All three levels were at home today against the Tigers of Linden and the young athletes came away with impressive 2-0 wins all the way around to move each squad to three wins (9th Grade 3-0, JV 3-1, V 3-1).
SERVE ATTACK SPURS 9TH GRADERS TO 3RD VICTORY
The 9th graders took control of the first set early and never looked back on their way to a 25-4 set win. The 2nd set was more competitive with SHS up only by 4 at 12-8 at the midway of the match but the Top once again rolled late for a convincing 25-14 set 2 and match win!
SUMMIT OVERPOWERS LINDEN FOR THIRD WIN
JV cruises to a 25-14, 25-8 win over the Tigers using precise serving and key kills to shut down the Tiger threat. Through the first 6 rotations JV looked like it was in for a fight as the Linden squad kept many SHS attacks alive and were doing enough on serve receive to stay in the set down only 11-8. Then Isabelle Meltzer broke the set wide open in rotation 7 with a 5-0 run (3 aces) that all but sealed the deal for the Hilltoppers, giving the squad a 17-9 lead. SHS outscored the Tiger team 8-5 the rest of the way for the 25-14 set win.
By rotation 6 of set 2 the game was essentially over. The Top used 2-4 points per server to open up a 17-6 lead over Linden that the Tigers could not respond to adequately. Emily Demm took a 6-3 lead and turned it into an 11-3 lead that the Tigers just could not overcome and Abby Wells put the last nail in the proverbial coffin with a 6-0 run to end the match at 25-8.
ROBERTS, BASAMAN LEAD HILLTOPPERS
PAST THE TIGERS
Varsity was locked in a dog fight with their rivals as the team stuck with Alison Wauters replacing Hannah Barlow in the OH spot and Sarah Noa yet again took over the reigns of Libero from injured Rebecca Thompson. Summit struggled early to contain Linden’s best server and it took a service error for SHS to start their day from the service line. Wauters, Hope Basaman and Eva Oberhuber notched a kill each early on to give Summit a 4-2 lead but Linden rattled off 4 straight points to re-take the lead 6-4. A couple of unforced errors in the next few rotations allowed the Linden ladies to take a 9-5 lead but Wauters ripped and ace and Roberts pounded out a kill to get SHS back into the set down 9-8. Despite a free ball return error which gave the Tigers the ball leading 10-8, the Hilltoppers responded with a 5-0 run (3 aces Basaman, 1 kill Roberts) that flipped the script and had SHS up 13-10.
Summit could not extend that lead and eventually suffered through a 3-0 Linden run which had the Tigers up again at 16-15, a lead they would carry later in the set at 19-18 before the Maroon and White responded behind the serving of Wauters (1 ace) who earned 3 service points late to get the Top to a 21-19 lead. Basaman closed it out with 2 more aces and the set was wrapped up 25-20.
Set 2 saw the Top jump out to a 5-1 fueled by Noa from the service line (1 ace) which forced Linden into may unforced hitting errors. Still up 8-5, the Maroon and White got an ace by Victoria MacArthur and kills by Roberts and Wauters to begin to pull away and extend their lead to 11-5 and Oberhuber smashed a kill to zone 5 which forced a Tiger time-out at 12-6. Noa once again shone in the spotlight as she ripped off 4 service points (1 ace) to get SHS the control of the match at 16-7. The rest of the set was merely academic as the Maroon and White out-scored Linden 13-8 to close out the set and match 25-15.
Basaman was stellar from the service line, knocking down a match high 6 aces (2.83 serve rating) and teammate Roberts slammed a match high 9 kills (.286 efficiency). SHS were defensively led by Noa and Thea Rind who notched 15 digs. Zoe Zacharias ran a good offense today getting 5 hitters involved in the offense and notching a career high 16 assists. Basaman and Roberts led the team with 7 points apiece. Summit will go back to work in the gym over the next few days and host Rahway in the Pediatric Cancer Research and Awareness GO4THEGOLD event on Friday.