Friday, August 27, 2021

SCRIMMAGE SEASON HAS BEGUN

 The 2021 pre-season opened with 3 scrimmages versus  Kent Place, Payne Tech and at Wardlaw on 8/27.  

JV took care of the Kent Place Dragons 2-0 and continued their recent dominance over their neighbors.  Varsity struggled handling the Dragons service attack and dropped all 3 sets to Kent Place.  In the two sets that were recorded,  Zacharias and Roberts had the only 2 aces of the match for Summit but their Morris Avenue rivals hit for 9.  Roberts had 4 kills on 8 swings and Webb had 2 from 4 attacks to lead the Hilltoppers attack.  Both athletes also hit at a team leading .500 efficiency.   

Defensively,  the Maroon and White could not keep KP attacks off the ground and managed only 9 total digs with Laws and Thompson notching 2 digs apiece.  The blocking defense of the Top was outstanding though with the team notching 5 blocks in those 2 sets,  Nardino with 2,  Wauters with 1,  Oberhuber with 1 and Roberts with 1.  Roberts led the team with 6 points.

Payne Tech had to cancel their scrimmage at all levels due to Covid related issues and the JV and Varsity squads engaged in an intra-squad scrimmage with JV starting each set with a 10-0 lead.  JV dominated set 1 and won 25-11.  Varsity bounced back with a 25-21 win in set 2 and a 25-18 win in set 3.  

Barlow and Noa caused the Junior Varsity many problems from the service line and led the squad with 7 aces apiece.  JV forced the Varsity Team into many out of system passes,  especially set one,  and kept the squad to a low 1.57 pass rating and forced the Varsity into only 6/23 perfect passes.  Webb and Barlow led the team offensively with combined 6 kills  out of 10 attempts (Barlow 2 and Webb 4).  Thompson was very involved defensively and notched a team leading 6 digs out of the team total 15 and led the team with a 40% perfect pass rate on serve receive.

Lipschitz notched a team leading 7 assists in the scrimmage and was involved in 1 of the 2 Varsity blocks.  Barlow and Noa  combined for 16 of the team's 32 points (Barlow 9 and Noa 7) and Noa led the DS crew with a +6 net point production while Webb led the offensive players with a net +5.  

Junior Varsity opened their last scrimmage of the week with a resounding and dominant 2-0 win versus the Wardlaw Rams using their service attack and consistent offense to power through each set comfortably.  Varsity followed and took all 3 sets by 25-13,  25-13 and 25-17 scores.  Thompson and Wauters were outstanding from the service line, hitting for 8 aces total -4 apiece- going for a combined 17/19 from the service line.  Wauters led the squad with a 3.0 service rating.  Thompson had nearly a 50% perfect pass rating,  handled 12 of the team's 38 pass attempts and passed at a 2.25 pass rating.  Rind however,  passed at a whopping 2.5 rating putting up perfect passes on 4 of the 6 serves she received.  

Offensively,  the team had 30 kills on 66 swings and hit at a .303 efficiency!  Barlow and Oberhuber were lethal with 7 kills apiece,  Oberhuber with a kill % of 70% and an efficiency of .600 to lead the squad. Wauters was also very effective starting from the OH spot for the first time,  notching 5 kills on only 9 swings with a .444 efficiency,  2nd on the team.  

Thompson thwarted numerous Ram attacks digging up a team leading 11 balls out of the team's 24 total digs while Oberhuber, Webb and Wauters combined for 4 blocks (2-1-1 respectively) to round out the defensive Hilltopper efforts.

Zacharias led a very effective offensive output today with 24 assists.  Wauters led Summit in scoring with 10 points,  Oberhuber next with 9 and Barlow took 3rd spot with 7 points.  Wauters and Oberhuber were the most efficient point scorers with a team leading net point prodiuction of +7 and +6 respectively.  

Most of Varsity and JV will practice at VBRAGS on Saturday 28th and all levels will resume practice on Monday, opening day of school,  and have a busy week with 3 home scrimmages against good teams (Lakeland Regional, Ridge and Cedar Grove) as the squad will tune up in preparation for the start of the season.


 

Thursday, August 19, 2021

THE FUTURE OF THE PROGRAM HAS BEEN SELECTED: INTRODUCING THE 9TH GRADE SQUAD

Thank you athletes for your attitude and positive outlook today!  That second round of assessment is always so pressurized for you ladies and we appreciate your effort today and are very happy with what we saw on the court.  

However,  this is a numbers game and these young ladies listed below have been selected to form the future of the program! Congratulations!


Juliana Alicea

Maya Bofinger

Abby Cammarano

Tessa Cusumano

Molly Davies

Ava Feuerstake

Allish Gutshall

Emilia Handal

Caroline Henry

Emma Herring

Amanda Jimenez

Gabriela Nowicka

Mira Oberoi

Jaime Penner

Mariana Porsse

Tutku Sabuncu

Elizabeth Toh

Valerie Wisniewski




Tuesday, August 17, 2021

INTRODUCING........ THE FALL 2021 JUNIOR VARSITY AND VARSITY LADY HILLTOPPERS

In Fall of 2018,  the Summit Lady Hilltoppers Volleyball Program saw the highest turnout ever for tryouts.  That August, 68 young ladies attended try-outs:  29 ninth graders and 39 upperclasswomen.That was a number we did not think could get much larger.  That was until this year.  

This summer we had 73 try-out for the squad including a whopping 36 ninth graders.  It is a great testament to the kids on this team who established a culture of family, friendship and winning long before before the Ws were even part of our story.  It is also a reflection of the fact that this sport is by far the #1 female high school team sport in the country by a wide margin.  But with every piece of good news comes the reality that we are limited in how many players we can effectively train and play in any given year.  

The coaching staff would like to thank all who attended the try-outs and gave us all they had in the process.  Couldn't be prouder of all of you for the effort and commitment.  We will be sending out via BAND brief evals to each player who did not make one of the two levels by the end of the week and posting on BAND links to further training options if the goal is to try-out again next year.  WE ARE LOOKING FOR MANAGERS if you want to be a part of the squad and get some side training in season (reach out to me via BAND).

Also want to CONGRATULATE those who made it and emphasize that the work has just begun!  


VARSITY

Captain - Sr. Rebekah Thompson

Soph. Hannah Barlow

Sr. Hope Basaman

Sr. Aya Laws

Jr. Ally Lipschitz

Sr. Victoria MacArthur

Soph. Julia Nardino

Sr. Sarah Noa

Sr. Eva Oberhuber

Sr. Jordan Parella*

Sr. Thea Rind

Jr. Vivian Roberts

Sr. Jaclyn Szabados*

Jr. Alison Wauters

Jr. Cece Webb

Soph. Zoe Zacharias

*currently injured


JUNIOR VARSITY

Soph. Camille Carino

Jr. Jessica Clark

Soph. Kate Cooper

Soph. Emily Demm

Soph. Emily Griffith

Soph. Emerson Honigstock

Soph. Sophie Indelicato

Soph. Anna Joseph

Soph. Maeve Keegan

Jr. Naya Kim

Soph. Ally Liguori

Soph. Isabelle Meltzer

Soph. Abby Thompson

Soph. Elizabeth Walsh

Jr. Abby Wells

Jr. Stella Yarden



Tuesday, August 10, 2021

COACHING ANNOUNCEMENT!!!


WE WANT TO WELCOME THE LADY HILLTOPPERS NEW NINTH GRADE COACH,  
MS. ASHLEY SEIFERT !

Coach Ashley Seifert is starting her 1st year as a Health and Physical Education Teacher at Lawton C. Johnson Summit Middle School in 2021-22. Coach Seifert is Rowan University graduate with a Bachelor of Science in Health and Physical Education.

Coach Seifert graduated Jonathan Dayton High School in Springfield NJ where she played volleyball during her entire high school career as an Opposite and also had a year experience in the CRUSH volleyball league. At Rowan University, Coach Seifert continued playing volleyball at the Intramural Level.

Coach Seifert begins her coaching journey with the Lady Hilltoppers after volunteering last season with Coach Gutierrez and the 9th Grade Team and also volunteered with the Boys Junior Varsity Volleyball Team in the Spring (Season 4) under Head Coach John Ross.

Coach Seifert's coaching philosophy is as follows:

My overall goal, as a volleyball coach, is to develop players that can individually strive as well as work together as team mates. Throughout the season, players will have the opportunity for growth on and off of the court. It is essential for athletes to gain all the confidence to set goals and believe that they can reach them to their fullest potential. I believe that setting a positive environment is what gives players the motivation to practice hard and to play their best. Passion is what drives a team to success. Ultimately, I am looking forward to giving my players the tools they need, which will lead them to achieve success and most importantly, have fun.