Summit traveled to Edison to take on the Wardlaw-Hartridge Rams looking to even out their record but came away with the second 3 set loss in a row. Meanwhile, a 9th grade only JV Squad took on the Ram squad and came away with JV's 3rd win of the season.
Summit began the set trading points with the Rams but, after an Annabella Yorio kill knotted the score at 4, SHS seemed poised to go on a run but that was not to be this time. Four consecutive passing/digging errors fueled an 9-1 run that had SHS trailing 13-5. Wardlaw maintained that healthy lead late as the Rams led the Hilltoppers 19-10 in the latter stages of the set. But to Summit's credit, the squad didn't succumb to the long odds and dropped a 5-0 run to cut the lead down to 4 at 19-15 spurred by Cheryl Liu's serving who kept the ran offense off balance and even hit for an ace during the run. A serving error stopped the run and the Rams re-established the lead they had build in the early stages of the set. Summit dropped set 1 25-18.
Summit managed only 7 kills in the set, 4 from the outside hitter combo of Yorio and Micaela Nardino.
Set 2 saw a different lineup on the floor as Coach Martins changed the serving order and the hitting lineup in an effort to be more productive in earlier rotations. The change seemed to work as the Hilltoppers got off to a better start, hitting for an ace (Kiera Stocks) and getting four kills from Georgia Inggs, Sylvie Goudreau and Nardino (2 k) within the first 5 rotations to get Summit to a 9-9 score. After a Ram hitting error gave SHS the ball back at 10-9, the Hilltoppers ran off 9 of the next 10 points to take a commanding 19-11 lead. The run was fueled by a block by an Inggs and Olivia Skrobala block, 2 Cheryl Liu aces, and 3 Nardino kills. The set win of 25-18 by SHS was never in doubt after that and Summit closed it out 25-18 with a pair of kills by Inggs and Nardino and a Lauren Trindell ace.
The Maroon and White pounded out 4 aces (2 by Liu) and scored on 12 kills (6 by Nardino) to pace the offense.
Although the 2nd set result generated hope for a comeback, the astute observer would have pointed out that the Hilltopper offense was relying solely on Liu's serving prowess and Nardino's front row production. A more balanced offensive production was key if the Hilltoppers were to win the 3rd set. Unfortunately, that was not to be on this day.
Liu and Nardino again started things off well for the Maroon and White with 2 aces by Liu and 3 kills by Nardino spurring on the Summit offense and getting the team tied with Wardlaw at 8-8 a third of the way through the set. A kill to zone 1 by the Ram outside hitter began a 6-1 Wardlaw run that featured not only their squad's outside attack but also Summit's own inability to put down a kill. A block by Sylvie Goudreau and Trindell broke momentum and two kills by Trindell and Kate Macpherson had the Maroon and White within 2 at 15-13. But another service error thwarted the comeback and sparked a mini 2-0 run that had the lead up to 5 again at 18-13. An Inggs kill got the Hilltoppers the ball back down by 4 but three consecutive Ram kills had all but put the game away at 21-14. The last 8 points in the set were split evenly 4-4 and Nardino again tallied another couple of kills but the Maroon and White fell short in set 3 25-18.
Although the Hilltoppers hit for 9 kills, once again Nardino provided the only steady offense with 5 of those swings. Cheryl Liu again tallied the only aces in the set (2) but the problem for the Summit squad was that the serving 5 was a lowly 61% for the set, the major reason the team was not able to complete the win.
Nardino was a one woman wrecking crew, at times seeming like the only player who could score on the Summit side. Although the team hit for 28 kills in the match, Nardino had 13 of them and committed only 1 error. Cheryl Liu was also outstanding from the service line, scoring the most service points thanks to 5 aces and only 3 errors in 25 service attempts.
Summit's record now stands at 2W-4L.
JV GETS WIN THANKS TO 9TH GRADERS
The JV Squad earned its 4th victory over Wardlaw (2-0) with a squad made up exclusively of 9th graders. In their first outing as a unit, the 9th grade squad used their serving power and opportune hitting to pull away late and take set 1 25-19 and easily handled the Rams set 2 25-14 after a 8-0 run led by Amanda Brown who hit for 3 aces in that stretch. Sabrina Ippolito led the way for the Hilltoppers from the front row, hitting for 4 kills in the match and the entire team's serve receive game was outstanding, giving up only 5 aces in the match to a much older squad in Wardlaw.
Congrats to these young women for their work ethic and dedication as this was their first match action of the season and they performed admirably against older athletes for a much needed win.
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