NEEDHAM — It was merely 5 weeks up to now that the top-ranked Needham boys volleyball traded blows with fellow Div. 1 contender Natick, and wished clutch performances late in a pair models to protected an honest sweep.
With a stellar serve-receive and one different enormous effectivity from senior exterior hitter Ethan McCarron on Tuesday, the highly-anticipated second spherical between the two ended relatively extra convincingly for the two-time defending Div. 1 champs.
As Natick struggled to assemble momentum no matter shopping for and promoting components early on in each set, the unbeaten Rockets (16-0) surged through the gates en path to a 3-0 (25-14, 25-17, 25-19) win in opposition to at least one different Bay State Convention juggernaut.
Owen Ching and Jonathan Ochalla carried out exceptionally to primarily current Needham with two top-level liberos, primary the home group to what every head coaches felt was an unlimited recreation for the Rockets’ serve-receive.
Needham acquired its typical dose of offensive contributions all through the board off of that, led by McCarron’s 16 kills and Raymond Weng’s 10 kills with 19 assists.
“We obtained serve higher at the moment than we did the primary time we performed them,” said Needham head coach Dave Powell. “When you possibly can cross serve and also you’re in system, that helps. … They had been scoring and so they’d come again and serve fairly robust, we’d cross serve and hit at a reasonably excessive clip.”
A part of what makes Natick so dangerous is how troublesome it’s to strain it out of system. However inside the first two models, Needham made it arduous for the RedHawks to realize momentum by limiting their offensive decisions whereas Natick confronted a bevy of dangerous Rockets hitters.
Department Barnes and Harrison Landry linked for a handful of kills inside the first set, nonetheless all nonetheless two of the components Natick picked up was adopted by a side out. Weng dished 5 assists and buried 5 kills alongside a powerful physique from Devin Dellamarggio (17 assists) as Needham acquired scorching fast, and a number of other different RedHawks errors plagued them in response.
“We knew they’d be loads higher (this time) as they at all times do,” McCarron said. “We knew we needed to come out of the gates sturdy, and it labored. … Beginning out straight away is de facto necessary. We need to be computerized.”
Natick started to look out its common rhythm inside the second and third models, holding tempo through Needham’s first 15 components sooner than the Rockets constructed enormous runs. Matt Salerno and middles John Carroll and Simon Pedrelli found further success throughout the RedHawks’ two setters, and they also all appeared relatively extra cozy in Needham’s health heart no matter struggling to collect larger than two components in a row.
Because the RedHawks dialed up their stage of play, though, so did McCarron.
With six kills inside the second set, the senior paired with Brian Cloonan (six kills) and Luke Lorence (eight kills) to point out a 10-9 lead into 21-14 over the following 16 components. Natick rallied a bit, nonetheless McCarron and Lorence buried the final word three components for the 25-18 win.
The third set then observed Natick lead as late as 13-12, nonetheless it struggled with service errors and McCarron smashed 4 kills in a 9-4 run to supply Needham a 20-17 profit. Momentum was all in favor of the Rockets by that point, closing a 25-19 set for the victory.
“(McCarron) saved elevating his stage,” Powell said. “Ethan performed nice, he performed rather well. Devin Dellamarggio set rather well. I assumed (Ching) and (Ochalla), it’s like we had two liberos on the courtroom at the moment … each of them performed like big-time liberos and that actually helped.”
