NEWTON – For the third consecutive season, the Newton North ladies volleyball staff is heading to the Division 1 state championship.
The No. 1 Tigers (24-1) swept No. 5 Needham (17-4) 3-0 to advance to the title sport and get the prospect to win the state championship for the second straight yr.
“It feels great,” Tigers coach Nile Fox stated. “We work hard for this all year. We always want to make it to the last game of the season, so it feels great because the girls worked hard. This is us getting the fruits of our labor.”
Newton North received the opening two factors, which Fox stated was enormous because the staff emphasised robust begins to units in preparation of the matchup.
“(Starting strong) is something we have been talking about the last couple of days,” Fox stated. “During the whole playoff run we have been starting slow, so we really wanted to come in and start off strong. That’s been our focal point at practice because we know Needham is a great team and if we started slow it could bring trouble for us.”
The groups traded level for the early phases of the opening set, however the Tigers have been in a position to seize a 14-9 lead and maintained that tempo en path to a 25-9 opening set victory. This can be the closest set of the match and Newton North hit its stride after this.
“We got that confidence after the first set and we really took it and ran with it,” junior exterior hitter Devon Burke stated. “We just had fun, that was a fun game.”
The Tigers jumped out to a 9-3 lead within the second set and carried that into an 18-9 lead with glorious play from Burke, Sasha Selivan and Chloe Lee. Fox stated the fluidity of the hitters was the driving pressure behind this surge.
“Our hitters did really great today,” Fox stated. “They were being aggressive. Devon Burke really carried us on the offensive side, but it was really big from everyone. It was really big that we were physical at the net, we needed that to win the game.”
The Tigers would win that set 25-12 and shortly jumped out to a 13-3 lead within the third set. Needham would make the most of its timeouts and performed a lot better at this level, however the stage was already set because the Tigers held on to finish the sweep with a 25-17 win.
Burke stated the Tigers are wanting ahead to the second and for the prospect to contribute to the superb tradition this system has.
“I’m so excited,” Burke stated. “This was our goal at the beginning of the season. I’m happy to be back there, that’ll be my third time there. I’m really excited to get after it, hopefully we get a win.”
Other motion
Sadie Wellbeloved put up 33 assists, whereas Molly Fredo, Molly Gleason and Charlotte Sullivan recorded 12 kills apiece as No. 3 Barnstable (21-3) bested No. 10 Franklin 3-0 in a Div. 1 state semifinal.
Source: www.bostonherald.com