The Squad was simply out-gunned from the service line against the Dragons and the Hilltoppers could not therefore match any offense that Kent Place brought to the table. Summit was out-aced 16-2 and out-killed 21-7 in a 25-12, 25-9 loss. Sarah Brennan was the only Hilltopper who gave the Dragons any trouble from the service line, going 5/6 with 2 aces. Erin Vostal and Sarah Maldonado combined for 4 kills apiece to lead the Hilltopper attack.
In a lackluster game, the Maroon and White suffered from serving errors and unforced offensive errors at critical points in the match to see what was a winnable game slip away to a 25-17, 26-18 loss versus Columbia. The Cougars out-killed the Hilltoppers by a 19-12 margin and the Columbia Squad got an 8-4 advantage in the ace department over SHS in a combined 30-16 point advantage for Columbia.
The bright spot for Summit was its passing game as the team passed at a 1.93 rating and Columbia only passed at a 1.61. Kasey Walsh was deadly from the service line going 6/6 with 1 ace and a team leading 2.67 rating. Sarah Brennan, Meghan Tarashuk and Kiera Stocks took the bulk of the serve receive going for a combined 27/29 safe passes and earning a pass rating of 2.43, 2.33 and 2.25 respectively. Sylvie Goudreau was the bright spot offensively, getting 4 kills out of 12 attempts with only 1 error.
But the Hilltoppers saved the best for last. Summit beat the Cranford Cougars 26-24, 21-25 and 25-20 to salvage the week and gain some momentum into this upcoming week.
Things looked bleak early for the Summit squad against Cranford as the team saw the Cougars jump out to a 9-1 lead through 2 rotations. SHS got back into the match after a Maldonado kill that had the score at 6-12 sparked a 7-0 run that had the Hilltoppers tied at 12. Maldonado tallied a kill, Brennan got 3 aces and a kill, Yorio notched a kill and Stocks earned a kill as well to fuel the furious comeback.
Despite a break in serve, a Yorio kill led to an Abby Doyle ace to give Summit its first lead of the set at 14-13. Cranford fought back using their offense and had earned a 3 point lead at 17-14 before a kill by Yorio stymied the run. The Cougars responded to a Goudreau kill that had the Hilltoppers within 3 at 16-19 with a 4-0 run that had the Hilltoppers at the brink of their 5th straight loss. A Maldonado kill seemed to just delay the inevitable after a serving error gave Cranford 7 match points.
Vostal blocked a Cranford attack for 18-24. A Maldonado well placed tip, 19-24, which forced a second time-out by Cranford. Meghan Tarashuk was unperturbed by the time-out and continued to serve tough which caused another Cougar passing error, 20-24. Two consecutive aces and 1 hitting error and SHS had fought off 6 match points at 23-24. A kill by Cranford seemed to end it but the Cougars were on the net, 24-24, Summit miracle to continue. Vostal sent an overpass by the Cougars through the floor and SHS had their first match point. Ace by Tarashuk and the stunning comeback was complete.
Summit scored 20 points in the set versus 15 by Cranford, and held a 3 point advantage in kills over Cranford which proved to be the different in the sei.
After a tip by Maldonado had SHS up 13-4 in set 2, it all seemed academic but a 6-2 run saw the Cougars close the gap to within 5 at 15-10. Another 5-2 run had Cranford to within 2 at 17-15 but a kill by Vostal and Clapp seemed to take the sting out of the Cranford offense with Summit up 19-15.
After the teams traded points, SHS looked just fine with a 20-16 lead but the Cougars, to their credit, took advantage of every Hilltopper miscue and went on an 8-1 run to seal set 2 25-21. Summit missed 6 consecutive serves to open the door for the Cougars.
Vostal tallied a team leading 4 kills in the set (44.4% kill % and hitting efficiency of .444) but it was not enough to turn the Cranford tide.
The deciding set was very much in doubt as Cranford rode the emotion of their comeback to an early 9-4 lead. SHS had the lead down to 2 after a Maldonado dump shot at (8-10) but the Cougars slowly pulled away again over the next few rotations and had the lead back up to 6 at 16-10 after an ace. A tip by Yorio gave Summit a shot and Guidetti served out the next 5 service points (1 ace, 1 kill Clapp) to get the Top to within 1 at 15-16.
Whatever momentum Cranford had gotten off their 2nd set win was all but gone. SHS was on the move and despite a couple of freeball errors gave Cranford a 18-15 lead, a kill by Maldonado broke serve, an ace by Stocks cut the lead to 1 and a dump shot by Vostal had Summit tied at 18! Time-out Cranford.
Coming off the time-out, Maldonado and Stocks were instrumental on getting 2 digs that led to a Maldonado kill to give SHS its first lead at 19-18. Maldonado hit another kill in transition and Stocks ripped another ace to throw the crowd into a frenzy at 21-18. Cranford fought back to within 1 at 20-21 but the Hilltoppers slammed the door on any comeback hopes with a scramble play where the ball had literally been mere inches from the floor and a Carnford point before the Cougars in stunned disbelief committed the hitting error to give SHS a 22-20 lead. Another Cougar hitting error caused by a difficult swing by Maldonado led to Cranford´s last time-out.
Tarashuk again unperturbed caused the Cougars to go out of system which led to another hitting error and Erin Vostal drove the dagger through the heart with a spike out of zone 3 that closed the set 25-20 and earned the Top their 7th win.
Tarashuk was nearly perfect from the service line in crunch time, going 20/21 with 3 aces and a 2.33 serve rating for the match. Stocks was also stellar with a 15/17 with 2 aces and a 2.06 rating. Brennan rounded out the serving attack with a 9/10 with 2 aces and a team leading 2.50 serve rating.
The 2 middles, Goudreau and Vostal, were extremely active in the offense combining for 13 kills on 27 swings with only 2 errors but the spotlight was on Maldonado who tallied 11 kills on 23 swings with only 2 errors for a .391 efficiency and a kill % of 47.8%. Defensively, Stocks came up with 24 digs, 9 of them in the deciding set while Vostal put down 2 blocks.
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