Sports Updates: Hilltoppers Volleyball Beat Millburn

Summit blasted past Millburn in set one, building an insurmountable lead of  8-1 behind the serving of Kelli Houck and Allie Wernsing that proved too much for the Millers to overcome.

Set two was a tight game midway through with Summit leading 13-12 after falling behind early 6-1. Summit had another lapse in their serve receive game and were unable to break serve despite numerous substitutions and shifts.

Both the Hilltoppers returned to their A-game in set three. The squad was more consistent and focused.  Summit held a 15-8 lead and seemed poised to run away with the set and match but key hitting and passing errors saw the lead all but evaporate and the match was deadlocked at 18 late in the set.  

The Hilltoppers had their back against the wall trailing 21-19 but a crucial kill by freshman Lindsay Leiter out of the middle broke momentum and gave Summit a shot trailing 21-20.

Leiter followed that key play with two consecutive aces to give Summit the lead at 22-21.  After exchanging a few points, Summit held a slim 24-23 lead and served for the match.

Nicole Johnson put the ball in play but another hitting error by the Hilltoppers put the game in peril.  Summit was able to attack off the next serve but a Miller hitting error ultimately gave the ball to Jeanelle Augustin with the match on the line.

Augustin served up an ace to close out the match and give Summit its second win of the season. 

In a match filled with miscues,  Nicole Johnson proved to be the most consistent hitter for the Hilltoppers, tallying a team high five kills for the match.  Lindsay Leiter led the team with four aces while Megan Trindell, Allie Wernsing and Jeanelle Augustin each had three.  Defensively,  the captain duo of Megan Trindell and Emily Hu each had six digs to pace the Hilltoppers.

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The Hilltoppers competed in a dual meet versus Rahway on Sept. 15 and the Magee Invitational on Sept. 19, both at Warinanco Park in Elizabeth. 

On Sept. 15, the girls did a competitive tempo pace to both train and to win the dual meet.  The girls were paced by Katie Watson’s second place finish, Nicola Hallenborg’s third, Emily Richards’ fourth, Aleixa Diaz’ sizth and Sara DiMassimo’s seventh to win their first dual meet in the newly formed Union County Conference.

On Sept. 19, the girls competed in the Magee Invitational (class meet) and finished seventh overall.  The race heats (run by class) were highlighted by Hannah Rose (fourth) and helped guide the freshmen by placing fourth overall out of 23 teams. 

Emily Richards finished eighth overall and helped the sophomores place fifth overall out of 19 teams.  Katie Watson was second only to Roselle Catholic’s Inez Simoes (2008 Union County Champion) and helped  lead the juniors to 10th place overall out of 23 teams. 

Nikki Hallenborg ran an excellent time of 19:22 and finished fourth out of 139 runners.   The seniors finished 16th overall out of 16 teams.  Summit had seven of it’s 11 runners who raced the 3.25 mile course set personal records on this course.