The Junior Varsity and Varsity levels took on the Royals of Oak Knoll yesterday afternoon and came away with 2 resounding victories to improve to 2W-0L on both levels.
JV POWERS TO SECOND WIN OFF SERVICE LINE
Summit's JV started off a little slow in game one and trailed 7-4 in the third rotation but then DS Victoria MacArthur stepped up on service to score on 8 service points to get Summit to a 13-7 lead and push Oak Knoll into a situation where they would have to get their deficit down to under 5 points in the next two rotations to have a chance at the game 1 win. The Royals did crawl back to within 5 in the next few rotations (11-16) but then Jaclyn Szabados came up to serve and behind her serve, Summit rattled off five service points to effectively shut the door on their city rivals with the score at 22-11.
Final score game 1, 25-15.
If the Hilltoppers were able to serve as aggressively as they did in game 1, game 2 should provide a carbon copy result as the Royals struggled to get any serve receive consistency. Summit served first and that pretty much spelled the end of the game as Oak Knoll failed to score 1 service point in five of their rotations while SHS got at least 4 service points from 4 of their first six rotations to put the game and match essentially out of hand.
SHS OK
Rotation 1 1 2
2 5 3
3 6 4
4 10 5
5 14 6
6 19 7
MacArthur's serving was the turning point of the match as it set the tone for the rest of the match and allowed SHS to run their defense much more easily after ther rotation.
JV faces a gauntlet of trials next week with Rahway (one of the few teams to beat SHS in 2019), Linden, ALJ and New Providence on their schedule.
VARSITY CONTINUES SERVING WELL, USES MULTIPLE OFFENSIVE WEAPONS TO CONTROL ROYAL ASSAULT
The Varsity Squad got to see all of its players in the match against Oak Knoll in part because the serving attack is clicking at a rate not seen in Summit Vball history. The team is serving at an astonishing 94.9% and an ace % of 25.5% and are averaging 12.5 aces per match currently. The team has 7 players who have notched at least 1 ace.
Summit received the first serve, Kiera Stocks delivered a perfect pass to Kasey Walsh who then set the OH newcomer Vivian Roberts for a kill and that got the Hilltoppers off to a 4-1 run (Walsh ace, Eva Oberhuber block). Despite a break of serve, the Royals were not able to convert on their serve and SHS went on 7-0 run to blow open the game early. DS Sarah Brennan forced multiple Oak Knoll errors with her serves and earned 3 aces to give the Hilltoppers the cushion they needed for the game. Oak Knoll needed a spark to get them back in the game but Roberts put down another kill to quelch any hope of that and Summit went on another run, 8-0, in which Erin Vostal got a kill and a stuff block, Stocks had 2 aces and a kill and Brennan also got a kill to push the score to 19-2. Although the game was firmly out of hand, SHS did not want to open the door for any comeback and the message was sent with another 6-1 run that closed the game 25-3.
Game 2 saw the debut of Olivia Lawlor at Setter, and Rebecca Thompson, Alexis Barnes and Annabella Yorio saw action as well. 9th Grader Zoe Zacharias led off the game setting from the backrow and served an ace to start which sparked a 3-0 run that saw Catherine Eldridge get a stuff block for the Hilltopper defense. Eldridge and Vostal were heavily involved in an 8-4 run after a Royal service break (3 kills combined) that had Summit leading 11-5 and looking like another decisive result was imminent. It quickly became apparent that was the reality in today's outcome for the Blue and White as SHS ripped off a 5-0 run after the Royals made the score 12-6 to essentially put the game out of hand. Vostal spearheaded the run with 2 aces and constant pressured which caused many errant passes by the Oak Knoll squad. A brief 3-0 run cut the lead to 8 at 9-17 but the Royals gave it back to the Hilltoppers after a service error and Zacharias ripped an ace to get the lead back up to 20-9. Oak Knoll managed one more point of a stuff block but the Hilltoppers earned a point off a Royal service error and got two more aces by Brennan and an overpass kill by Roberts to close the game and match 25-10.
Sarah Brennan takes home player of the match honors with a 5 ace, 1 kill, 5 dig performance that tied her for the team lead in points with 6!
The Hilltoppers did not have many offensive opportunities against a team that struggled with their serve receive but still managed 12 kills with only 1 error and out-scored the Royals 28-6 for the match. Roberts and Vostal combined for 3 kills apiece to lead the team and Vostal led all offensive players with 6 points (3k, 2ace, 1 block). Stocks and Brennan anchored a solid defense that thwarted most of the Oak Knoll attacks, notching 5 digs apiece.
Of note, the main serve receivers (Brennan, Meghan Tarashuk, Gabbie Guidetti, Stocks) have been stellar in these first two matches, giving up only 6 aces in 4 games. The team is also putting up prefect passes off receive at nearly 37% which is allowing them the use of their middle offense.
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