Natick volleyball star Harrison Landry on May 5, 2023 in Natick, Massachusetts. . (Stuart Cahill/Boston Herald)
Natick – No opponent has yet taken a first set against the Natick men's volleyball team this season, but early momentum continues to produce signature wins.
Junior Blanche Burns had eight of her game-high 17 kills in the opening frame Monday night as the No. 2 Redhawks (10-1) defeated No. 5 Milford 3-0 (27-25). , 25-16, 25-). 20), 8 consecutive wins.
Maintaining their early tenacity was key for Natick. Especially since their only loss was to No. 1 Needham, who ended up losing 3-1 despite having a 1-0 lead.
It will be another confidence boost for Natick's longest winning streak dating back to before the season was canceled due to the pandemic.
“The Natick High School boys volleyball team has a good name, so we're trying to keep it that way,” Redhawks head coach Peter Sucho said. “We don't want to go down, we want to stay up, and to do that we have to beat good teams. … This is a great win. It's good for practice, it's good for the city, it's good for the players' mindset. That's a good thing.”
Senior captain Harrison Landry, who had 24 assists and two kills, added, “This is huge for us…(the winning streak) really proves the strength of our team this year.” “In the first set against Needham, we had very high energy, but in a way we lost it. We used everything in the first set and lost in the later sets. We were able to keep our energy high throughout the game.”
All of the top five matchups were on display in this first set, and it could have gone either way.
Natick started with an 8-2 run and Burns heated up early, building a lead to 14-7. Milford (9-4)'s balance kept the score within range and exploded for nine of the next 10 points to take a 16-15 lead. The Scarlet Hawks opened the scoring with Owen Callahan (37 assists) shooting the ball evenly and scoring on an early pairing with senior Alex Guerra (11 kills).
Natick got within 20-17, but Landry connected with Barnes four times for the next seven points to tie the game at 22-22. From there, neither team led by more than one point until the Red Hawks won 27-25.
“That was huge. I think that was the closest set we had,” Landry said. “That set the tone for the rest of the game. … I think our team is really good at coming out of the gate with energy. That's what we did.”
Callahan used plenty of hitting options in Guerra, Joey Newman (9 kills, 2 blocks), Arthur Gomez (8 kills) and Ryan Franklin (7 kills) to help Milford push through the rest, but Natick appeared to be in control.
Senior River Colin Chin had great play in the second and third sets, helping to force Milford into a long rally. A back-and-forth second set resulted in 13 errors for the Scarlet Hawks, with strong hitting from Burns and Matt Salerno (four kills) helping Natick to a 25-16 victory.
The Redhawks' 6-1 start continued into the third game, but Milford chipped away at that point and narrowed the gap to 14-12. While the Scarlet Hawks couldn't stop the explosive hits, three more kills and a block from Barnes took the set 25-20 to end the match.
Suxho said changing his entire style played a big role.
“We're trying to play two, three ways. There's not just one way we play,” Sukcho said. “We put it together and it worked out really well.”
