The 9th Grade Program continued its undefeated season with a 28-26, 25-23 hard fought victory on the road by the Hilltoppers. Since Season 3 of 2021, the 9th Grade Program has posted a 15-0 record despite having more kids on a team than usually recommended AND despite having more inexperienced players than most teams we face. A credit to the girls and to the COACHING STAFF OF 1 in both seasons to manage and improve the squad! The work that is done at this level is the backbone of the success of JV (currently 8-1) and, eventually, Varsity (currently 6-3). Congrats Ladies!!!!
The JV Program that had lost to GL in 2 at the Highlander home court in the very first game of the season right after the squad had found out that they had lost one of their setters for the foreseeable future with a hand injury relied on a late Emily Demm service run to turn a 17-17 set one score at home into 24-17 and the set was finally won by Summit 25-17. Set 2 saw the Hilltoppers yet again embroiled in a tight match and clinging to a 19-18 lead late. Jessica Clark save an errant pass and sent it to zone 5 on a free ball and the location was perfect, leading to an unlikely kill and a game changing 23-21 scor line. Ally Liguori nailed an ace and served another tough serve that led to the final GL error and the 25-21 set 2 and match win to erase their only loss of the year.
The Varsity Squad entered the match with Governor Livingston off their impressive win over Cranford and a good tournament run versus in the Heal The Children Tournament. With three losses already on the ledger in division play, the Hilltoppers needed an upset win to stay in the hunt for the divisional title, a task made more difficult by the fact that the program had not defeated GL since 2016.
Vivia Roberts set the tone early with 2 kills that propelled the Hilltoppers to 4-2 lead although the team found themselves trailing 6-5 a couple of rotations later. But an unlikely yet impressive 8-0 run by Summit turned the set on its head fueled by Alison Wauters with 2 kills, Eva Oberhuber with one and a number of forced and unforced errors by the Highlander team. GL could not seem to get any closer than 6 points and, with the score 16-10 after a Governor Livingston kill, Roberts ripped a kill to zone 6 that brought Hope Basaman to the service line. Basaman proceeded to go on a 7-0 run (5 aces!) that was paused by a GL time-out at 24-10 and despite a break of service, the squad wrapped set one up with a service error by the visiting squad and the scoreboard showing 25-11.
Set 2 was eerily similar as the Top got out to a 6-3 lead with Roberts notching another 3 kills early and Julia Nardino ripping an ace during a 3 point service run. GL fought back again to tie the score 8-8 but the Summit squad found a way to earn a 2 point lead at the midpoint in the match at 13-11. Nardino from the service line was again the catalyst for a mini run with an ace that sparked an Oberhuber kill to get SHS a 16-11 lead. A rotation later, Torie MacArthur ripped an ace and forced GL into an easy attack that SHS converted into a Wauters kill for a 19-12 lead. The end was near so long as the Top kept themselves out of some kind of error streak.
The Highlanders fought back with offense and erased the lead down to 4 at 19-15 and got as close as 21-19 but the Hilltoppers got a huge kill by Basaman and Sarah Noa drove a serve at the GL defense that forced a hitting error and the home team was looking at a 23-19 lead. A service break gave the Highlanders hope but Roberts squashed it with a decisive kill and finished it off with a block point to punctuate a huge win for the team!
Varsity record, 6-3.
Basaman led the team with 6 aces and a 2.79 serve rating.
Rebekah Thompson had a 50% perfect pass performance and led the team with a 2.20 pass rating and 8 digs.
Roberts again led the offense with 9 kills and a .375 efficiency.
Nardino was a pest at the net with 3 blocks defensively.
Zoe Zacharias ran a very efficient offense (.262 efficiency) getting 18 assists from 4 different players.
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