LADY HILLTOPPER VBALL BLOG : September 2026

Tuesday, September 1, 2026

VARSITY GOES 5-0 VS LINDEN - FINISHES PRESEASON 10 SET WINS - 5 SET LOSSES

HILLTOPPERS 5 - TIGERS 0

SET SHS WOODBRIDGE

1 25 13

2 25 20

3 25 16

4 25 21

5 15 3

The Lady Hilltoppers traveled to the Tigers of Linden to close out the Scrimmage Season. The Tigers and the Top always have great matches with the Top experiencing some success over the last few seasons after a couple of years of Tiger success. The results today in 5 sets indicate that the team has definitely improved in 2 over the scrimmage season although more consistency is needed over various aspects of the team system.

The team won 63.7% of all their service points and scored 4.2 aces/set showing an effective serving attack which kept the Tigers off balance with a serve % of 93.8% which was a drastic improvement from last 2 scrimmages. The team also hit at a kill percentage of 39.3% while tallying a .175 efficiency rate on offense which helped the squad achieve an impressive sideout % of 57.3%.

But as good as those number looked, the team's goal was to improve its pass rating for the match mainly due to the aces it had given up the past 2 scrimmages and they accomplished that feat, improving to a pre-season best 1.81 while only giving up 6 aces in 5 sec ts of play.

The team also tallied a 25.4% perfect pass number which was not as crisp as the Madison scrimmage but it also tallied a much more important number, a 10.2% error rate which is the lowest error rate of the scrimmage season in any given scrimmage match going back to 2024.

SET 1 - 25-13

Summit

Team Serving % - 92 Team Ace % - 20

BEST SERVE RATING - Madison- 3.0

BEST RECEIVE RATING- Madison- 2.17

MOST PERFECT PASSES - Madison - 2

MOST KILLS - Claire, Lily, Madison - 2

BEST EFFICIENCY - Lily - 0.500

BEST KILL % - Lily, Madison - 50%

MOST DIGS - Rylen - 3

MOST BLOCKS -

MOST ASSISTS - Nadia - 8

SET 2 - 25-20

Summit

Team Serving % - 91.7 Team Ace % - 12.5

BEST SERVE RATING - Maddie, Madison - 2.25

BEST RECEIVE RATING- Alta - 2.00

MOST PERFECT PASSES - Alta, Madison - 1

MOST KILLS - Madison - 3

BEST EFFICIENCY - Lily - .333

BEST KILL % - Madison - 50

MOST DIGS - Maddie and Madison- 3

MOST BLOCKS - Lily - 1

MOST ASSISTS - Izzy and Maddie - 3

SET 3 - 25-16

Summit

Team Serving % - 92 Team Ace % - 20

BEST SERVE RATING - Nadia - 3.13

BEST RECEIVE RATING- Rylen- 2.17

MOST PERFECT PASSES - Rylen - 2

MOST KILLS - Claire, Madison - 3

BEST EFFICIENCY - Lily - 0.333

BEST KILL % - Lily - 66.7%

MOST DIGS - Nadia - 4

MOST BLOCKS - Emma and Nadia - 1

MOST ASSISTS - Nadia - 7

SET 4 - 25-21

Summit

Team Serving % - 100 Team Ace % - 25

BEST SERVE RATING - Izzy- 2.88

BEST RECEIVE RATING- Alta, Madison- 2.25

MOST PERFECT PASSES - Alta, Madison- 3

MOST KILLS - Madison - 3

BEST EFFICIENCY - Ava K - .333

BEST KILL % - Ava K - 66.7%

MOST DIGS - Ayina - 3

MOST BLOCKS -

MOST ASSISTS - Maddie - 5

SET 5 - 15-3

Summit

Team Serving % - 93.3 Team Ace % - 13.3

BEST SERVE RATING - Claire- 2.33

BEST RECEIVE RATING- Claire and Madison - 2.00

MOST PERFECT PASSES -

MOST KILLS - Madison - 4

BEST EFFICIENCY - Madison - .800

BEST KILL % - Madison - 80%

MOST DIGS - Alta - 2

MOST BLOCKS -

MOST ASSISTS - Nadia - 6

MATCH STATS 5-0

Team Serving % - 93.8 Team Ace % - 18.6

BEST SERVE RATING - Izzy- 2.88 (4 aces), Nadia 2.58 (4 aces)

BEST RECEIVE RATING- Alta 2.18, Rylen 2.17

MOST PERFECT PASSES - Madison 6, Alta 4

MOST KILLS - Madison 15, Claire 9

BEST EFFICIENCY - Lily .455, Madison .290

BEST KILL % - Lily 58.5, Madison .48.4

MOST DIGS - Claire 6, Madison 6, Nadia 6

MOST BLOCKS - Lily 1

MOST ASSISTS - Nadia 21, Maddie 8

SUB VARSITY SWEEP OF THE ALWAYS TOUGH LINDEN TIGERS

9th Graders

The young GOATS swept the Tigers by 25-10, 25-14 and 15-9 tallies. The team serving attack was excellent according to Coach Leventhal and in specific Lila and Natalia stepped up nicely in the second set and set very well to lead the squad and its offense to victory.

Scrimmage Season Set Record 5W-3L

Junior Varsity

JV also swept Linden 2-0 in 2 tighter sets decided late by the squad. Coach Ross thought the team had taken steps forward as a team and looked more in sync offensively and their serve receive improved at stretches of the match. Of note, Juliana and Michelle had a great match as setters and impacted the game from the service line as well as the offense generated successful termination plays to give the Top the victory.

Scrimmage Season Set Record 3W-4L

FALL 2026 BRIEF PREVIEW

The 2025 Squad saw 1st Team All County Setter Mackenna Welsh switch positions to OH after a quarter of the season and lead the team to a late season run in the state sectional playoffs which saw the Top upset the #1 seed in route to a QF berth in the playoffs. Molly Devaney was key in the run as well out of the MB position as the senior had also switched to OPP a certain points in the year to help generate more offense. Maren Heary was steady all year in helping guide a young defensive group through the tough Watchung Division. The 2026 Squad will rely on the development and contributions of last year's returners to make another run in the playoffs and survive the gauntlet that is the the Watchung Division. The OH position will see the return of Claire Jesionowski as she hopes to reach the 300 kill mark after reaching 132 in just her first year on the squad in 2025. She will be joined by last year's 9th grade impact player Madison Welsh who hit for 27 kills in limited time last season but earned key time during the playoff run and proved to be an effective player for the Hilltoppers down the stretch. The pin hitters will look to have backup in the OPP position with Rachel Jesionowski hoping to solidify her role as an athletic and productive hitter and blocker out of that slot. Lily Beake will hope to spearhead the offense and defense out of the MB position after breaking through as a very effective blocker and hitter late last season. The defensive core of the 25 team will be back as Ayina Colon and Rylen Conroy will need to improve last year's team performance in serve receive and continue to improve on last year's defensive performance to maximize what should be a much more consistent offensive squad. The duo will be joined by the 2025 JV MVP Alta Lind who will bring her passing and defensive prowess to the group. And last but certainly not least, the QB of the squad will be Nadia Moghal who was thrown into the deep end of the pool last year by having to take over the setting duties for the last 75% of the season and led the team to another QF berth with her serving efficiency, her setting decisions (400 assists in 2025) and defense. Nadia's success this year will be a reflection of the team's success in all phases of the game. The team will need to fill in other spots and create some depth in some positions but ultimately, the success of each individual returner will be a key in the team's overall success in 2026. Summer League will give everyone an early glimpse of what might be and reveal to the team what will need to improve before the season. Excited to see the growth of these young players who return this year and see who else becomes part of this squad: Nadia - Sr. Setter Claire - Jr. OH Maddie - Soph. OH Rachel - Jr. OPP/OH Lily - Jr. MB Ayina - Sr. DS/L Rylen - Jr. DS/L Alta - Jr. DS/L

TEAM ACADEMIC AWARDS

THE 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2021 WINTER, 2021 FALL, 2022, 2023, 2024 AND 2025 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 8 YEARS.!!! LESS THAN 450 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.