The 9th Graders stepped up in class with the Millburn Millers this week as they opened and closed the week with the Blue and White and hosted Payne Tech on program’s Pink Out match. The Millers swept the Top 2-0 in both matches and SHS took care of business against Payne Tech to wrap up a 1W-2L week which saw the squad go to 9W-3L. Summit has Bridgewater-Raritan, Union Catholic and Mendham left on their schedule for the year and can earn the most wins ever in program history with 3 victories and tie the record with 2 more wins!
Junior Varsity opened the first round of the County Tournament against the Roselle Catholic Lions and came away with a 2-0 win by 25-12, 25-6 scores. In the first set, Summit went on 2-0 runs in every rotation first time through the lineup and held a 12-6 lead. But in rotation 7,, Gabby Nowicka stepped up and delivered a 5-0 service run (3 aces) to extend the lead to 18-6 and effectively ending the Lions hopes as the Top finished off set 1 3 rotations later at 25-12.
Set 2 proved to be much of the same with M ira Oberoi opening up rotation 1 with an 8-0 run that gave Summit a 9-1 lead. Kate Cooper followed up in rotation 2 with a 5-0 run that had SHS with a 15-3 lead. It was all academic after that as Emmy Handal finished it off in rotation 4 with an 8-0 run (4 aces) to get SHS to the Quarter-Finals versus Linden with a 25-6 victory.
For the Pink Out event on Thursday night, the Top faced off against the Summit killer Cougars who had a hand in 2 of the 3 Summit losses this campaign. Make it now 3 of the 4 losses but an improved effort as the Top dropped set 1 by a 25-23 scoreline and held a 19-18 lead late in set 2 before yielding 5-0 run to the Cougars who led on to a 25-21 set 2 win.
But the squad rebounded nicely from the loss with a dominant Quarter-Final win versus the Tigers of Linden, their 3rd win over the Tigers this season by tallies of 25-12 and 25-11. In set 1, the Tigers held close through the first 2 rotations trailing the Hilltoppers by only 2 points at 8-6 but Cooper extended the lead with a 3-0 run and Molly Davies finished off any Linden hopes with an 8-0 run (3 aces) that gave the Top an insurmountable 21-9 lead on their way to a 25-12 set one win. Set 2 was much of the same with Handal ripping a 5-0 run (2 aces) in rotation 4 to give the SHS side a 13-3 lead. The Tigers were unable to respond over the next 3 rotations and Summit continued to gather multiple points in those same rotations as the home side wrapped up set 2 by rotation 8 with a 25-11 set and match win guaranteeing the Summit Hilltoppers a semi-final berth in the Union County Tournament victory for only the 3rd time in their history.