Boys Volleyball Completes Epic Comeback Against Milford

April 25, 2024

• The Rockets lost the first two sets at home, but swept the last three in dramatic fashion.

The Needham Boys Volleyball team found themselves in an unfamiliar position on Wednesday, April 24th at the A gym, as they trailed Milford two sets to none at home. The Rockets have won the last three MIAA Division 1 state titles after finishing with undefeated seasons all three times, but they had already lost for the first time since 2019 and looked primed to fall again. But Head Coach Dave Powell’s team came charging back, winning the last three sets, and beating the Scarlet Hawks in five sets, scoring the first ten points in that fifth set and rolling 15-4.

With the win, Needham improved to 8-1 on the season and await the first MIAA Power Rankings, set to be released on Friday, April 26th. Back on April 11th, The Rockets fell in five sets at Bay State Conference rival Newton North, the first loss for Needham since blowing a two set lead to Newton South at home back in the Spring of 2019. But the Rockets came right back with wins over St. John’s and Winchester over April vacation, followed by a 3-0 sweep of conference rival Brookline on Tuesday, April 23rd.

On Wednesday, Milford came out of the gate a house of fire and despite trailing most of the first set, forced Needham into extra points, then closed it out with a 27-25 win. The Rockets struggled in the second set, falling again 25-22. But things turned around quickly in the third, as Needham took their biggest lead of the game and getting on the board with a 25-17 win.

The fourth set was once again a close one, with both teams tied at 15 until Needham pulled ahead, 19-16. Milford kept it close, but the Rockets forced a fifth and deciding set with a 25-23 win. Senior Sam Peljovich had an incredible nine blocks on the game, a few of them coming in that fourth set. Senior Luke Lorence sealed it with a kill to tie the game at two sets apiece, he had 17 on the game. Another Senior, Devin Dellamarggio, added 36 assists.

The Scarlet Hawks seemed to be all out of energy in the fifth set, not scoring a point until Needham was already up by ten. The Rockets soared from there, with Senior Brian Cloonan getting the final point to complete the aforementioned 15-4 romp in the fifth in the most exciting Needham Boys Volleyball regular season victory in years. The loss was the first of the year for Milford, who fell to 9-1.

The Rockets keep up a busy Spring with several matchups with conference foes, beginning Thursday, April 25th, with a visit to Framingham, (which the Rockets swept in 3 straight sets to improve to 9-1), coming home on Tuesday, April 30th against Weymouth, then heading to Walpole on Thursday, May 2nd.

For highlights of the comeback against Milford, here’s Needham Channel Sports Anchor Ben Gilman, with some Boys Lacrosse sprinkled in as well:

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The highlights from this story ran as part of the Needham Channel News, a weekly newscast airing on The Needham Channel every Thursday at 7:30pm. The Needham Channel News can be found on the Community Channel: Comcast 9, Astound 15 and Verizon 29. Most Thursdays it also can be viewed on our HD Channel on Verizon 2129, Astound 613 and streaming on this site.