The Needham Rockets soared past Natick June 10 to reach the state Division 1 boys volleyball championship game for the fifth year in a row.
It won’t be easy. Their opponent Friday night June 13 at Xaverian Brothers High School in Westwood: once-beaten Brookline, the No. 1 seed. Game time is 6:30 p.m.
Needham, seeded third, got there by defeating No. 2 seed Natick, 25-14, 25-14, 19-25, 25-14, Tuesday at Concord-Carlisle High School.
“We played really well,” Rockets coach Dave Powell told the Observer after the match. “We thought we had a pretty good plan, and we executed it.”
Did they ever. Needham blasted off to leads of 10-1, 13-2 and 21-9 in the first set enroute to a 25-14 win. The second set was closer before the Rockets pulled away to win by the same score.
Bay State Conference rival Natick revived long enough to take the third set, and they kept the early minutes of the fourth one close enough to make a healthy turnout of Needham fans a little nervous.
“We knew Natick was such a great team,” Powell told reporters. “We knew we needed guys to step up.” And they did, winning decisively to improve to 21-5 on the season.
Junior Matty Cloonan had 14 kills for Needham. Senior Andrew Kurdziel contributed 10 kills, 3 digs and two blocks. Powell praised the work of his servers (Kurdziel and senior Ben Vu each had 3 aces), and senior Nate Ross piled up 27 assists. Junior Tyler Goldberg seemed at times to be everywhere, including flat on the floor. He amassed 15 digs and possibly a few floor burns while diving to keep volleys alive.
Natick’s Redhawks (19-3) hadn’t lost since dropping their first two matches to Needham 3-1 and Brookline 3-0 in early April. They’d beaten the Rockets 3-0 in their return match May 20, making the Rockets’ win that much sweeter.
Now their attention turns to top-seeded Brookline (22-1), which took the other semifinal over defending champ Newton North, the No. 4 seed, 24-26, 25-14, 25-10, 27-25. Brookline won both its regular season matches against Needham, each by scores of 3-0.
Needham saw its string of three straight Division 1 titles snapped by Newton North in last year’s championship game. On Friday June 13, the Rockets will be out to start a new streak on top.
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