANT EARLY, SURVIVES AT THE END IN EARNING VICTORY #2
The JV Squad got caught up in a serve and receive battle with Linden and we're dominant in set 1 as they hit for 8 aces and allowed only 4 in a 25-13 win. When the ball was over the net, the Maroon and White were able to put it away as the team also hit for 5 kills from 4 different players.
Set 2 saw the Hilltoppers struggle to handle free balls and serve receive with any consistency early and the team trailed late in the set (22-17) but the serving of Eva OOberhuber brought Summit back to life as she hit for 2 aces and forced multiple Tiger errors which saw Summit climb back to within 1 at 22-23. The teams traded passing and hitting errors and, with Summit ahead 24-23, Linden got a key kill to knot things up at 24 but that was the last roar from the Tiger squad as the Hilltoppers took the last 2 points to win 26-24.
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