LADY HILLTOPPER VBALL BLOG : TREND LINES BEGIN TO DEFINE LATE SEASON PUSH

Tuesday, October 21, 2025

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

No comments:

Post a Comment

FALL 2025 BRIEF PREVIEW

The squad will rely on the leadership and decision making of their Setter Mackenna to achieve post season success and earn victories over a tough Watchung Division schedule. Molly will be the stalwart in the MB position who will look to be a major force on offense and defense to help open up the offense. Catherine will join Molly as the other starter and this duo will look to improve on last year's offensive and defensive output out of the middle. Maren will lead a brand new set of DS passers who will need to be at least at if not better then 2024's serve receive team to help the squad maximize its offensive weapons Claire and Natalie will be the combination SHS will rely upon out of the OH slot to help carry the team offense and so far in this first week, it looks like the combo will have a lot of success. The duo will be joined by Rachel on the OPP who will look to fill a safety valve position and use her athleticism to be a blocking presence. Backing the pin positions will be frosh Maddie who was one of the hardest hitters on the team and proved herself to be in the upper echelon on the team of passing and receiving. Lily will be backing the MBs and she has shown already an ability to be a blocking presence and is starting to show that she can score at this level. Ayina, Rylen, Lynn and Sophie will round out the defensive squad around Maren as this trio has made already lots of defensive plays that have helped SHS score more frequently in transition. Nadia is the insurance policy as the junior Setter is learning to be the leader of the offense and has already gotten some work in matches running the offense. Nadia will look to contribute to the team's success and prepare herself for the 2025 season.

TEAM ACADEMIC AWARDS

THE 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2021 WINTER, 2021 FALL, 2022, 2023 AND 2024 TEAMS EARNED THE AVCA TEAM ACADEMIC AWARD AND THE HONOR ROLL SCHOOL AWARD SINCE ITS INCEPTION A FEW YEARS AGO LESS THAN 50 NJ SCHOOLS GOT THE AWARD OVER THE LAST 7 YEARS.!!! LESS THAN 415 HIGH SCHOOLS NATIONALLY!!! ***Additionally, the top 20% of team GPAs from each division are designated as Team Academic Honor Roll schools, representing the highest scholarly achievement in our sport.*** SUMMIT HIGH SCHOOL EARNED THE AMERICAN VOLLEYBALL COACHES ASSOCIATION TEAM ACADEMIC HONOR ROLL EVERY YEAR SINCE COACH MARTINS AND COACH ROSS HAVE BEEN A TEAM AND HAVE CONTINUED ITS TRADITION WITH COACH SEIFERT ADDED TO THE STAFF

COLLEGE OF SAINT ELIZABETH - COACHING RECORD

SAINT ELIZABETH UNIVERSITY (4 SEASONS) I led the CSE Women’s Volleyball program for 4 seasons and guided the Screaming Eagles to its most successful campaign in program history in 2012. The team posted the most wins ever in the history of the program (22W), the best overall record (22W-7L), the most wins in the NEAC since CSE joined the conference (6W), the best team record in the NEAC since CSE joined the conference (6W-6L) and tied the highest finish ever in the NEAC. In 2013, despite losing 4 starters and the starting setter for most of the season, the Eagles finished over .500 at the end of the season for the 3rd consecutive year. Of note, those were the only 3 seasons (2011-12-13) that the program had ever been over .500. The Eagles had 5 players ranked in the top 50 nationally for Aces per Set in the past 3 seasons, including a 14th best national ranking in 2012 and a 17th best in 2013. The team was also ranked 11th nationally in the same category in 2011, 12th in 2012 and 21st in 2013. CSE was the highest ranked DIII team in NJ in that category as well for the first time (2nd highest in 2011-12). The Eagles were also the only NJ DIII team to earn the coveted American Volleyball Coaches Association Team All-Academic Award for 2012-13 AND 2013-14.