Friday brought the excitement of all 3 levels playing at home at Summit´s main and auxiliary gym with JV opening up the afternoon in the main gym against the Governor Livingston Crusaders and the 9th graders playing their 2nd match versus GL in the auxiliary gym to open up the 4 o´clock matches.
The Junior Varsity squad was stellar in the 2-0 victory versus the Crusaders by 25-16, 25-18 tallies. The Hilltoppers relied on tough serving and a solid defense to propel the team to its 2nd victory of the season. Through the first 5 rotations, SHS and GL were locked in a tight battle with the teams tied at 7 and not getting into any consistent offensive flow. Entering the 6th rotation knotted at 8, Hope Basaman ripped off 3 consecutive aces and earned 5 service points to give the Hilltoppers a 13-8 lead they would not relinquish. The Crusaders cut the lead down to 3 late at 19-16 but a kill by Olivia Lawlor put away any hope for a comeback and the Maroon and White closed it out 2 rotations later for a 25-16 game 1 win.
Game 2 saw the Top sprint out to a 13-8 lead after 6 rotations and despite many mini runs at the Hilltoppers, Summit still held that 5 point margin by rotation 12 at 22-17. The match was over soon after with a 25-18 game 2 and match victory.
The defense was anchored by Sarah Noa and Thea Rind who each contributed with 8 digs apiece in the match. Setter Jordan Parella was particularly active offensively with a team leading 6 kills to add to her 7 assists. Rebecca Thompson (5 aces) and Hope Basaman (3 aces) led the way from the service line for the Top. The Hilltoppers with the most points on the day were Thompson with 5 points and Parella with 6.
9th GRADERS EARN THEIR SECOND 3-GAME MATCH WIN
The 9th grade squad took on GL looking to see how they would measure up against an established program with a lot of success. It did not take long to figure out this match would have a different tenor than the Wardlaw matchup. Game 1 was very close through 6 rotations with Summit trailing 11-13 after 6 rotations. SHS had tied it at 14 by rotation 9 but the Maroon and White blew it open behind an 8 point barrage in rotation 10 that closed the game out at 25-14.
Game 2 was close throughout but Summit was trailing and playing catch-up most of the game. By rotation 6, Governor Livingston held a slim 9-6 lead but a 5-3 mini run in the next 3 rotations opened up a 5 point lead for the Blue and White. But then came the Summit run, one which saw the Hilltoppers rattle off 5 points to tie the score at 14. GL bounced back though and had the lead back late in game 2 after the 12th rotation with a 3-0 run that took the Crusaders to a 20-17 lead. Summit managed only 2 more points and dropped game 2 by a 25-19.
Game 3 was another tight one with both teams separated by a mere 2 points with Summit holding a 7-5 lead midway through the set. Abby Wells turned what still was a close game late (9-7) into a resounding win with 5 straight service points to close out the match 15-7 to improve their record to
2W-0L!
GOVERNOR LIVINGSTON OUTLASTS SUMMIT WITH CONSISTENT SERVICE PRESSURE
Summit had a tight 2 set loss at home last year to the Crusaders in which the Maroon and White outscored GL 30-25 despite a 17-13 kill advantage for the Crusaders. In the return match at GL, Summit pushed the home team to 3 games despite being outscored in that match 52-39 and out-killed by a 43-27 margin. Summit needed big points at big times to beat this outstanding squad and early on in 2019, SHS looked like it would do just that.
The Hilltoppers jumped out to a 2-0 lead in game 1 but soon found themselves trailing 6-3 as the GL game-plan was clearly to pressure opponents with their serving attack and it was yielding results early versus the SHS receive. A fortunate down ball kill by Kiera Stocks stalled the GL momentum and Summit was within 2 at 6-4. A Sarah Maldonado kill and a Crusader hitting error saw the Maroon and White knot up the game at 6 and it seemed that despite Governor Livingston´s power serving, the Top could find a way to overcome it.
That hope was dashed in rotation 4 as the Blue and White ran a 6-2 run that had them up by a 14-8 tally before another Maldonado kill ended the run. Sarah Brennan continued where she left off in the last match and ripped an ace to get a point back and then forced an errant pass that Sylvie Goudreau put down to get the Top back within 3 at 14-11. Unfortunately, SHS could not convert on a free ball which was forced by another Brennan serve and gave the ball back on an unforced error which sparked an 8-0 run that Summit could not recover from, thus giving game 1 to the Crusaders by a 25-17 margin. Summit actually won over 50% of its serves thanks to 2 aces by Kasey Walsh and 1 apiece by Brennan and Gabbie Guidetti. GL had no answer for Maldonado who led the Hilltoppers with 3 kills on just 6 swings and 0 errors. Defensively, Guidetti and Stocks tallied 4 digs apiece but the receiving game struggled to find consistency.
Game 2 was a tale of 2 Summit squads, the one before a GL time-out after a Goudreau ace that had SHS only down by 1 at 8-9 and the squad that came in after that time-out and allowed Governor Livingston to go on a 16-1 run to close out the game and match at 25-9. Summit was down early 3-0 and never seemed to be able to close the gap as GL extended the lead to 8-3 three rotations later. Maldonado yet again stymied the run with a kill and it set up Brennan to hit for another ace and cut the lead to 3. Despite a break in serve, GL could not extend the lead as a serving error on their end de-railed the momentum. Goudreau forced an error with her service game and also hit for an ace to bring the team back to within 1 at 8-9 when the time-out was called. Nothing much needs to be said of the 16-1 run other than SHS could not handle the Crusader service game and when they did, the offense sputtered.
Brennan and Goudreau tallied the only aces in the game for the Top while Maldonado and Yorio notched the only kills for the Hilltoppers. Brennan led the way with 3 digs defensively and Stocks tallied 2.
For the match, Brennan and Walsh led the way with 2 aces apiece while also being the most highly rated servers (3.0 and 2.5 respectively) while defensively, Stocks tallied 6 digs and Guidetti got 4 to lead the team. Maldonado was outstanding, hitting for 4 kills on only 7 swings with 0 errors and lead the team with 4 points.
Here are some highlights of this match:
GL HIGHLIGHTS
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