WORCESTER — There’s a expression Needham boys volleyball head coach Dave Powell reminds his team beyond the daily motto of cornering their own performance: Pressure is a privilege.
But after a whole year of fighting the background noise of how the two-time defending champions’ reign could be over this season, the longtime unbeaten Rockets finally saw that pressure alleviate in yet another historic accomplishment.
With a 3-0 (25-22, 25-21, 25-19) win over No. 7 Newton North on Thursday in the Div. 1 state final at Worcester State, top-seeded Needham (27-0) became the third program in the sport’s MIAA history to win three consecutive state titles as part of its now 73-game win streak.
Only New Bedford has a longer win streak with 92 games in the early 1990s, and is the other program besides Westfield to three-peat.
“We had a wave of good kids after COVID, people were guess doubting, questioning if the reign was over, and these kids responded,” Powell said. “To win 72 in a row before this and having people talk about it consistently, you can’t not hear it. You say block it out, you say just attack it – it was hard, it was challenging in its own way. … It was taxing on the kids, a bunch of 16, 17, 18-year-old kids. So to be able to finish it off like this is special. It’s special.”
In what Powell believes was the team’s best performance all year, seniors once again paved the way toward the win with their typical dose of grinding out everything they have.
Two-time All-Scholastic Raymond Weng, a starter through the entire streak, impressed once again with 18 assists, nine kills and three aces, while Ethan McCarron led the team with 12 kills. Libero Jonathan Ochalla led a serve receive that weathered the Tigers’ vicious serving, and Alex Gundaker complemented McCarron and Weng with four kills and two aces alongside junior Luke Lorence (nine kills).
Weng and McCarron especially stood out in the first two sets as Newton North challenged them in 25-22 and 25-21 frames, setting the tone to finish their high school careers without a single loss.
“That feels crazy (to not lose in high school) but I can’t do it without my teammates,” Weng said. “This team, we kind of had this chemistry that – we built it on the whole season. It felt supernatural and it felt great that we were able to just do it together.”
“It just feels really good,” Powell added. “That’s probably the best we’ve ever played as a program or team in the state title match, I think. We’ve won before, but to get this type of performance in the state title match – Newton North is a really good team and they were a tough matchup for us – but I thought we played really well.”
On the flip side in the Div. 2 state title game beforehand, No. 2 Agawam finished exorcising its demons against defending champion No. 1 Westfield by beating it 3-0 (29-27, 27-25, 25-20) for its first state title since 2013. Prior to beating the Bombers earlier in the year as part of a regular season split, it had been at least six years since the last time the Brownies had won the matchup.
The only thing senior Daniel Yovenko was missing was a cape in the effort, leading the charge with 22 booming kills that often proved unstoppable. He, David Dzhenzherukha (33 assists on his birthday), Nicholas Uschmann (six kills) and Joseph Culhane (four kills) were all critical toward the effort, which required icy veins in the first two sets.
Their motto all year was “believe” in a reference to the television show “Ted Lasso” and they followed that all the way toward the title.
