TREND LINES BEGIN TO DEFINE LATE SEASON PUSH

 9th Graders

Elizabeth 1-2 Loss - Frosh come back set 2 and win after a set 1 25-19 loss and flip the script with a 25-19 set 2 win but come up short in the 3rd set as Elizabeth served and defended a little better than the Top

Chatham / Cranford / New Providence - a combined 6-0 set sweep over these 3 local rivals push the record of the Hilltoppers to 10W-7L for the year with one match left in the season.  Summit was 4W-6L on 10/6 and have gone 6W-1L in the 2nd half of the season to show their growth and development!

JUNIOR VARSITY

The JV Squad, now known as the Cardiac Kids,  have gone 3W-1L in the last 4 matches heading into the County Tournament.  Although the team lost to the Minutewomen of Elizabeth on the road in a tight 0-2 score-line,  the team has now won 3 consecutive 3 set matches,  upsetting Cranford,  Chatham and New Providence!  SHS has used an improved offense and serving attack to get to 8 Wins in the season!

VARSITY

The Hilltoppers have continued to be frustratingly competitive with some good programs in the last 4 matches.  Elizabeth had the SHS Squad come out on fire just to see serving errors and hitting errors give away the first set and never allow the Top be in the match in set 2.

Then the team played as consistent as they had the entire season in a tight 2 set battle versus the Chatham Cougars that saw SHS win the key points late in comeback set victories for the win!

Cranford was the next match (PINK OUT) and the team came out flying and took the #4 squad to the brink with a set 1 unlikely victory but had errors late in set 2 to give Cranford the chance it needed to close out a great match in 3 sets in favor of the Cougars.

New Prov lost to SHS in 3 at Summit earlier in the season in a very tight match that Summit won in September due to great pressure serving in set 3 which proved to be decisive.  Well,  the Pioneers returned the favor at their place and,  despite the amazing offensive production by the Top,  it was the serve receive (or NP serving) which made the difference in set 3 as the #8 Union County squad beat SHS, the #7 team,  at home in 3.

The Squad will host Rahway in the first round of Counties on 10/22,  has Senior Night on 10/29 versus Linden and close it out with Dayton on Halloween and Rahway in a best 3/5 on Saturday the 1st in a state tournament tune-up.  

Here were the MATCH LEADERS for this past 4 Match Week:

MATCH LEADERS

ACES: Mackenna 10, Sophie 8, Lynn 3

SERVE RATING (4=ace, 0=err) : Mackenna 2.29, Sophie 2.06, Lynn 2.0

RECEIVE PERFECT PASS (3): Mackenna 15, Maren 6, Sophie 4

PERFECT PASS %: Mackenna 25.9  Claire 18.8, Sophie 18.2

RECEIVE RATING (3=perfect, 0=gave up ace): Sophie 1.89, Mackenna 1.83, Rylen 1.52

KILLS: Mackenna 32, Claire 19, Molly 13

HIT EFF. (k-e/total att) : Catherine .400, Molly .273, Mackenna .061

KILL %: Molly 44.8, Catherine 40.0, Mackenna 32.7

DIGS: Mackenna 27, Maren 22, Nadia 16

BLOCKS: Catherine / Molly / Claire 2

ASSISTS:  Nadia 72, Mackenna 10

BEST POINT SCORERS: Mackenna 43, Claire 21, Molly 15

BEST NET POINT SCORERS (0 or higher w/at least 5 earned pts.): Catherine 6, Molly 4, Rachel 1  

FOUR MORE MATCHES - FOUR MORE INTERESTING RESULTS

9th Graders Have Turn-Around Week

9th Graders go 3W-1L this week to go to 7W-6L as the team struggled with their serving early but seemed to turn it around in the last 2 matches of the week to finish with a dominant 2-0 win versus the Barons of Woodbridge.  The young Hilltoppers will test themselves this week with matchups versus Elizabeth (1-2 loss in first matchup), Chatham (won 2-0 last year)  and Cranford (lost 1-2 in a scrimmage)  for PINK OUT !!!

JV Improve But Victories Are Elusive

JV went 1W-3L but was more competitive versus some of their opposition this time around the conference schedule which was clearly evident in the tight matches versus the Highlanders of GL (leading late in set 2), the Dragons of Kent Place (led in both sets late), the split earned with Scotch-Plains Fanwood and the 3 set battle versus the Barons of Woodbridge.

This week will be a challenge for the Top as the Summit JV take on Elizabeth who were victorious 2-0 over the Top in their first meeting.  Chatham took SHS in 2 last year as well in their last meeting and Cranford was also victorious over the Top 2-1 in a scrimmage in August.

Varsity Fight For Win versus SPF But Consistent Wins Evade the Top

Varsity will try to get a pivotal victory over the Minutewomen as they look to gain momentum for states in their 2nd match this season.  With a win,  the Top will guarantee themselves another season in the Watchung next year as well.  The first outing saw Elizabeth win 2-1 with a scoring advantage of 37-28 largely on the back of a 15-7 ace tally in favor of the visitors.  Summit was close on kill numbers, losing that battle by a 22-18 tally but Elizabeth committed only 3 hitting errors the entire match while SHS tallied 15.

Chatham matchups have been classics these last few seasons.  In 2023 Summit won 25-18, 25-23 at home. In 2024,  SHS won a classic battle on the road 25-23, 25-23.  What will 2025 bring? Undoubtedly another classic state tournament like match.

Lastly, the Cranford Cougars visit the Top on Thursday for the team's Dig Pink Night!  Cranford took two of three sets in this year's scrimmage by 25-21,  14-25 and 28-30 scores in a preview of the match to come.  Cranford has all but locked up the Mountain Division Title and will be moving up to the Watchung Division in 2026 but for this year,  the Cougars are looking to send a message to the County as they did when they traveled to UC and stunned the Vikings on the road.  

This week the Hilltoppers dropped a 2-0 decision to GL but showed still an error rate on offense and serving that was too high as the 25-13, 25-17 scores would indicate even though the SHS squad was only out-killed by a 14-11 margin for the match.

Kent Place dropped the Top 2-0 for the 2nd time this week by 25-23 and 25-16 scores.  SHS came back from 20-17 down to take a 22-20 lead in set 1 and 23-22 but failed to close out the Dragons.  Set 2 saw the Top trail 14-12 but later tied 15-15 but they were out-scored 11-1 from that point on to drop that 2nd set.

SPF was a pivotal match for the Top as a loss would all but guarantee a drop in Division by Summit but a win could put the SHS side in a position to stay up.  The match was a classic with SHS taking set 1 25-18,  dropping set 2 25-18 but saw Summit trail 23-9 and go on an 9-0 run to make it interesting at the end with a 23-18 score that forced a Raider TO before SPF closed it out.  

Set 3 came down to the very last 10 points as it has been the case most of the season.  SHS trailed 20-17 but a hitting error by the visitors led to an ace by Natalie who followed up with another tough serve which gave the SHS D a chance to get the ball to Claire who put it down for a kill to knot the score up at 20.  Another 2 Claire kills and a setting error by the visitors had Summit up 23-20 forcing a SPF TO.  The Raiders got a big kill out of the TO and then saw the Top tally 2 hitting errors to see the scoreboard go to 23-23.  SHS got a pivotal perfect pass by Maren and they eventually got a tip kill by Claire to give Summit a match point at 24-23.  On the match point play,  SHS saw Claire swing away, Nadia tip and Catherine block an attack but no point was earned.  SHS won on a 2nd ball return error by the SPF L who was trying to get the ball to the Raider's best OH but failed to do so to give SHS a 25-23 win!  

Less than 15 hours later the squad took on the Barons of Woodbridge in a best 3 of 5 match but the Squad was just off from the level of performance they showed against SPF as they dropped a 25-17, 25-20, 25-21 decision to the visitors.  Summit gave up 22 aces in the match which proved to be the deciding factor in a match that had the Top notch 23 kills despite only passing at a 1.23 rating.  

Summit's offense seems to be on the right track and just needs to produce less errors and the serving woes seem to be in the rearview mirror with the serve receive looking solid on most matchups now.  

Here were the MATCH LEADERS for this past week:

MATCH LEADERS

ACES: Sophie 6,  Rylen / Lynn 4

SERVE RATING (4=ace, 0=err) : Sophie 2.24, Nadia 2.06, Rylen 2.00

RECEIVE PERFECT PASS (3): Maren 18, Mackenna 17, Rylen 5

PERFECT PASS %: Mackenna 37.8  Maren 27.3, Rylen 15.6

RECEIVE RATING (3=perfect, 0=gave up ace): Mackenna 1.96  Maren 1.58, Sophie 1.29

KILLS: Claire 25, Mackenna 23, Molly 12

HIT EFF. (k-e/total att) : Molly .182,   Claire .179,  Lily .118

KILL %: Claire 37.3,  Molly 36.4,  Lily 29.4

DIGS: Mackenna 24, Maren 23, Sophie 18

BLOCKS: Catherine 4, Molly / Nadia / Claire 2

ASSISTS:  Nadia 68

BEST POINT SCORERS: Claire 27,  Mackenna 26,  Molly 14

BEST NET POINT SCORERS (0 or higher w/at least 1 earned pt.): Claire 9,   Molly 6,  Catherine 1  

TOUGH WEEK OF RESULTS BUT TEAMS ARE IMPROVING

 9th Graders faced an uphill battle this week with Westfield and Columbia but showed how far they have come with a 3 set thriller that finished WF's way and a tough 2 setter on the road against a very good Cougar Squad.  This week will prove to be another tough one with GL, Madison, SPF and Woodbridge on the schedule.  Let's see how far the team has come this week!

JV lost their starting setter Maddie to illness and had Naomi step in a a tough week to learn on the fly but the young athlete did just fine under the circumstances.  The Squad dropped a 2-0 decision to WF,  took the win by 2-0 over ALJ and dropped 2-0 decisions to Columbia and Kent Place.  This week will prove to be a real test of the team's development and we are hoping to get Maddie back and see what the team can accomplish when fully healthy.

Varsity committed to this new lineup change (Mackenna OH, Molly OPP, Nadia Setter, Lily MB) at the Millburn Classic and thanks to the team's showing there especially vs West Orange in the Quarter-Finals,  the decision was made to stick with it as the team's passing and offensive output skyrocketed in comparison to the previous 9 matches.  With 4 matches this previous week (WF, ALJ, COLUMBIA, KP),  to gather data on the performances,  this week would determine the success or lack thereof using this lineup in actual matchups.  

The team pushed the then #8 team in NJ to the end in a very tough 2 set loss.  SHS dominated the narrative versus the ALJ squad in a 2-0 win.  In one of the best matches in recent history,  the Top dropped a 25-27, 25-27, 25-15, 25-21, 14-16 decision to the Cougars.  The team ended the week dropping a pair of tough 25-20 set decisions to the Dragons of Kent Place in a match decided by each team's serving prowess at the end of each set.

Needless to say,  the record of 1W-3L for the week did not quite tell the story.  In the prior 9 matches,  Summit was averaging 2 aces per set,  just under 7 kills and about .75 blocks per set which meant the team was only scoring 9.55 points per set and relying on the opposition for the remaining 15 points, not a winning formula.

This past week,  the team is hitting for nearly 4.5 aces per set,  a little over 9.5 kills per set and even improved their blocking per set by about .1 for about 14.5 points per set,  a drastic improvement in the point scoring fueled by a drastic improvement in the serve receive numbers of the squad with the new receive patterns.  Fans of the squad will see more of this "new team" this week and we hope to see the wins start to follow with this new lineup's offensive and reception production.

This week:

KILLS        SHS 102    OPPONENTS 79

BLOCKS    SHS 9        OPPONENTS 11

ACES         SHS 47       OPPONENTS 33

TTL PTS    SHS 158 (14.36 per set)     OPP 123 (11.18 per set)

PASS RATING    SHS 1.74    OPPONENTS 1.40

SIDEOUT %        SHS 48.7    OPPONENTS 48.3

PT SCORE %       SHS 51.7    OPPONENTS 51.3

HIT ERR/ SERV ERR/ FREE ERR/ FAULTS

SHS 124 PTS (11.27 pts per set)  OPPONENTS 84 PTS  (7.64 pts per set)

This is a situation where the numbers do tell the story of a team that can score on anyone and force the issue but has still too many errors to keep opponents in the mix.  

Here were the MATCH LEADERS for this past week:

MATCH LEADERS

ACES: Mackenna 13  Sophie 10  Nadia / Lynn 8

SERVE RATING (4=ace, 0=err) : Lynn 2.22  Nadia 2.18   Sophie 2.17

RECEIVE PERFECT PASS (3): Mackenna 21 Maren 12  Sophie 11

PERFECT PASS %: Mackenna 37.5  Sophie 27.5 and Maren 23.5

RECEIVE RATING (3=perfect, 0=gave up ace): Mackenna 1.79  Sophie 1.79  Maren 1.76

KILLS: Mackenna 41  Claire 24  Molly 12

HIT EFF. (k-e/total att) : Catherine .429  Claire .220  Lily .182

KILL %: Catherine 47.6  Claire 40.7  Mackenna 38.3

DIGS: Mackenna 36  Maren / Sophie 15  Rylen 13

BLOCKS: Catherine 4  Molly 3  Nadia / Lily 2

ASSISTS:  Nadia 88

BEST POINT SCORERS: Mackenna 55   Claire 24   Molly 15

BEST NET POINT SCORERS (0 or higher w/at least 1 earned pt.): Catherine 8  Lily 3  Claire 3  

SUMMIT SHOWS DRASTIC IMPROVEMENT VS WESTFIELD / JV and VARSITY EARN WINS VS ALJ

The 9th Graders bounced back nicely versus the Blue Devils after a first set loss and took their opponents to an incredibly close third set finish which saw the squad succumb to the Westfield Squad by a mere 2 points.

JV also showed great improvement as the squad played a much more competitive match versus the Blue Devils at home as the Hilltoppers got much more offense than their first matchup and saw a better defensive output as the team kept plays alive after Westfield attacks to give themselves better transition opportunities.  Westfield played a much more consistent game overall however and were effective on offense which allowed them to end up on top 2-0 at the end.

Varsity had seen a very dominant Westfield squad on the road and the number 8 team in the state looked to replicate the effort in this matchup as they visited the Hilltoppers in the 2nd match this season. But that expectation went quickly out the window as the Top managed to stay in touch with and push the top 10 Blue Devils throughout the 2 sets.  

The Summit squad out served the Blue Devils netting a 9-8 advantage in aces which meant more to the match once you factored in the errors which were 5 for SHS and 9 for WF to give Summit a net gain of 5 points.  But the difference in the match was the key offensive points late in each set which the Blue Devils won from the service line and the offensive line.  Summit lost the kill battle 19-12 but fracturing the errors,  SHS lost the offensive battle by 10 points in the match which proved to be a main factor in this tight match that was decided late.  

In set 1; Summit was only outscored by a 13-12 margin but out passed Westfield 2.14 to 1.13 and out aced the visitors 5-0 which gave them a chance late in the set.  The late points in the set were a microcosm of the match as the SHS kept asking questions of the Blue Devils but the WF side was able to find a final answer each time.  Summit was down 16-12 but Mackenzie got a tip kill to get SHS 16-13. A missed serve by Summit was followed by another Mackenna kill and a Sophie ace to put the score at 17-15. WF got a kill but Lily got the ball back for the Summit side with a key point out of the middle which was followed by a Mackenna ace for an 18-17 score line and a Blue Devil TO.  But the next 3 points off the TO went the visitor’s way with a kill and 2 SHS errors which forced a Martins TO at 21-17. The Top managed only 2 more points to Westfield’s 4 which saw WF out kill Summit 2-0 in that stretch which proved to be the difference.  

Set 2 

With the score 20-14 WF,  SHS went on a 4-0 run fueled by a Blue Devil service error and 3 consecutive aces by Lynn forcing a Westfield TO but a service error by the Summit side saw WF take advantage with a kill and 3 aces to win 25-18.  WF outscored Summit 17-9 but stayed in the game by only notching one serving error to 4 aces while WF got 8 aces but also tallied 5 errors. 

Despite the loss, the Hilltoppers continued their consistent play from the weekend tournament and looked to do the same against ALJ the following match.

JV earned their 4th win of the season with a 2-0 win versus the ALJ squad in a match that saw the Hilltoppers dominate from the service line and out-kill their opponents by a wide margin to earn a well deserved victory.

Varsity continued its good play earning a 25-15, 25-17 win versus the visiting ALJ Squad in a match that had SHS out score the visitors 11-4 in set 1 and 20-9 in the 2nd set in a dominant performance to earn their 3rd win of the season.  Summit service errors (10 of them) kept their serve percentage below 80% but a near 25% ace percentage made up for it as did the team’s hitting efficiency clicked for .316 with a kill percentage of nearly 48%.  

Taking into account both matchups, here were the team leaders:

MATCH LEADERS

ACES: Mackenna 7 and Sophie 5

SERVE RATING (4=ace, 0=err) : Rylen 2.67 and Mackenna 2.50

RECEIVE PERFECT PASS (3): Mackenna 7 and Rylen/Maren with 4

PERFECT PASS %: Rylen 44.4 and Mackenna 33.3

RECEIVE RATING (3=perfect, 0=gave up ace): Rylen 2.10 and Sophie 2.00

KILLS: Mackenna 12 and Catherine 5

HIT EFF. (k-e/total att) : Catherine .556 and Lily .250

KILL %: Catherine 55.6 and Lily 50.0

DIGS: Mackenna 10 and Rylen 4

BLOCKS: Lily and Maddie 1

ASSISTS:  Nadia 28

BEST POINT SCORERS: Mackenna 19 and Lily/Catherine/Sophie 5

BEST NET POINT SCORERS (0 or higher w/at least 1 earned pt.): Lily/Catherine/Mackenna +2