New Providence has always been a tough match-up for the Hilltoppers and have surprised the squad with upset victories more than Summit would care to remember, last year being no different with the Pioneers taking the match at Summit and the Hilltoppers getting some measure of revenge at New Providence later in the season. But 2022 opened with the Top visiting the Pioneers in the opening match and this time, despite a shaky start, Summit used its physicality to earn their second consecutive win of the season.
SHS opened up set 1 rather auspiciously with 3 hitting errors, 1 service error and a free ball return error all leading to a 6-2 deficit. But the Top got back on track with a 5-0 run fueled by an ace and a block by Alison Wauters and a block and a kill by Vivian Roberts. Despite the run ending after another hitting error by SHS, Summit found Roberts again for two more kills while the Pioneers just mustered 2 hitting errors. The Hilltoppers found themselves up 11-7 after their 9-1 run and extended the run with kills by Wauters and Roberts to take a 13-8 lead.
New Providence needed a response before the set got out of reach and a response is what they got thanks to 3 SHS errors and a Pioneer kill. A serving error ended the run and Summit had a mere 14-12 lead. At 14-13, SHS ripped another 4-0 run with Wauters notching a kill and Caroline Henry chipping in with an ace giving the Hilltoppers an 18-13 lead. New Prov cut into that lead again but Summit again responded with a 3-0 run with Hannah Barlow dropping two aces and extending the lead to 21-15, forcing a Pioneer TO. Roberts put any hopes away in the next few rotations with two more kills and sealing the set 1 win, 25-18.
Set 2 had a different feel as the Pioneers switched to their starting Libero but the results were actually better for the Top. After a quick 2-0 lead (2 Barlow kills), the New Prov side quickly tied the matter at 2 but Summit yet again responded with a 2-0 run. The Pioneers then notched their largest run of the match with a 4-0 run that saw the home side up 6-4 but Summit fired off a 7-0 run fueled by 2 Roberts' kills to take control of set 2 11-6. Both teams traded points in the next few rotations but Barlow hit for a kill and Nardino had a block to extend the lead to 6 at 16-10 and force a Pioneer TO. Coming off the timeout, the New Prov side was able to cut the lead to 3 at 16-13 but a Wauters kill and a Henry ace yet again stymied any New Prov comeback and had the Top up 19-13. Roberts and Barlow again struck for kills and Emily Demm came in off the bench to add 2 kills of her own to get Summit to within 1 point of the win at 24-17. New Prov served up an error to end the set and match 25-19 and the Hilltoppers improved to 2W-0L on this young season.
Summit had 4 players hit for at least one ace - Wauters, Barlow and Henry with 2 and Roberts with 1; Wauters was particularly effective with a 2.71 serve rating and a 100% serving %.
Stella Yarden, Henry and Barlow led the squad with 23 attempted service receptions and had a team leading 2.11, 2.77 and 2.33 pass rating, respectively.
Roberts led the squad with 9 kills but Barlow and Wauters contributed with 5 and 6 kills, respectively. Roberts was also the team leader with a .300 efficiency and a kill % of 45%. Wauters also had an effective day with a 35.3% kill %, 2nd on the squad.
Wauters led the squad with 7 digs but Barlow and Roberts were not too far behind, contributing 6 apiece.
Julia Nardino, Cece Webb and Wauters had 13 block touches and notched a block each in the match along with one from Roberts.
Zoe Zacharias had a busy day, notching 21 assists and adding 5 digs on defense.
The top point scorer for the squad today was Roberts with 11 while Wauters earned 9 to lead the squad.
SHS outscored New Providence 32-9 for the match.
Next up: Rahway on Wednesday at home.
No comments:
Post a Comment