All three levels took a quick ride to Union High School to face off against the Union Farmers this past Thursday. This would be the first time the 9th graders would meet the Farmers but the Varsity and JV Squads are well too familiar with this squad. JV has gone 2W-2L in the last 2 years and has gone to 3 games two of those matches. Meanwhile, Varsity has dropped the last 2 matches to the Farmers in decisive fashion and it has been 4 years since the Hilltoppers have seen a W next to their name in a match-up versus Union.
The 9th graders provided the highlight for the day with a stunning upset of the Farmers in a tight 3 game affair. This victory was a great comeback from the tough three game loss they last had versus Chatham, another established 9th grade program.
The JV Squad dropped a 2-0 decision to the Farmers by a 25-22, 25-19. Jordan Parella ran off 6 service points early and dished out 3 assists to give SHS an early 7-1 lead. The Hilltoppers kept and extended that lead to 15-8. But the Farmers rattled off 7 consecutive points to tie the score at 15-15. A Hilltopper time-out at 15 all stopped the Farmer roll but the Farmers continued their pressure and extended the lead to 18-15. Summit finally broke serve but couldn´t muster much as the Farmers extended the lead to 23-19. Summit fought back to get within 1 but the Farmers did not allow another run and closed it out 25-22.
Despite 6 aces in game 1, the Hilltoppers were unable to generate much offense and that proved to be their undoing with the Maroon and White getting only 6 kills and hitting for 10 errors. Sabrina Ippolitto kept the Top in the game late with 3 kills to give Summit a chance.
Game 2 was over early as the SHS Squad was not able to muster any serving pressure nor offensive consistency in the first 6 rotations. Summit found themselves down 10-4 after rotation 4 and suffered another run in rotation 6 that had them down 18-8 by the end of the 6th rotation. By rotation 9 the match was over despite the fact that Summit was able to muster a 9-4 run to make the final score respectable but the game and match was over much earlier.
Ippolitto and Hope Bassaman were the Hilltopper top point scorers with 4 kills and 4 aces respectively.
VARSITY OFFENSE SPUTTERS LATE GAME 1 AND CAN´T RECOVER
The Varsity Squad started off like a ball of fire. Kills by Annabella Yorio, Sarah Maldonado and Sylvie Goudreau complementing the aces by Gabbie Guidetti had the Maroon and White up early 5-2. By rotation 6 it started to become clear that the Summit offense was not able to put down balls as easily as it had in the first 2 rotations as the Farmers went on a 6-2 run that saw 0 points from the Hilltoppers to knot up the score at 9.
With the score at 11 all after a Kyra Guenther and Goudreau combined block, the Hilltoppers suffered a 3-1 mini run that had them down 12-14 but a few rotations later, behind the serving of Kiera Stocks, SHS had knotted up the score at 15. But the Farmers buckled down and forced a break of serve that led to a 10-3 run which gave Union a 25-18 lead, a run that was partially fueled by 3 Summit hitting errors.
Union outscored Summit in game 1 by a 14-9 score with the main difference being the 11-6 lead on kills. Sarah Maldonado led the team with 2 kills while Stocks had 10 digs in game 1 to pace the defense. Gabbie Guidetti hit for the only 2 aces the team had in the game.
Game 2 was more of the same in the sense that the Hilltoppers could not finish off points and thus, fell behind the Farmers early and could not come back. Summit trailed by 3 within the first 2 rotations but by rotation 4, its defense and serving had forced the Union squad into errors that kept the teams close . A Guenther and Goudreau block had SHS tied at 9 but the team just could not control the game and gave up a 9-0 run that was more than enough cushion for the Farmers to win. The teams played evenly from that point on (7-7) but Summit could only muster 2 kills by Goudreau at that point and it was just a case of too litlle too late in game 2. Appropriately enough, Summit lost the game and match on a hitting error.
Meghan Tarashuk and Kiera Stocks had the only 2 aces for the game and Goudreau nailed 4 kills in the game to lead the offensive production in game 2. Defensively, Stocks again was stellar, leading the team with 6.
MATCH LEADERS:
Kills- Goudreau 5
Aces- Guidetti 2
Blocks- Goudreau and Guenther 2
Digs- Stocks 16
TOTAL PTS.- Goudreau 7
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