Cranford hosted the 9th Graders while the Varsity and JV traveled to Summit this past Monday. The Summit "Frosh" were looking to sweep the season series while the upper levels had been stung by an efficient serving and hitting Cougar offense on the road that yielded a 2-0 loss on the JV level and a 2-1 loss by Varsity.
The 9th Graders took care of their end of the ledger with a convincing 2-0 victory on the road to improve to 7W-1L.
Junior Varsity had their full squad this time and pushed the Cougars to 3 but were unable to make the key plays in sets 2 and 3 despite their narrow win in set 1 which led to their 2nd defeat at the hands of the Cranford Cougars this season.
Varsity would move to a first place tie with the Cougars atop the Mountain Division while the Cranford squad would be assured no worse than an eventual share of the Division Title with a win of their own so there was a lot of motivation and pressure on both sides.
Summit came out on fire behind Zoe Zacharias who served up 4 service points (1 ace) to give the Top a quick 4-1 lead. Caroline Henry followed up with a 3-0 service run (2 aces) that had Summit up 8-1 and forced an early Cranford TO. The break in action settled the Cougars and the squads exchanged points for a few rotations but at 12-6, following a Cranford serving error, the home team went on a 5-0 run thanks to 5 consecutive aces by Captain Vivian Roberts to force a final Cougar TO with the scoreboard flashing 18-6.
Off the TO, Hannah Barlow scored again with a tip kill and the Cougars were finally able to get the ball back but the damage was done and the 19-7 score-line did all but guarantee that the Hilltoppers would win set 1. Summit ended the set with a kill off the Cranford block by Roberts which capped a final 6-4 run that had SHS on the right side of a 25-11 score.
Summit out-scored Cranford 17-7 with an 8-0 advantage on aces.
Set 2 began eerily similar to the second set at Cranford when the Cougars ripped off a 12-1 run to begin the set and never looked back on the road to winning in 3 sets. In Summit, Cranford shot out to a 4-0 lead but a Cougar serving error gave the ball back to Summit who got an ace from Zacharias and a block from Julia Nardino to crawl back to within 1 at 3-4. The visitors ripped a kill to regain control back but the Hilltoppers responded with an 8-0 run (2 kills by Barlow, kill by Alison Wauters, ace by Stella Yarden) to flip the script on the Cougars and force a TO at 11-5 Summit.
Off the time-out, the visitors responded with a 5-0 run of their own and the match was once again in question for the Top with the score 11-10. But then Wauters hit another of her momentum changing kills to give the Top a 12-10 lead which was then followed by an ace by Barlow, a kill by Zacharias and a back row kill by Barlow to open up a 15-10 Summit lead midway through the set. The Cougars managed to get within 3 again but Barlow nailed another kill and Abby Thompson ripped an ace to force another Cranford TO with the lead back up to 5 at 18-13. Cranford again responded well off the TO but the teams were only able to swap points from that point on and after another Barlow dump kill and ace, Summit were again up by 5 at 23-18. To the visitor's credit, the Cougars did not fold and made a minirun to get within 3 at 23-20 but Yarden kept the pressure going on the serve and Wauters ripped another shot that forced an errant third ball attempt by Cranford which gave the Top 4 match points. Wauters stepped up and delivered a blistering serve that forced an overpass which Cece Webb crushed for the game-winning point in the set and match.
With the win, Summit moved to first place in the division.
Summit out-scored Cranford 20-12 with a 13-5 kill advantage.
Match Statistical Leaders:
Serving: Roberts 5 aces
Serve Rating: Roberts 2.88
Receiving (Perfect Passes): Wauters and Henry 2 apiece
Receiving (Pass Rating): Henry 2.67
Attack (Kills): Barlow 12
Attack (Kill %): Barlow 50.0%
Attack (Efficiency): Barlow .500
Defense (Blocks): Barlow and Nardino 1 apiece
Defense (Digs): Wauters 7
No comments:
Post a Comment