10/14-10/24 VARSITY REVIEW

OAK KNOLL

A 2-0 win over the Royals of Oak Knoll evened out the Top's record to 9-9 as the team got ready for the start of the county tournament as the #5 seed.  Summit out-scored Oak Knoll 26-19 for the 25-18, 25-17 win.

MATCH STATS: BEASTS - BY THE NUMBERS:

ACE - Henry 4

SERVE RATING (at least 7% of team attempts) - Basaman 2.80

SERVE % (at least 7% of team attempts) - Basaman and A. Feuerstake 100%

PASS RATING (1.8 or higher) - Ge 2.14

PERFECT PASSES - Henry 4

KILLS - Nowicka 5

EFFICIENCY (at least 10% of team attempts) - Welsh .500

KILL % (at least 10% of team attempts) - Welsh 50%

DIGS - Ge 12

BLOCKS - Herring 1

ASSISTS - Welsh 15

***TOP POINT SCORER (Kills, Aces, Blocks***)

Nowicka 5

NEW PROVIDENCE

Next up were the Pioneers of New Prov and the Hilltoppers got more of a match than the squad expected from a very improved team.  Summit won 25-21,  21-25,  25-15 in a preview of the County Tournament's 1st Round matchup the very next day.  SHS scored 50 points in the match versus 33 from New Prov to move to 10W-9L.  

MATCH STATS: BEASTS - BY THE NUMBERS:

ACE - A. Feuerstake and Welsh 4

SERVE RATING (at least 7% of team attempts) - Welsh 2.90

SERVE % (at least 7% of team attempts) - N Feuerstake 100%

PASS RATING (1.8 or higher) - Henry 1.81

PERFECT PASSES - Henry 5

KILLS - Devaney 10

EFFICIENCY (at least 10% of team attempts) - Devaney .467

KILL % (at least 10% of team attempts) - Devaney 66.7%

DIGS - Henry and Ge 10

BLOCKS - Devaney and Welsh 1

ASSISTS - Welsh 32

***TOP POINT SCORERS (Kills, Aces, Blocks***)

Ge and Devaney 11

ROUND 1 COUNTY - NEW PROVIDENCE

The very next day the Hilltoppers welcomed back their New Providence neighbors into the main gym but this time with much more on the line.  Summit improved to 11W-9L with a 25-14, 25-20 win and moved on to the Quarterfinals against the Kent Place Dragons by out-scoring the Pioneers 38 - 17.

MATCH STATS: BEASTS - BY THE NUMBERS:

ACE - Welsh 8

SERVE RATING (at least 7% of team attempts) - Ge 3.00

SERVE % (at least 7% of team attempts) - Ge 100%

PASS RATING (1.8 or higher) - Henry 2.40

PERFECT PASSES - Henry 6

KILLS - Devaney 7

EFFICIENCY (at least 10% of team attempts) - Herring .400

KILL % (at least 10% of team attempts) - Devaney 63.6%

DIGS - Henry 8

BLOCKS - Herring, N Feuerstake 1

ASSISTS - Welsh 19

***TOP POINT SCORERS (Kills, Aces, Blocks***)

Welsh 7

ALJ

The Top traveled to Clark on Friday to take on the Crusaders of ALJ and probably got more of a match than they bargained for as the Crusaders pushed the Hilltoppers to OT with Summit earning a hard fought 25-21 and 28-26 victory to move to 12W-9L.  SHS out-scored ALJ 44-26. 

MATCH STATS: BEASTS - BY THE NUMBERS:

ACE - Welsh 5

SERVE RATING (at least 7% of team attempts) - Welsh 5 aces

SERVE % (at least 7% of team attempts) - Henry and A Feuerstake 100%

PASS RATING (1.8 or higher) - Henry 1.75

PERFECT PASSES - Henry 6

KILLS - Welsh 7

EFFICIENCY (at least 10% of team attempts) - Welsh .357

KILL % (at least 10% of team attempts) - Devaney,  Herring, Welsh 50%

DIGS - Henry 11

BLOCKS - Herring, Nowicka, Deyonge, A Feuerstake 1

ASSISTS - Welsh 22

***TOP POINT SCORERS (Kills, Aces, Blocks***)

Welsh 12

COUNTY QUARTER-FINALS - KENT PLACE

Summit traveled to Kent Place to take on the Dragons for the 3rd time this season.  The past 2 matches had gone the way of KP 2-1.  SHS lost at home 25-19, 21-25, 24-26 but lost Ge and Devaney all of set 3 which gave the Top hope for the rematch.  Summit lost at Kent Place in the return match 24-26, 25-21, 21-25 but had been in control of set 1 till late.  But this was the match to put the Top in the semis of County Tournament for only the 4th time in school history.  Summit pulled off the upset, 25-18, 24-26, 25-20 to move onto the semis as the Hilltoppers out-scored the Dragons 44-42 in an epic Summit battle to improve to 13-9!

MATCH STATS: BEASTS - BY THE NUMBERS:

ACE - Henry 5

SERVE RATING (at least 7% of team attempts) - Henry 2..47

SERVE % (at least 7% of team attempts) - Basaman and A Feuerstake 100%

PASS RATING (1.8 or higher) - A Feuerstake 1.69

PERFECT PASSES - Ge 3

KILLS - Devaney 9

EFFICIENCY (at least 10% of team attempts) - Devaney .667

KILL % (at least 10% of team attempts) - Devaney 75%

DIGS - Ge 13

BLOCKS - Herring,  Welsh 2

ASSISTS - Welsh 23

***TOP POINT SCORERS (Kills, Aces, Blocks***)

Devaney 9

UCIAC SEMIFINALS - NJ #4 UNION CATHOLIC

The task was a difficult one but not impossible.  SHS had proven that throughout the earlier 2 matches this season but the Top needed to pull out their best match this season against the top 5 team.  Although nerves were at play early,  the Summit crew settled down and got into the match late set 1 and it carried over to set 2 but the Hilltoppers were just too error prone in the latter half of the match and saw UC pull away late to win 14-25, 18-25.  UC out-scored the SHS squad 30-15 for the match to drop SHS to 13-10.

MATCH STATS: BEASTS - BY THE NUMBERS:

ACE - Henry 2

SERVE RATING (at least 7% of team attempts) - Henry 1.90

SERVE % (at least 7% of team attempts) - Heary 100%

PASS RATING (1.8 or higher) - Ge 2.13

PERFECT PASSES - Henry 6

KILLS - Ge 5

EFFICIENCY (at least 10% of team attempts) - Deyonge .400

KILL % (at least 10% of team attempts) - Deyonge 40%

DIGS - Welsh 4

BLOCKS - Herring, N Feuerstake, Welsh 1

ASSISTS - Welsh 10

***TOP POINT SCORERS (Kills, Aces, Blocks***)

Ge 5

PINK OUT - RARITAN

The Hilltoppers had a quick turnaround after their loss to UC as the SHS Team got ready to take on the Rockets of Raritan.   Raritan had faced off against the Hilltop 3 times prior,  twice at SHS and once at Raritan.   Summit was victorious in 2022 by a 2-1 margin, SHS was bested by the Rockets 3-0 in a scrimmage in 2023 but came back later in the season to win 2-1.  2024 proved to be no different than before as the Rockets pushed the Top to 3 with the Hilltoppers overcoming the away squad 25-18, 18-25, 25-13 to improve to 14W-10L.  SHS out-scored the Rockets 49-25 for the match.

MATCH STATS: BEASTS - BY THE NUMBERS:

ACE - Henry and Ge 3

SERVE RATING (at least 7% of team attempts) - Handal 2.44

SERVE % (at least 7% of team attempts) - Handal 100%

PASS RATING (1.8 or higher) - Ge 2.17

PERFECT PASSES - Ge 8

KILLS - Devaney 9

EFFICIENCY (at least 10% of team attempts) - Nowicka .583

KILL % (at least 10% of team attempts) - Nowicka 66.7%

DIGS - Henry 16

BLOCKS - Herring 2

ASSISTS - Welsh 30

***TOP POINT SCORERS (Kills, Aces, Blocks***)

Devaney 10

Summary:  Despite the loss in County Semifinals,  the Hilltoppers are in the midst of a tremendous run,  earning 6 wins to only 1 loss.  Overall the Top has out-killed their opponents by a 177-118 margin, been out-blocked 19-13 and SHS has out-aced their opponents 77-55 for a total 267-192 advantage over that stretch.   Summit has serve received better (1.64-1.52 rating advantage) which has led to a Sideout success advantage of 52.6% to 45.8%.

MATCH STATS: BEASTS - BY THE NUMBERS in 6W-1L RUN:

ACE - Welsh 22, Henry 18

SERVE RATING (at least 7% of team attempts) - Welsh 2.34, Ge 2.22

SERVE % (at least 7% of team attempts) - Ge 92.2%, Heary 90.6%

PASS RATING (1.8 or higher) - Henry 1.85, Ge 1.85

PERFECT PASSES - Henry 34, Ge 16 

KILLS - Devaney 42, Ge 27

EFFICIENCY (at least 10% of team attempts) - Devaney .370, Nowicka .269 

KILL % (at least 10% of team attempts) - Devaney 57.5%,  Nowicka 37.3%

DIGS - Henry 62,  Ge 55

BLOCKS - Herring 8, Welsh 4

ASSISTS - Welsh 151

***TOP POINT SCORERS (Kills, Aces, Blocks***)

Devaney 44,  Welsh 43,  Ge 41

10/14-10/24 Review: FROSH PERFECT, JV GOOD SEASON CONTINUES DESPITE LOSS IN COUNTY TOURNEY

 The 9th graders entered the week of 10/14 with a perfect 13-0 record and did not falter in the week with a tough 2-0 win on the road versus the Union Farmers,  followed it up with a win over the Pioneers of New Providence before hosting the West Essex Vball Squad at home at the end of the week to move to 16-0.  The frosh were a perfect 8-0 in sets and as a matter of fact,  the team has only dropped 3 sets in the entire season to Union,  Westfield and Elizabeth,  2 of those on the road.  Next up were the Rockets of Raritan HS at PINK OUT and the frosh did not disappoint,  earning a 2-0 victory and improving to 17-0!!!

JV entered the week at 9-5 and got back on the winning track with a dominant win versus Oak Knoll before surviving on the road against the Pioneers 2-1 to improve to 11-5.  Then county tournament began and the JV showed themselves to be hitting their best form with an efficient serving and hitting performance against the Roselle Park Panthers to get to the Quarterfinals and go to 12-5.  In the Quarterfinal match,  the Hilltoppers faced off a third time this year against the Minutewomen of Elizabeth.  Both teams had won 2-1 at home and despite a dominant set 1 win by the Top,  the Minutewomen came storming back to take set 2 25-23 and took the deciding set (Hilltoppers to 12-6) to move on to the semis and eventually the Elizabeth squad beat UC to earn a spot in the county finals.  Summit bounced back with a tough fought 2-1 win over Raritan to move to 13-6,  the first time JV has beaten the Hazlet school in 3 attempts!

UNION CATHOLIC / GOVERNOR LIVINGSTON AND ELIZABETH CLOSE OUT TOUGH WEEK

 The JV Hilltoppers finished the week with a stunning victory over UC,  a tough 2 set loss to the GL Highlanders and closed it out with a 2-0 win versus the Minutewomen of Elizabeth to solidify the #3 seed in the Union County Tournament and to improve to 9W-5L!

The 9th graders continued their winning ways with 2-0 wins versus University HS,  Governor Livingston and Union Catholic even though the crew had kids sick,  injured and out of sorts but the team held together and got themselves 3 more wins that pushed them to a 13W-0L record for the season!

Varsity pushed the #2 team in NJ to a very uncomfortable place as the squad dropped a 25-20, 25-16 decision to UC but SHS was up late in set 1 and had been within a few points of the Vikings midway through set 2.  

Varsity really pushed their neighbors in GL to overtime but came up short 25-20, 28-26 as the squad nearly pulled off an upset against the #8 team in the state.

The team came back and got revenge over an earlier loss to Elizabeth with a 25-23, 25-17 score line which helped the Hilltoppers solidify the #5 seed in the Union County Tournament this week,  the highest seed since 2011! 

MATCH STATS: BEASTS - BY THE NUMBERS:

ACE - Henry 7, Ge 4

SERVE RATING (at least 7% of team attempts) - Henry 2.58, Ge 2.35

SERVE % (at least 7% of team attempts) - Henry 96.2%, Handal 95.2%

PASS RATING (1.8 or higher) - A Feuerstake 1.88,  Henry 1.85

PERFECT PASSES - Ge and A Feuerstake 8

KILLS - Ge 18,  Deyonge 10

EFFICIENCY (at least 10% of team attempts) - Deyonge .263,  Ge .200 

KILL % (at least 10% of team attempts) - Deyonge 52.6%,  Ge 32.7%

DIGS - Henry 27,  Ge 26

BLOCKS - Herring, N Feuerstake, Deyonge, Welsh 2

ASSISTS - Welsh 44

***TOP POINT SCORERS (Kills, Aces, Blocks***)

Ge 22,  Deyonge 12,  N Feuerstake 11

SUMMIT SHOWS DRASTIC IMPROVEMENT IN RETURN BOUT VERSUS THE BLUE DEVILS

 Summit traveled to Westfield in their only match of the week to see if they could prove to themselves and the conference that they would be a team to be reckoned with at the county tournament and in states based on their performance against the #12 Blue Devils.  

SHS fell to Westfield 25-17, 25-10 in their first meeting as the Summit squad lost their serve receive in set 2 which led to the Blue Devils out-scoring the Top for the match 37-19 from a 23-15 kill lead and a 9-4 ace advantage and a 5-0 block advantage.  The silver lining was that the Hilltoppers were very close late in set 1 as the home team were only outscored by a 15-11 margin mainly because of a 4-1 ace advantage which was earned by the Blue Devils late in set 1.

Could the Summit squad do better the second time around and on the road?

An ace by Welsh and a dump kill by N Feuerstake had the Top up by 2 early and 2 rotations later,  the serving pressure of Henry led to a Nowicka kill and 2 Westfield errors to see the SHS side up 6-3.  Ge and Deyonge combined for a couple of kills a few rotations later and suddenly,  near the midway point of set 1,  SHS was up 9-7.  Westfield kept fighting back the entire set from 2 or 3 down to tie or get within one and after a Ge dump kill and an A Feuerstake back row attack hjad given the Top a 13-10 lead,  Summit allowed a 4-0 run by the Blue Devils (2 free ball errors, 1 hitting error SHS) that put the Westfield side up 14-13.  A serving error by the Westfield side knotted up the score at 14 and opened the door for Summit to make a move and with an ace by Ge,  the Top did just that.  Then Herring stuff blocked their OH and followed up with a kill that had the Hilltoppers up 17-15 which forced a Westfield TO.  But off the TO,  SHS suffered through a 7-0 run by the Blue Devils even after SHS called their own TO to trail 22-17.  The unfortunate thing was that the team gave away 3 points on hitting errors and one free ball return error in the midst of the run that could've been the difference to ending the home team's run.  

To the Hilltoppers' credit,  even when down 24-19,  the team kept fighting off match points with A Feuerstake getting a kill to pull SHS to within 3 at 24-21 but the next rally was unsuccessful by the Top and Westfield closed it out 25-21.

The set saw the Top out-score the Blue Devils 13-11 but the Westfield side had 3 less hitting errors and the Summit side got called on 4 faults to only one by the home side which,  at the end of the set,  were the difference in the result.

Set 2 was saw a 14-11 point lead by the Blue Devils but yet again,  SHS showed a massive competitive improvement from match day 1.  The set however,  started quite badly for the Top as the team had 2 consecutive hitting errors followed up by 2 serving errors and a free ball return error which gave Westfield a 9-5 lead.  Ge and Basaman led the Hilltoppers to a 3-0 run which had Summit down 9-8 but another 3-0 Westfield run had the Blue Devils up 12-8.  SHS continued to fight off Westfield's offensive sets and started to go point for point with the #12 squad but SHS was going to need a run if they were to win the second set.  Trailing 17-13 late things did not look good,  especially when the home side got a late 5-1 run that had Summit on the ropes 22-14.  Ge again found a way to score and stopped the run but WF reestablished control and had a 24-15 lead and 9 match points in the next rotation.  Herring kept SHS alive with another huge block and Ge followed it up with an ace but the Summit ladies ran out of points and saw a 25-17 set 2 loss that was both a silver lining and a frustrating result as the Top had gotten very close to knocking off the #12 team if not for some unforced errors.

                KILLS                    ACES                    BLOCKS                TOTAL POINTS

SHS            18                            3                                3                                    24

WF             19                            5                                1                                     25

Lesson:  Summit is good enough to go against some of the heavyweights in the county (Kent Place,  Westfield) but the squad needs to get better at not hurting themselves in key moments,  such as service errors or hitting errors or net/ball handling faults in tight game situations.  

Westfield had only a combined 7 hitting and fault errors.... SHS tallied 14... add in WF's only 1 free ball return error and SHS's 5 and it adds up to 8 points from the Blue Devils and 19 from Summit.  

Summit was close but not clean enough yet to knock off a top 15 team.  #progressionnotperfection

MATCH STATS: BEASTS - BY THE NUMBERS:

ACE - Ge 2,  Welsh 1

SERVE RATING (at least 7% of team attempts) - Ge 2.00,  A Feuerstake 1.86

SERVE % (at least 7% of team attempts) - Basaman 100%,  Ge 89.9%

PASS RATING (1.8 or higher) - Ge and A Feuerstake 1.89

PERFECT PASSES - Henry, Ge and A Feuerstake 3

KILLS - Ge 9,  Nowicka 2

EFFICIENCY (at least 10% of team attempts) - Ge .368,  Nowicka .000 

KILL % (at least 10% of team attempts) - Ge 47.4%,  Nowicka 22.2%

DIGS - Henry 9,  Ge 8

BLOCKS - Herring 3,  N Feuerstake 2

ASSISTS - Welsh 16

***TOP POINT SCORERS (Kills, Aces, Blocks***)

Ge 11,  Herring 5,  N Feuerstake 4