9TH GRADERS GET FIRST ROAD WIN AT COUGAR DEN
The young Hilltoppers continued their winning ways with their first road win of the season to improve to 2-0 against rival Cranford. Cranford served first in set but neither team got any advantage until rotation 4 when Cranford rattled off 4 points to take an 8-3 lead. Caroline Henry responded for the Hilltoppers with a 5-0 run and the squads were knotted again at 9. The Cougars and the Top could not find any daylight among themselves though until rotation 9 with SHS up 17-15 and with the serve. Molly Davies managed to lead the squad with a 3-0 mini run and Summit finally looked like they would break the Cougar spirit as they entered rotation 10 with a 21-16 lead. The set ended devoid of any major runs and the Hilltoppers wrapped it up 25-17.
Set 2 proved to be a tight affair as the 9th grade squad found itself down 9-4 by rotation 3 but the team kept clawing back over the next 3 rotations to trim the lead down to one at 14-13 thanks to the service rotation by Emily Handal who pushed SHS to a 6-0 run. Late in the set, the Hilltoppers were down 19-18 but had Gabriela Nowicka come off the bench and spur a 3-0 run that got SHS ahead 21-20. Cranford fought back to a 23-22 lead but a service break got the Top to 23-23 and Ava Feuerstake wrapped it up off the bench with a 2-0 run that sealed the set and match, 25-23.
JUNIOR VARSITY OUTLASTS CRANFORD IN 3 SET BATTLE
SHS started off this rivalry game in a very auspicious manner as the Top was looking at an 8-1 deficit forcing Coach Ross into an early time-out. Although the time-out settled the troops, Summit still needed to get a run going to cut into the lead. Down 10-3, Emily Demm rattled off a few aces in a 4-0 run that got the Maroon and White within striking distance at 10-7. Cranford could not shake SHS and while still trailing 12-9, Summit turned to Abby Wells and the junior responded with a 5 point service run that allowed the Hilltoppers to pull even with the Cougars by the end of the first 6 rotations at 14-14. The next 6 rotations were nail biters! Summit jumped ahead 19-17 just to see Cranford go ahead 20-19. SHS goes ahead 21-20 but Cranford responds and take charge, going ahead 22-21. The Top broke serve to knot up the score at 22 but Cranford broke right back for a 23-22 lead and followed up with an ace to earn 2 match points with the serve. But the young JV did not falter and after breaking serve and staving off one match point, it was Wells who pulled the Hilltoppers to victory with 3 crucial, pressure filled serves to seal set 1 26-24.
Set 2 was the Cougar comeback as Cranford took the set 25-21, coming back from 7-1 and 11-2 deficits thanks to Demm and Wells again. But this time, the Hilltoppers were the ones that faltered and after taking the lead 16-12 after rotation 6, the Top was unable to handle the Cougar serving attack and a 3-0 run (2 aces) had Cranford and SHS knotted up at 16. Neither team was able to do much for the next few rotations and unsurprisingly both squads were knotted up at 21 after 9 rotations. But the Cougars stepped up their service again and ended the Hilltoppers on a 3-0 run for the 25-21 win.
The deciding set had the Cougars loving their chances for an upset but the Hilltoppers fixed their receive woes of the 2nd set and were efficiently lethal in their service game which led to a very productive offense. Demm again was the catalyst as the sophomore ran off 5 service points (2 aces) to force a Cranford time-out at 9-2 and added 2 more points after the TO to give Summit the early advantage through only 3 rotations at 11-3. With the recent memory of the 2nd set and giving up the big lead, SHS needed to focus on their receiving game and so they did, not allowing the Cougars to go on any runs, allowing Summit to hold a 17-6 lead through 6 rotations. To the Cougar's credit, the squad did not give up and managed one rotation that had Summit a bit rattled after a 5-0 run which forced Coach Ross to call a time-out as the Top saw Cranford whittle the Hilltoppers lead down to 17-11. After a service break by Summit (18-11), Emily Griffith gave SHS some breathing room and the near certainty of a win with 2 huge serves (1 ace) that had the Maroon and White back up 20-11. The rest of the set was merely an academic exercise as the Hilltoppers played even with their rivals and closed out the set for their first win, 25-17.
DESPITE INJURY TO LIBERO THOMPSON, HILLTOPPERS COME TOGETHER AND BOUNCE BACK FROM GL LOSS TO EVEN OUT RECORD
The Hilltoppers found out early afternoon that they would be without the services of starting L and Captain Rebekah Thompson which forced the squad to make some adjustments to the line-up they featured against Governor Livingston. Sarah Noa took over the reigns of the backline as the Libero for the match while Tori MacArthur and Thea Rind anchored the other slots in the back with OH Hannah Barlow rounding out the serve receive formations. Hope Basaman and Alison Wauters were moved to the OPP position while Julia Nardino would come in to provide more of a presence out of the middle.
Summit and Cranford opened up the match slowly with serving errors and inconsistent offense being the norm. After a Cougar serving error had SHS down only 1 at 8-7, a 5-0 run by MacArthur (2 aces) had the Cranford players on their heels and Summit in control by a 12-8 score. The Hilltoppers were looking to put things away after a Barlow kill had the Top up 16-12 but Cranford got a kill and a SHS error to cut the lead to 16-14. A Cougar serving error and a Nardino block had the Top up 18-14 and with the Summit net presence and serving pressuring the Cougars into errors, the Maroon and White were looking at what seemed an insurmountable 20-15 lead. Cranford did not wilt however and came up with 2 kills, an ace and benefitted from 1 hitting error around a Roberts kill to force Coach Martins into a time-out hanging on to a 21-19 lead. Eva Oberhuber notched a kill coming out of the time-out and the Top got a little more breathing room. SHS had the ball with a 23-20 lead but yet again, 2 Cougar kills and a SHS ball handling error had the set knotted up at 23! But then, a perfect 3.0 pass by Noa led to a crucial kill by Barlow that put the sophomore on the service line with the set in hand. Barlow sent a screamer over the net that forced a free ball which was perfectly passed ball by Noa and Vivian Roberts wrapped it up with another kill off the left side for the 25-23 set 1 win.
Top Set 1 Stat Highlights:
MacArthur- 2 aces, 2.57 serve rating
Barlow- 5/5 passing, perfect 3.00 pass rating, 3 kills, .250 efficiency, 37.5% kill %, 3 points
Oberhuber, Rind- 2 digs each
Nardino- 1 block
Set 2 began with the Top on serve receive and the Cougars jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead to open things up. A service error got the Top off the hook and Noa followed up with an ace to begin things for the Hilltoppers. A kill by Cranford had the visitors up 7-4 early on but went on a 4-0 run (Nardino kill, Oberhuber block and kill, Roberts kill) to erase that deficit.
Summit saw the Cougars regain control of the set after trailing 10-8 a few rotations later as their rival tallied 4 of 5 points in a run fueled by 2 serving errors, a hitting error and an ace allowed by the Top. SHS steadied the boat after an Oberhuber block knotted the score at 12 and the home side proceeded to take six of the next 7 points off a really consistent and well placed service attack (Noa and Cece Webb 1 ace each). Two successful attacks by Roberts had the Top up 20-16 late which was followed by 2 aces by MacArthur which all but ended the Cougars' hopes at 23-17. The senior DS ripped two final serves that forced the Cranford attack into 2 hitting errors and sealed the 2-0 win versus their rival!
Top Set 2 Stat Highlights:
Noa and MacArthur- 2 aces each, combined 10/11 from service line, 2.20 and 2.33 serve rating respectively
Roberts- 4 kills, .667 efficiency and 66.7% kill %, 4 points, +3 for set
Zacharias- 2 digs, 7 assists
Oberhuber- 2 blocks, +3 for set
FOR THE MATCH:
Top Point Scorer: Roberts, 6 points
Top Assists: Zacharias, 13 assists
Top Blocker: Oberhuber, 2 blocks
Top Digs: Oberhuber, 3 digs
Top Kills / Offensive Efficiency: Roberts, 6 kills, .308
Top Receiver / Pass Rating: Barlow, 8/8, perfect 3.00 rating
Top Aces / Serve Rating: MacArthur, 4 aces, 2.46 serve rating
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