Needham volleyball beats Natick to stay perfect on season

NEEDHAM – With his broken pinkie taped to his ring finger, star senior Owen Fanning made an already dangerous Needham boys volleyball team even more volatile by making his long-awaited season debut Wednesday afternoon without any restraint.

And against fellow Bay State Conference powerhouse and perennial contender Natick, he and the Rockets proved just how threatening they can be.

Behind its trio of powerful hitters in 6-foot-7 Fanning, 6-foot-5 Ben Putnam and 6-foot-3 Nolan Leary, as well as the sound setting of sophomore Raymond Weng, Needham maintained its perfect record by downing the RedHawks, 3-0 (25-18, 25-17, 25-18).

The Rockets (10-0) served well throughout while using 11 different 3-0 runs to prevent a resilient Natick (7-3) group from ever leading by more than three points. Needham found separation each game once the RedHawks began committing a few errors, and relied on the heavy hitting of Fanning (nine kills) and Putnam (nine kills) to close them out.

With a full arsenal of weapons around him, Weng picked up 24 assists and three kills as the Rockets still haven’t lost a set all year.

“We have a lot of hitting options,” said Needham head coach Dave Powell. “I thought we were pretty good today. We could be a little better. But from the time we played them the first time to now, we’ve made a lot of progress. We serve-received better, and we served a little tougher, so they were out of system a lot.”

Adding Fanning to the mix is a huge boost to the team, as the Harvard-commit brings in a wealth of varsity experience that most of the team doesn’t possess. That came in handy against another loaded team expected to make a deep run in the postseason.

Much like the teams’ first meeting a couple weeks ago, Natick kept pace with the Rockets by committing little errors to start each frame. The athleticism of Garrett Schmid, Kendall Jackson and Luke Rossi created a wall up front, and the RedHawks sprinkled in lethal hits of their own from Jackson (seven kills) and David Massa (five kills).

Consistency throughout each game was just the biggest issue.

As the RedHawks struggled to keep its focus, Needham progressively tightened up its execution as each game developed. Fanning helped the Rockets accomplish those closeouts, and he was more than happy to finally return to a team that has steamrolled to a perfect record.

“It was good (to be back), I think I had the most energy in the first set. I’m still getting back in the groove, though,” said Fanning, whose first practice came on Tuesday. “I think (the team’s direction) is really good. We’re really intentional every day in practice about trying to raise the level as much as we can.”

“I think he could be a little better, but (his return) gives us a source of leadership, stability and a 6-7, powerful kid,” Powell added.

Come tournament time, his return could be trouble for quite a few more teams. And if Natick has its way like its capable of, this could be a matchup to look forward to on a much bigger stage later on.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/2QXunf6