9th Graders Lose Opener in Heartbreaker
The young GOATS opened up on the road versus the Cranford Cougars and came away with a 28-26, 28-26 hard-fought but heart-breaking loss. Coach Leventhal was very pleased with the team effort and thought many players stepped up in the loss to push SHS to a good showing! Congrats 9th Graders! Westfield next!
JV Fights Hard in Loss to Cranford
2026 saw the JV take their first win versus their neighbors Kent Place and the squad was looking to take the next step versus the Cranford Cougars, a squad the Hilltoppers have had very little success in recent history. The Top had a great start versus the Cougars and saw themselves up near the midpoint of the set but Cranford pulled away in the later stages of the set with key serving and attacks and SHS fell just short 21-25. The 2nd set started off much the same way as the opener but the Cougars started to put some serving pressure on the Top which kept the home offense at bay in the midpoint of the set creating a 6 point gat (19-13) that Summit could not close and thus fell 16-25 for their first loss of the season. Sara and Sophia anchored an effective offense and both Lillian and Lily helped stabilize the passing and defense throughout the match.
Varsity Pushes Cougars But Come Up Short
22-25, 18-25
Set 1 set the tone for the Top as the Hilltoppers were not intimidated by the Cougars and saw early success versus their rivals with SHS jumping to a 12-10 lead after trailing 10-8 thanks to a kill and 2 aces by Madison. With the team trailing by just one at 15-16 after a Rachel kill, Cranford responded with a 3-0 run to jump ahead 19-15 and seemingly have control of the set. Summit however did not give in and after being the beneficiary of a Cranford service error, SHS got a kill from Lily and 2 aces by Rachel to knot the score at 19. After a service break by Cranford, Ava got her first kill of the set to see SHS tie the score at 20 but then a 3-0 run by the Cougars due to 3 SHS errors had the home team on the ropes. A block my Madison stopped the Cougar run and it sparked the SHS squad as the team then got a big serve by the soph which Claire slammed down to crawl within one at 23-22. But that was as close as Summit got and Cranford closed out the set 25-22.
Summit had confidence that they could play with the visitors and it showed in set 2. Yet again, SHS was right there early on with Summit up one 7-6 after another Madison block but Cranford then went on a 7-1 run (6 kills) to open up a lead at 13-8 which Summit just couldn't close. The home side got 3 kills by Claire to get to within 3 at 14-11 and after a kill by the visitors had Cranford up 15-11, SHS ran a 3-0 run (Madison kill) to get within one at 15-14 but another error at a free play at the net gave the ball back to the Cougars and they ran off a 6-2 run (2 SHS net faults, 1 serve error, 1 attack error, 2 Cranford kills that saw the Top down 16-22. SHS rallied with 2 kills (Madison and Claire) to get within shouting distance at 18-22 but a service error ended that momentum and the Cougars took full advantage of the gift, rolling through the next few points for a 25-18 set and match win.
Team Serving % - 87.8 Team Ace % - 12.2
BEST SERVE RATING - Rachel- 2.44 (3 aces), Madison 2.00 (2 aces)
BEST RECEIVE RATING- Rylen 2.67, Claire 2.50
MOST PERFECT PASSES - Rylen 4
MOST KILLS - Claire 8, Madison 7
BEST EFFICIENCY - Lily .333, Claire .222
BEST KILL % - Claire 44.4, Madison 35
MOST DIGS - Nadia 5, Ayina-Madison-Claire 3
MOST BLOCKS - Lily 3, Madison 2
MOST ASSISTS - Nadia 16
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