The Hilltoppers took the ride down the Parkway this past week to take on rivals Linden on all 3 levels. Summit came away with wins on the 9th grade and JV level with 2-0 wins but Varsity drops a 2-1 decision despite winning the first game.
9th Graders bounced back from their first loss of the year with a solid 2-0 victory with a 25-15, 25-22 score over the Tigers to improve their record to 3-1. The 9th grade used a consistent serving effort and timely defense to beat their divisional rival.
JV defeated the Tigers despite inconsistent offensive production by scores of 25-23 and 25-16. The JV Squad relied heavily on its service game as the ace production was the sole determining factor in the win. Summit out-aced Linden 8-2 in game 1 and 5-2 in game 2 for a 13-4 match advantage. Running out of subs in game 2, Coach Ross left Olivia Lawlor in the match to serve and Lawlor did not disappoint, taking an 18-16 lead in rotation 12 and closing out the match with 7 consecutive service points (2 aces). Summit improves to 4-0 but is looking at a much tougher match-up against Union, their next opponent, a team who has pushed the Hilltoppers to more 3 game matches than any other team in the last few years.
VARSITY TAKES FIRST SET WITH 11 ACES. LINDEN GIVES UP 6 NEXT 2 GAMES AND WINS.
The Lady Hilltoppers were looking to bounce back from losing 2 out of the last 3 matches to the Linden Tigers, the last of which was a 2 set loss to Linden in the first round of the Union County Tournament in 2018, that loss being the first time that SHS had not made it past the first round in 3 years. Unfortunately, much like the last 3 matches, SHS could not break the Tiger defense and Linden literally outlasted the Summit service attack for the win.
Game 1 could not have started any better for the Hilltoppers. Kasey Walsh started the match with a serve that forced the Linden Tigers to give up a free ball which Annabella Yorio put down for a kill. That led to straight aces by the setter and SHS was off to a 3-0 lead. After a Krista-Ann Clapp put the Hilltoppers up 4-1, Gabbie Guidetti hit for another 2 aces and Summit was up 6-1. Meghan Tarashuk contined the ace party and added 4 aces to get the Hilltoppers to a 13-4 lead. The game seemed all but over but the Tigers proceeded to go on an 11-3 run in which Summit got 0 kills.
The Hilltoppers got the serve back off a Tiger serving error to regain the lead at 16-15. The Maroon and White again used their serving to again regain control of the match as Abby Doyle ripped an ace to give SHS a 17-15 lead. A 5-2 run fueled by a Sylvie Goudreau kill seemed to give the Hilltoppers the room the team needed to take game 1 as the Tigers could not muster more than 2 more points and Guidetti scored on 2 more serves to seal the deal.
Summit was out-killed 8-5 and out-blocked 1-0 in the set but an 11-2 Hilltopper advantage in the ace department gave SHS all the points it needed to win the game, outscoring Linden 16-9 in the 25-20 game 1 win. The warning signs were already there though in game 1 for the Hilltoppers. If their serving couldn´t generate enough points, then Linden might be able to overcome the Hilltoppers´ lack of kills to win the match.
Unfortunately, despite SHS´s 6-3 advantage in aces in game 2, that number was not enough to overcome the lack of Hilltopper kills and Summit dropped game 2 25-21. Linden out-killed the Hilltoppers 8-6 and out-blocked SHS 2-1 which led to a 13-13 scoring tie but the Hilltoppers main issue remained, not enough kills to win.
The deciding game saw the Top out-kill Linden 5-3 but the Tigers out-scored SHS 8-6 in an error filled game that the Maroon and White lost in a 25-10 score. The game was over early as the Hilltoppers allowed multiple runs early that sealed the loss. Linden began game 3 with a 5-1 run which saw SHS miss a serve, commit 1 free ball errors and 2 hitting errors to fuel that run. Sarah Maldonado hit a kill down the line to get Summit the ball back at 5-2 but another 6-0 run all but sealed the deal. In that run, Linden managed 1 kill and 1 ace, with all the other points coming off Summit errors.
Summit had only 10 service attempts in the game but missed 4 of them. SHS also had 35 attack attempts which yielded only 5 kills. However, the team committed 10 hitting errors.
For the match, Summit hit for 17 aces to only 7 errors, a serving % of 87.5% and an ace % of 30.4% led by Meghan Tarashuk and Gabbie Guidetti who combined for 9 of the 17 aces. SHS gave up only 8 aces in 3 games and had 43 digs, led by Kiera Stocks with 11. Annabella Yorio led the hitters with 4 kills.
Summit drops to a 2W-2L record.
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