NEEDHAM — It was simply 5 weeks in the past that the top-ranked Needham boys volleyball traded blows with fellow Div. 1 contender Natick, and wanted clutch performances late in a pair units to safe a decent sweep.
With a stellar serve-receive and one other huge efficiency from senior exterior hitter Ethan McCarron on Tuesday, the highly-anticipated second spherical between the 2 ended rather more convincingly for the two-time defending Div. 1 champs.
As Natick struggled to construct momentum regardless of buying and selling factors early on in every set, the unbeaten Rockets (16-0) surged via the gates en path to a 3-0 (25-14, 25-17, 25-19) win in opposition to one other Bay State Conference juggernaut.
Owen Ching and Jonathan Ochalla performed exceptionally to primarily present Needham with two top-level liberos, main the house group to what each head coaches felt was an enormous recreation for the Rockets’ serve-receive.
Needham acquired its typical dose of offensive contributions throughout the board off of that, led by McCarron’s 16 kills and Raymond Weng’s 10 kills with 19 assists.
“We received serve better today than we did the first time we played them,” stated Needham head coach Dave Powell. “When you can pass serve and you’re in system, that helps. … They were scoring and they’d come back and serve pretty tough, we’d pass serve and hit at a pretty high clip.”
Part of what makes Natick so harmful is how troublesome it’s to pressure it out of system. But within the first two units, Needham made it arduous for the RedHawks to achieve momentum by limiting their offensive choices whereas Natick confronted a bevy of harmful Rockets hitters.
Branch Barnes and Harrison Landry linked for a handful of kills within the first set, however all however two of the factors Natick picked up was adopted by a facet out. Weng dished 5 assists and buried 5 kills alongside a strong body from Devin Dellamarggio (17 assists) as Needham acquired sizzling quick, and several other RedHawks errors plagued them in response.
“We knew they’d be a lot better (this time) as they always do,” McCarron stated. “We knew we had to come out of the gates strong, and it worked. … Starting out right away is really important. We want to be automatic.”
Natick began to search out its regular rhythm within the second and third units, holding tempo via Needham’s first 15 factors earlier than the Rockets constructed huge runs. Matt Salerno and middles John Carroll and Simon Pedrelli discovered extra success across the RedHawks’ two setters, and so they all appeared rather more comfy in Needham’s fitness center regardless of struggling to gather greater than two factors in a row.
As the RedHawks dialed up their stage of play, although, so did McCarron.
With six kills within the second set, the senior paired with Brian Cloonan (six kills) and Luke Lorence (eight kills) to show a 10-9 lead into 21-14 over the subsequent 16 factors. Natick rallied a bit, however McCarron and Lorence buried the ultimate three factors for the 25-18 win.
The third set then noticed Natick lead as late as 13-12, however it struggled with service errors and McCarron smashed 4 kills in a 9-4 run to offer Needham a 20-17 benefit. Momentum was all in favor of the Rockets by that time, closing a 25-19 set for the victory.
“(McCarron) kept raising his level,” Powell stated. “Ethan played great, he played really well. Devin Dellamarggio set really well. I thought (Ching) and (Ochalla), it’s like we had two liberos on the court today … both of them played like big-time liberos and that really helped.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com