The Mount Lions of Mt. Saint Mary visited the Hilltoppers and this was the first matchup between the schools at the 9th grade level. At the lower levels, the error rate tends to be high so the team that produces less serving and passing errors generally wins the match. And so it was on this rainy Wednesday that the SHS squad hit for more aces, committed less attacking errors and had more successful dig attempts in a 2-0 sweep of the Mount by a 25-12, 25-17 tally.
The first game had a slow start until Emily Griffith ran off 6 service points (3 aces) to give the Maroon and White an 8-2 lead. After a service break by the Lions, Summit struggled to regain control and their opposition crawled to within 3 at 8-5. The team needed a good offensive play and Maeve Keegan provided that spark with a timely kill that broke the Lion momentum and gave the Hilltoppers a 9-5 lead. However, the comfort level was back and when Abby Thompson got to the service line and ripped off two aces to get the team to a 13-7 lead, everyone in the gym knew it would take a major collapse for Summit to drop the game. Keegan followed up with a 4 ace barrage of her own and before you knew it, SHS was staring at an 18-8 lead. Thompson punctuated game 1 with a dig which led to a set for her attack which she put down for a kill and Anna Joseph terminated game 1 with an ace to finish the Lions 25-12.
Game 2 was almost a carbon copy of the opening game with respect to what the team relied upon to succeed. Emily Demm opened up with 2 aces and Julia Nardino followed up with 2 of her own to give the Hilltoppers an early 6-2 lead. Joseph got a great kill off a reception pass by Camille Carino and the Top was starting to pull away at 7-3. The confidence of this young team was on display on that play. The kill was a result of an errant serve reception to the net. Normally that would be an automatic point for the opposition but Elizabeth Walsh dropped to the ground and scopped the ball up to be played by Joseph who put the ball away. Despite those good feelings, Summit slid back into committing errors on the serve and soon saw Mt. St. Mary´s get to within 3 at 11-8. Luckily, Nardino ripped a kill to get the serve back and Charlotte Hendra followed up with a 3-1 run (3 straight aces) to give Summit a 14-9 lead.
Despite a mini run by the Lions, SHS was able to keep the pressure up from the service line with Nardino hitting for 2 aces in a 4-1 run to get the score to 19-11. Kristen Reilley was active at the net in the closing points, pressuring the defense, eventually finding the floor for a kill to get Summit to 21-11 and the rest became academic. However, to the Lions´ credit, they did not stop fighting and battled through a 5-0 run that got them to 24-17 but there was too much real estate to make up and a service error later gave Summit the 25-17 game 2 win for their fifth victory of the season.
Hilltoppers are now 5W-0L with New Providence on the road looming on Friday, senior day.
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