Girls Soccer and Volleyball Fall, Football to Host Central Catholic

November 13, 2024

• Two Needham teams reached the end of the line, but one is still going.

It’s been an incredible Fall Sports Season for the Needham Rockets, with several teams making deep postseason runs. But this week two of those teams were eliminated from the postseason as Girls Volleyball fell in three straight sets to Newton North and Girls Soccer dropped a close 3-2 contest at Bishop Feehan.

However, Football is still alive and will play at least one more game before Thanksgiving. On Tuesday, Girls Volleyball, ranked #5 in the MIAA Division 1 bracket, faced Bay State Conference rival Newton North in a rematch of last year’s semi, won by the Tigers. North had also taken both regular season contests against the Rockets, 3-0 in Needham and 3-2 at home.

The Rockets took an early 8-4 lead in the first set, but North came storming back to take the lead, then the set 25-19. The Tigers led early in the second 11-5 and won it, once again, 25-19.

Needham would go up 8-4 in third, but Newton North couldn’t be denied, as they completed the sweep 25-18. Alex Sykora, Lisa O’Leary and Sadie Stants tied for the Rockets lead in kills, with five each, while Coco Cusick had two kills and six blocks. Sykora and O’Leary were playing in their final game as seniors, as did Emma Nolfi, who had three blocks, Mary Carr, who had a pair of aces, as well as Cecilia Skala, Eleanore Alley and Kelsey Pittman.

On Wednesday, #4 Bishop Feehan Girls Soccer jumped out to an early lead, less than seven minutes into their Quarterfinal game against #5 Needham, when Megan Viera scored for the Shamrocks. Just a few minutes later though, Hannah Levine got the equalizer to tie the score at 1-1. It stayed that way until the second half, when Callie McCarthy put the Rockets on top 2-1.

But Bishop Feehan came back and scored again, thanks to Tea Briggs, tying the game. The Shamrocks average exactly three goals a game, scoring 60 in 20 games, and their third one in this game came in stoppage time, with Savannah Ryan doing the honors. Feehan advances to the State Semifinal to face #1 Natick, another Bay State Conference rival.

With both Girls teams falling, that means the one team left standing is Needham Football, and not just in preparation for the Thanksgiving game against Wellesley. The Rockets, ranked #4 in the MIAA Division 1 bracket, host #5 Central Catholic in the Quarterfinal round on Friday, November 15th at 6:30pm. You can see the game live on The Needham Channel’s HD and Community Channels, as well as online at needhamchannel.org and our TNC Roku App.

Ben Gilman has highlights from the last five games we’ve done broadcasts for, dating back to Football vs. Wachusett, which you can see here:

Be sure to come back to needhamlocal.org and needhamchannel.org, as well as our social media channels for updates from and about our playoff coverage. Our Sports X page is: x.com/tnc_sports, and our Instagram is: instagram.com/theneedhamchannel.