The Hilltoppers traveled to Columbia High School to take on the Cougars, a team they narrowly beat in a pre-season scrimmage but, this time, they would do it without the services of Libero Ava Williamson who was out due to illness.
Summit started off this important non-conference matchup knowing their normal serve receive and defensive alignments were not available due to Williamson being out. The team still felt good about their chances thanks to the season long defensive and serve receive efforts of players like Goudreau who would shoulder more responsibility on this day.
Things did not start off well for Summit as the Cougars jumped out to a 7-2 lead and managed to hold that early lead most of the set. A Goudreau and Inggs block started a 4-0 run that saw SHS get a kill by Barsh, an ace by Goudreau and another block combo by Goudreau and Barsh that had Summit within 1 at 6-7. Columbia got the lead back up to 5 thanks to a couple of dig errors and serve receive errors by the Hilltoppers but a Nardino kill stopped the bleeding and had SHS only down by 4 at 10-14. The Cougars then went on a 4-2 run that put them ahead by 6, 18-12.
Summit started to crawl back into the set when a Macpherson kill had SHS only down 14-18 but the Cougars seemed to have an answer each time SHS made a run at them and, after a kill from the outside, they had the lead back up by 5 at 20-15. Summit kept the pressure up and it started to pay off. A hitting error by the Cougars and a Goudreau tip had Summit trailing 17-20. Another pair of kills by Goudreau and Inggs had the lead down to 1 and after a dump shot by Nardino, Summit had earned its first lead in the set at 21-20. A few points later, the Hilltoppers saw the first of a handful of set points but a dig error and a free ball return error had the Cougars and SHS knotted up at 24-24 and Summit had wasted 2 opportunities to close out the set. A Nardino kill gave the Hilltoppers another match point at 25-24 but the serving error that followed erased yet another set point. A Summit hitting error later, the Cougars had their first set point but they did not give it away and closed out the set 27-25.
The team served at 92% in the set and got aced 5 times. Despite getting 9 kills from its offense, the team also yielded 6 errors. Nardino led Summit with 3 kills in the set and the defense dug up 17 balls, 4 by Macpherson. The squad got 5 blocks, 3 by Goudreau.
Set 2 saw the Hilltoppers actually take an early lead at 4-3 after another Nardino kill but, unfortunately, Summit saw their chances for a third set go by the wayside as Columbia went on a 17-3 run that destroyed any chance for a Summit comeback. In that run, SHS committed 6 errors that prolonged the run early on in set two. Two consecutive service errors all but did in SHS at that point and, appropriately enough, a Summit hitting error ended the set and match, 25-10.
Although the team only got aced twice in the set, it was the lack of perfect 3 passes that became the focus because the Hilltoppers could not score out of system. Nardino led the team in kills but with only 2 as the team managed only 4.
For the match, Summit served at an 86% clip but only hit for 1 ace while the Cougars hit for 7. Goudreau hit for 3 kills out of 10 swings and had no errors while Nardino led all Summit hitters with 5 with only 1 error for a .286 efficiency. The team had a whopping 62 attack attempts so the passing was sufficient enough for quality attacks but the team just could not convert. Nardino also led the team with 5 digs while Goudreau and Barsh tallied 3 blocks apiece
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