CAMBRIDGE — Much of Cambridge Rindge and Latin’s practices over the past couple weeks have been spent speaking about sustaining focus and bettering serving.
Friday evening within the first spherical of the Div. 1 state match in opposition to acquainted Dual County League foe No. 21 Boston Latin, that emphasis paid dividends.
Despite a couple of large runs from a resilient Wolfpack group that examined the Falcons in shut second and third units, No. 12 Cambridge discovered a means to answer each punch with runs of its personal to maneuver on with a 3-0 win (25-11, 25-21, 25-23). Matthew Liu led the way in which with 16 kills and David Gonzalo had 24 assists with two kills, taking part in giant roles inside 4 totally different runs of not less than 5 straight factors as Cambridge took momentum in giant strings behind robust serving.
The Falcons loosened the grip a bit of an excessive amount of in bits and items to permit Boston Latin benefits within the second and third units, however clamped down to maneuver on to face the winner of No. 5 Lexington vs. No. 28 Methuen within the second spherical.
“Big win … it feels good,” stated head coach Kelley Leary. “We did a scouting report and they knew everything to look for. We lost sight of it and had to be reminded … they were losing a little focus there but they pulled it together.”
After a scorching first set that noticed Gonzalo, Liu, James Rochberg and Henry Bonney take off for a snug 1-0 Falcons lead, the Wolfpack punched again within the second set as Alex Pfau (16 assists, three kills, block) linked with Raymond Xu (9 kills) for a 10-2 lead. A timeout refocused Cambridge, which responded with an 11-2 run earlier than successful the body 25-21.
Much of the identical got here late within the third set, with Boston Latin scraping collectively a 5-0 run to take a 23-21 lead. Cambridge fought again with a 4-0 run to shut out the sport.
Gonzalo’s distribution is a giant credit score to staving off the Boston Latin runs, however stretches of sound serves — led by junior captain Jeremy Kravitz and senior Ezra Barneson — was a focus. Looking to ice the sport with the third set, the Falcons dedicated only one service error within the body alongside three of their seven aces.
“It comes down to serving, and we have some really good servers,” Kravitz stated. “We work on serving probably every single practice. … We’re getting better at applying practice into game. This game proved a lot, I think, for us.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com