NEWTON – With a dose of June’s depth in April, Matthew Salerno and the Natick boys volleyball workforce confirmed off Tuesday evening to not rely them out at any time when the going will get powerful in opposition to anybody.
It’s truly after they thrive.
Following a lackluster opening body to path Newton North in an early battle of Div. 1 state title contenders, the No. 3 RedHawks (3-0) gritted by late-set surges over the subsequent three stanzas to gather a 3-1 (17-25, 25-22, 25-23, 27-25) win over the No. 2 Tigers (3-1) in Bay State Conference motion.
Salerno (14 kills) delivered his finest moments within the closing 5 factors of every set win, highlighted by a kill and the game-winning block in consecutive performs to complete off a marathon of a fourth set.
All of it was wanted alongside Harrison Landry (17 assists, two kills), Branch Barnes (10 assists, 5 kills) and strong back-row play from libero Shawn Ferguson, as Newton North often flexed its personal star energy to steer for probably the most of each body. Considering how each determine to noticeably compete for the state title this 12 months, discovering a manner regardless of these opposing expenses marked a optimistic notch on the measuring stick.
Especially earlier than enjoying No. 1 Needham later within the week.
“For us, it’s good to win at Newton, always, every year. Every year we fight each other,” mentioned RedHawks head coach Peter Suxho. “It’s a big win. It showed me we can play better this season.”
“It definitely builds us a lot of momentum,” added Salerno. “Overall, everybody played great. We had a few hiccups but then we came back the majority of the time.”
Newton North appeared properly in management early on, using highly effective hits from Adam Christianson (17 kills) and Simon Vardeh (9 kills, three aces) – in addition to a bevy of Natick miscues – to cruise to a 25-17 win within the opening set. The Tigers even scored 10 of the final 14 whereas setter Tyler Randall (37 assists) starred and the RedHawks struggled with their serve obtain.
An analogous recipe was brewing within the second. But as a substitute of Newton North separating, Natick stored even by a back-and-forth stanza as a rotation change benefited the group. The Tigers imploded a bit, and kills from Salerno and Landry evened the match rating.
What adopted was a steady reel of the 2 buying and selling small runs en path to a Newton North lead halfway by, just for Natick to surge previous it when both workforce hit 20 factors. Improved serve obtain performed an enormous issue.
“We played better than them at the end of the set,” Suxho mentioned. “Everything is how you play (at the end). You started bad, but the problem is how you finish. We finished good.”
Simon Pedrelli, John Carroll and Nick Bonavire all pitched in robust contributions to interrupt up Tiger runs, setting the stage for Salerno. The third set noticed three Salerno kills assist flip a 21-20 deficit right into a 25-23 win, previewing three extra late factors he’d rating to assist rally from a 23-21 drawback within the fourth for the 27-25 win.
“The mentality for me is give me the ball,” Salerno mentioned. “Trust me, give me the ball and we’ll succeed. Not all the times, but I thought I did pretty well (in clutch situations).”
Source: www.bostonherald.com