The Hilltoppers earned a hard-fought victory over the Dayton Bulldogs this week, making it 2/2 Wins over teams ahead of them in the standings (Linden and Dayton) and pushing the squad to a share of the lead in the Division with Rahway.
Early in set 1 it was clear this match was going to be close. Welsh had SHS up 5-4 early after an OPP kill but Dayton responded with a 4-0 run that ended with another kill by the Soph OPP which sparked another 4-0 run but this time by the home squad (3k Welsh, Feuerstake 1k). With the score all tied up at 11, Summit erupted for another 4-0 run with Barlow starting it with a kill that led to another Welsh strike and Zacharias ripped 2 aces to bring the Hilltoppers to a 15-11 lead, forcing a Bulldog TO.
Coming out of the TO, Dayton cut the lead down to 15-13 but Welsh again hurt the visitors with a kill which sparked another 4-0 run (Barlow 2 aces) that had the Top up 19-13. Seemingly in control, the team was probably looking at set 2 a bit too prematurely as the Dayton Bulldogs called another timeout which sparked a 3-0 Dayton run. Summit broke serve (20-16) but Dayton responded with a 2-0 run that had the visitors only down 20-18. SHS settled down and struck for a sideout kill by Feuerstake and an ace by Welsh which saw the home side up 22-18 but the visitors were not quite done and struck for a 5-0 run that was only broken by a Dayton service error. The damage, however, was done as the scoreboard showed 23-23. A Summit service error opened the door for Dayton who finished off the comeback with a setter dump for a 25-23 set 1 win.
SHS out-killed Dayton 9-5 and out-aced the visitors 8-4 outscoring the Bulldogs 17-11 but the Top's hitting and serving errors kept the Dayton squad alive and allowed Dayton to stay in the set.
Set 2 was very much a continuation of the opening set's finish as the Top suffered from 2 hitting errors, a setting and a free ball return error which led to a 6-0 Dayton run to open the set. SHS settled down after an early Martins TO with Welsh again striking for a kill but Dayton again responded with a matching 3-0 run and a subsequent 3-1 run which had the Bulldogs up 12-4 and seemingly on the way to an easy set and match win. The Hilltoppers tried to fight back with Welsh again breaking the Dayton momentum with a kill and Joseph stopped the Bulldogs with a block but the home side still trailed 12-6. Despite better play by the Hilltoppers, Dayton matched the Hilltoppers at every turn and Dayton was looking at a 19-11 lead late in the set which seemed to get inextricably closer to a Dayton win. The score turned to 20-11 after a Bulldog kill but the visitors were called for an illegal substitution which reset the score to 19-12 but, most importantly, brought Welsh to the service line.
A blistering serve by the soph led to a Barlow kill which the OPP followed up with an ace, score 14-19. A hitting error by Dayton followed, Barlow hit for another kill while Welsh kept the pressure up with another ace that had Dayton rattled at 17-19. Three Dayton errors later, Summit had flipped the set on its head. Despite a service break, the 20-20 score had the crowd and the team emotionally engaged and hopeful! A hitting Summit error followed but Dayton returned the favor with a service error that Barlow took advantage of with an ace and Zacharias took the next opportunity to place a dump kill down to zone 1 and the Top had a 23-21 lead. Barlow closed the set out with a PIPE kill and SHS had done the impossible and tied the match up at 1 set apiece.
The deciding set was a tight affair and both teams slugged it out early with neither side gaining an advantage at 7-7. But then the Bulldogs exploded for a 5-0 run (4 Summit errors) that forced another Martins TO with the Hilltoppers down 12-7. SHS broke serve with a Barlow kill after the TO but the teams settled back into a point for point slugfest that did not favor the Summit chances to win the match trailing 16-11 but a serving error by Dayton again opened the door for the Hilltoppers putting Barlow on the serving line. The senior started off with an ace which was followed by another Welsh kill. Barlow then ripped another ace and put down a thunderous kill to zone 5 from the PIPE and just like that, Summit had come all the way back to 15-16. A few rotations later, Welsh struck again ripping off 2 aces and getting Barlow another shot at a kill to give SHS a 20-19 lead. Joseph got a timely kill to give the Top a 21-19 lead but Dayton responded with a 3-0 run (kill, ace, SHS fault) to take a 22-21 lead. Barlow struck for a high pressure kill and the Bulldogs followed it up with a hitting error to bring Summit's match point. A ball handling error call against Dayton ended the match one point later as the Hilltoppers had managed to pull off a tremendous comeback against the Bulldogs.
Summit out-killed Dayton 30-22 and out-aced the Bulldogs 16-10 but the visitors notched 6 blocks to Summit's 1 but SHS out-scored the Bulldogs 47 - 38 for the match. The Hilltoppers will have to improve on their serving error performance for the long term success of the team as the squad tallied 17 errors from the service line against the visitors.
Welsh led the squad with a 2.55 serve rating and 7 aces. Barlow led the team with a 2.04 pass rating and Henry led the squad with 9 perfect passes for a 36% perfect pass %. Barlow also led the squad with 13 kills and Welsh had a team leading .353 hitting efficiency and a team leading 47.1 kill%. Henry had a 14 dig performance against the Bulldogs, a career high and team leading performance. Joseph and Zacharias had a block each and Zacharias tallied 29 assists, spreading the offensive opportunities through 7 different hitters.
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