LADY HILLTOPPER VBALL BLOG : July 2021

Saturday, July 17, 2021

2021 SEASON 3 HILLTOPPERS LEAVE LASTING LEGACY

As we get closer to Fall 2021 Season, it is time to take a look back at we accomplished last season from a team and individual perspective.

State Sectional Semi-Finalist (3rd time in Program History)

County Quarter-Finalist

Ranked 5th for County Tournament (3rd best ranking for tournament in tournament)

Finished Season Ranked 7th (3rd best final season ranking in Program History)

3 players earned All County Honors -most ever- (Walsh 1st Team, Roberts 2nd Team, Vostal 3rd Team)

4 players earned All Conference Honors -most ever- (Walsh / Roberts 1st Team, Stocks / Vostal Honorable Mention)

Union County Stat Leader Rankings

Kills

Roberts #14

Maldonado #17

Vostal #18

Blocks

Eldridge #6

Vostal #14

Assists

Walsh #4

Aces

Tarashuk #1

Guidetti #21

Digs

Stocks #9

SUMMER LEAGUE UPDATE - HALFWAY POINT OF LEAGUE PLAY 7/14

The Hilltoppers have played in the Impact Volleyball Summer Varsity League since the 5th of July. The league features the following teams:

Union Catholic - #4 Union County

Westfield - 2021 COUNTY CHAMPS #15 NJ

Scotch Plains-Fanwood - 2021 COUNTY Runner-Up and 2021 State Sectional Champion #21 NJ

Elizabeth

JP Stevens #13 NJ

St. Thomas Aquinas

Mother Seton 2021 GMC Division Champion

All Season Sports (Players from Elizabeth/Rahway/Union)

Rahway

Linden

Colonia 2021 State Sectional Runner-Up

Roselle Catholic

Woodbridge

South Plainfield

Union #5 Union County

SUMMIT #7 Union County, State Sectional Semi-Finalist

Match-Day 1 Result

vs. St. Thomas Aquinas 1W-1L

vs. Season 0W-2L

First time playing since March. Combination of Varsity and rising 11th graders. Oberhuber injured prior to summer league so not available. New rotation, new positions, just trying to get good reps. Good start, especially for JV athletes playing inn first real varsity experience.

Match-Day 2

vs. Elizabeth 0W-2L

vs. Westfield 0W-2L

Tough opponents in this match day and right before we started, Jackie Szabados hurts her knee in warmups and we have to scramble to adjust (optimistic prognosis right now). Played well but new rotations and alignments caused issues which caused loss. We settled into rotations nicely by last match vs. Westfield and barely lost each set vs. County Champs! We were very happy with our performance!

Match-Day 3

vs. Woodbridge 1W-1L

vs. Rahway 1W-1L

Had only 7 players for each match. Had defensive players in offensive positions and had legitimately only 2 attacking players yet the ladies stepped up and earned two hard-fought victories.

Match-Day 4

vs. Roselle Catholic 2W-0L

vs. Colonia 1W-1L

Still only 7 players but this day we had 3 offensive players and our DS athletes got more comfortable attacking today and it showed. We had our best Match-Day yet and dug our way from the 15th position entering the day to 10th spot by the end of the night. We return to a more normal lineup next week, hoping for another strong outing Match-Day 5 and 6.

2022 TEAM HIGHLIGHTS

SUMMIT HIGH SCHOOL FALL 2022 The 2022 season saw the Lady Hilltoppers win 16 matches, the highest number of wins the team has earned since 2011 and earn the 4th best winning % in program history and the 3rd most wins all-time. The 2022 Team reached the quarter-finals of the state sectional tournament for only the 5th time in program history for the third consecutive time and earned the 2nd highest county tournament ranking in program history. The 2022 Team had 2 players earn All-County recognition (First and Second Team All-County) and 3 players earned All-Conference recognition (2 First Team and 1 Honorable Mention), the 2nd most in program history.

STATS AND RANKS

The 2022 Hilltoppers were the best offensive team the school has ever seen. The Squad ends with the most total kills and kills per game in its history. It also finishes with the best kill %, hitting efficiency and net kills/game. The team also finishes with the most points ever scored and the most points per set average. The prior record had been 770 points by the 2011 Squad and 14 points per set average by the 2012 Team but the 2022 Hilltoppers smashed those records with 909 Total Points and a 14.90 Points per Set Average. The 2022 Hilltoppers notched the 2nd best number of total aces and had the best total number of blocks and third best blocks per game. The team also notched the 3rd best total number of digs and digs per game.

TEAM ACADEMIC AWARDS

THE 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2021 WINTER, 2021 FALL AND THE 2022 TEAMS EARNED THE AVCA TEAM ACADEMIC AWARD! LESS THAN 50 NJ SCHOOLS GOT THE AWARD OVER THE LAST 6 YEARS.!!! LESS THAN 415 HIGH SCHOOLS NATIONALLY!!! ***Additionally, the top 20% of team GPAs from each division are designated as Team Academic Honor Roll schools, representing the highest scholarly achievement in our sport.*** SUMMIT HIGH SCHOOL EARNED THE AMERICAN VOLLEYBALL COACHES ASSOCIATION TEAM ACADEMIC HONOR ROLL EVERY YEAR SINCE ITS INCEPTION IN THE 2020-21 SCHOOL YEAR

COLLEGE OF SAINT ELIZABETH - COACHING RECORD

SAINT ELIZABETH UNIVERSITY (4 SEASONS) I led the CSE Women’s Volleyball program for 4 seasons and guided the Screaming Eagles to its most successful campaign in program history in 2012. The team posted the most wins ever in the history of the program (22W), the best overall record (22W-7L), the most wins in the NEAC since CSE joined the conference (6W), the best team record in the NEAC since CSE joined the conference (6W-6L) and tied the highest finish ever in the NEAC. In 2013, despite losing 4 starters and the starting setter for most of the season, the Eagles finished over .500 at the end of the season for the 3rd consecutive year. Of note, those were the only 3 seasons (2011-12-13) that the program had ever been over .500. The Eagles had 5 players ranked in the top 50 nationally for Aces per Set in the past 3 seasons, including a 14th best national ranking in 2012 and a 17th best in 2013. The team was also ranked 11th nationally in the same category in 2011, 12th in 2012 and 21st in 2013. CSE was the highest ranked DIII team in NJ in that category as well for the first time (2nd highest in 2011-12). The Eagles were also the only NJ DIII team to earn the coveted American Volleyball Coaches Association Team All-Academic Award for 2012-13 AND 2013-14.