Summit was looking for the unlikely in their rubber match of the week against a 10-0 Millburn squad that was tops in their conference and a top team in Essex County. The Millers had dominated the Hilltoppers in a pre-season scrimmage in August and SHS was hoping that this matchup would go a bit differently after their solid performance against Rahway the night before.
Things began well for the Maroon and White as Captain Trindell put a good serve into play and the ensuing 30 second rally to open the game showed that SHS could play with the Millers. Despite losing that point and the subsequent point, the Hilltoppers were running their offense and had solid defense on every ball. A Goudreau hit put the Millers in scramble mode and they couldn’t return the ball leading to the first Hilltopper point. This was a portend of things to come however as the Hilltoppers were going to have to rely on outlasting Millburn on points as they showed to be a little faster across the back row and a bit stronger across the front row.
Millburn opened up a 7-3 lead but Williamson dropped a perfect 3 pass that Trindell fed to Inggs for a perfect kill out of the right side to break the Miller momentum. A strong serve by Stocks led to a Miller attack that was handled by Williamson and Trindell found Nardino on the outside for a kill to zone 5 to get Summit to within 2 at 5-7.
The Miller serving game then came into play and the Hilltoppers struggled to run effective offensive sets consistently. Even when they were able to get an effective pass up, the offense went into error mode and wasted opportunities to break serve. This led to a 6-0 run that ended with a Miller serving error but the damage was done as Summit trailed 6-13.
Summit did not give in and using a couple of aces by Nardino and Barsh, the Hilltoppers cut the lead down to 4 at 11-15 and after a ball handling fault by Millburn, SHS saw hope at 12-16. The game then got tight as both teams became error prone but Macpherson came up with a tough serve that the Millers had trouble receiving and forced an error that again had Summit within 4 at 14-18.
But the Top just could not generate enough offense despite key opportunities presented by the defense and fell to another run of 7-1 to close out the set.
It was obvious that Summit would have to capitalize on its offensive opportunities if they were to pull the upset. In set 1, summit served at an 88% clip and hit for 2 aces but got aced 6 times, the main culprit in the 2 runs that Millburn had that decided the set. Once again though, the lack of offensive production was a factor as the Hilltoppers managed only 6 kills but also yielded 5 errors. Despite the struggle receiving, Summit’s defense was holding their own, digging up 13 balls (5 by Williamson) and Goudreau was again a major force registering the only Summit block but touching 5 Miller attacks allowing the defense to play better angles.
Set 2 saw the Millers put their foot on the gas early and Summit just was not able to convert from its serve receive to offense. A 7-1 run was the result which saw Summit allow 3 aces, an overpass for a kill, 1 hitting errors and 2 Miller kills before a Millburn serving error finally gave the ball back to Summit.
SHS did not fold though and went on a 4-1 run that had the squad again in striking distance at 5-9. A 4-0 Millburn run made things look bleak again down 13-5 but yet again the Hilltoppers kept fighting generating a 4-1 run that had the Maroon and White only down by 5 at 9-14. Unfortunately the serving of the Millers just kept pressuring the Summit defense and an 11-5 run closed the set and match 25-14.
The positives for the set were, among other things, the serve % which hit 86% although the team could not generate any aces. Although the squad only had 2 hitting errors, SHS only mustered 5 kills. The defense might have struggled on serve receive but a 14 dig effort was outstanding (7 by Williamson) and gave the Maroon and White an opportunity to stay in the game.
For the match, SHS served at nearly 87% but managed to hit for only 2 aces. Millburn scorched Summit for 17 aces. Offensively, Goudreau and Nardino accounted for 7 of the squad’s 11 kills as both athletes combined for 7 kills, 1 error in 17 attempts for a 41.1 kill % and a .352 efficiency. Defensively the team was outstanding, digging up 27 balls led by the Williamson’s 12.
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