On Thursday, June 13, the Newton North Varsity Boys Volleyball team made history.
“I went in to serve. When I served, it went through Owen’s hands, and at first I thought, oh man, this might be an ace, it’d be a perfect way to end the season, but then they got it back over,” Senior Captain and setter Joaquin Cuvas-Torres said. “I set Adam, he hit the ball, and then there was a whistle. It was silent in the gym. You could hear a pin drop.”
For the first time in Newton North Boys Volleyball program history, the varsity team won the Division 1 State Tournament, marking their second-ever appearance in the finals. In a five-set match at Worcester State University, Newton North defeated 3-time consecutive State Title holders Needham High School in the finals. The intense game — 23-25, 25-12, 17-25, 25-22, 15-8 — ended the Tigers’ season with a 23-3 record. Their victory elevated their state ranking from 8th to 2nd and served as retribution for their loss against Needham in the finals last year.
“We had a goal of getting right back to the state championship after we lost last year,” said Newton North Head Coach Nile Fox. “We had a goal of having a winning season, which we were able to do, and we had a goal of everybody coming out and having fun, and it’d be in a cool, fun season. We accomplished all those things.”
For players like Senior Captain and middle blocker Sam Huang, last year’s loss motivated him to push himself and the team forward toward their goal, especially since it was their last year on the team.
“[Winning] felt great, because last year was one of the most heartbreaking moments for me, at least in my volleyball career,” he said. “Losing last year really showed a lot of us how badly we really wanted to win this year, considering this was probably our highest chance to win, and being able to achieve that was really fulfilling, knowing that all the hard work we put into the season actually paid off.”
The majority of this year’s season was successful, and Senior Captain and setter/opposite Adam Christianson said that there was a switch in the team’s mentality this year, even during everyday practices.
“Every year we’re always like, we always struggle in a focus aspect. Every year, practices are always a little too much messing around, but this year, we kind of dialed it in a little more,” he said. “It was going really well until we lost to Natick and Brookline, and then after that, everyone was like, okay, we kind of actually need to lock-in. And then we did.”
However, Huang said that those unsuccessful games during the season, such as their early games against Natick and Brookline, and then a close-call during the semi-finals facing Natick again (3-2, North) proved to them the competitiveness of the season, while simultaneously pushing them further to play their best.
“We had moments where we showed we were the best, that we also had moments where we showed that anyone could beat us, but what truly pushed us over the edge – to become the team that is the best – was realizing that anyone could beat us,” he said. “Playing that game against Natick in the semi finals, where we literally had to come back from down 0-2, showed us that if we play with heart, we can win. As long as we don’t give up and just keep fighting, we could do it.”
With a win against Needham already under their belt from May 14, North was optimistic going into the finals, but Fox said that it was still critical that the team remain steady and strategic with their plays.
“My main goal was to just make sure that we were consistent and do our game plan,” he said. “We had talked about a lot of things that we wanted to do in that game at the two practices we had before the game, so I just really wanted to make sure that we did all the things that we practiced the two days before and we weren’t nervous, and we came out pretty well doing what we wanted to execute.”
And against stiff competition, Needham carrying only one less win during their season (with a record of 25-4), Christianson said that they still had a few struggles.
“We made a lot of unforced errors, a lot of missed serves, a lot of hitting errors [and] serve receive wasn’t that great at some points,” he said. “But we just cleaned all that up, and then it all got way better.”
Meanwhile, Needham was overcoming their own struggles as well. With the loss of a strong senior group from last year, Needham Head Coach Dave Powell said that it was tough to build back up from the ground, but that ultimately the strength of the team was still one to be incredibly proud of.
“We lost a ton of guys … so it’s hard when you get to keep going back with guys that don’t have a ton of experience when you graduate a lot of seniors. We’re dealing with the same thing next year, but I’m really proud of the way our seniors stepped up and competed and really just tore teams down,” he said. “We didn’t have the most firepower, but we had really good defense, and some of our outside hitters really emerged. We just felt a little short of our ultimate goal, but we’re super proud of our guys. It’s been a crazy run, four state title appearances in four years, and three state titles in four years. Nothing to be ashamed of. North was just a better team that day, and they deserve to win.”
And while this is the last year for captains Cuevas-Torres, Christinason, and Huang, Fox said that their contributions, along with the rest of the seniors and the team as a whole, is thoroughly appreciated and revered, as they set a strong standard for the future of Tigers volleyball.
“[I want to] thank our seniors for everything that they gave to the program, and they won’t be forgotten because they made history this year and for the kids on the team,” he said. “Just we know what we can do. We’ve seen it. We won a state championship, and it can happen again. So as long as we work hard in the off season and we’re ready and prepared when the season comes along, we’ll be fine. And we can be right back next year.”
Bella Ishanyan is a second-year Fig City News summer intern, a new Newton South HS graduate, and the 2024 Massachusetts High School Journalist of the Year.
