The Lady Hilltoppers took to the road and traveled to #18 Clifton in their last tuneup match before the State Sectional Quarterfinals. Summit would be without the services of MB Julia Nardino unfortunately but Hope Basaman would slide into the MB role and Hannah Barlow would take the OPP as the team hoped the previous experience of Basaman as the MB would be sufficient to carry the team through the match.
As in many of the contests against upper echelon teams this year, the Hilltoppers look like they could compete early on but somehow, later in sets, the SHS squad always seems to commit a rash of errors that prevent them from really threatening their opponent. Such was the case on this matchup. Two kills by Vivian Roberts and an ace by Basaman had the Top up 3-1 early and the team looked confident and sharp to start the contest. A 3-0 run by the Mustangs had Summit down by one but Roberts powered a shot through the Mustang block to even the score at 5. Eva Oberhuber got into the mix a rotation later with a slide kill and the Maroon and Black stood even with Clifton at 6-6. But then Summit committed 3 unforced hitting and blocking errors and suffered an ace to give the Mustangs a 10-6 lead. SHS won a long rally and got yet another kill by Roberts to get within 2 but the Mustangs got control back and eventually extended the lead to 5 at 15-10 as the Top just could not seem to find offense outside of Roberts. SHS got back into the set with some tough serving by Torie MacArthur who forced a hitting error by the Clifton and the Top was again within striking distance at 12-15. A kill by the home side broke the Summit momentum and after an ace, Coach Martins called a TO. Coming off the time-out, SHS got a perfect pass up but an unforced hitting error followed and the subsequent serve receive play yielded another perfect pass that was also hit out of bounds without any pressure and the Clifton side, all of a sudden had a 19-12 lead. Summit straightened itself out and won the next three out of four points with Oberhuber getting a kill in the run to get Summit within 5 again at 15-20. But SHS could not cut into the lead any further and after they got to 17-22, the Mustangs closed it out 25-17 thanks to 3 consecutive errors (2 hitting, 1 setting) by the Hilltoppers.
Set 2 began terribly for the Maroon and Black as the team found itself 5-0. A Roberts kill stopped the run but the Mustangs sensed the set could be over early and got another 3-0 run to run up a 7 point lead to 8-1. The lead got up to 8 and there it stayed despite numerous good plays by the Hilltoppers, they just could not whittle that lead down and the Mustangs finished it off with a kill and, appropriately enough, a Hilltopper hitting error to win the set and match 25-16.
Basaman remains the biggest threat off the service line going 6/6 with one ace and winning 50% of her service points. Sarah Noa was also outstanding versus Clifton going 8/8 with one ace. Despite being targeted early, Rebekah Thompson got back on track with 17/19 on serve receive with a team leading 1.84 pass rating and 5 perfect passes. Roberts was once again an offensive factor with a team leading 5 kills, a team leading .250 efficiency and kill percentage of 41.7%.
Defensively, Roberts and Thompson saved 17 of the team's total digs but the squad was not able to convert on enough of those which was a factor in the loss. Basaman was involved in the blocking defense with 2 assists as she filled in admirably for the team's leading blocker Nardino.
The Mustangs out-killed the Summit Hilltoppers 23-12 and held a 9-4 lead in aces and blocks. The Summit number that stands out though is the 12-7 hitting error advantage the Hilltoppers held over the Mustangs. The path to a long run in state sectionals is defined now. Can the Hilltoppers fix the unforced hitting errors while they remain aggressive on offense? The answer to that question will go a long way in determining this team's success in states.
Next up, Millburn, Wednesday, 11/3, 5:30pm, in the Main Gym, Quarter-Finals in State Sectionals.
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