Top-ranked Brookline boys avenge only volleyball loss, down Needham 3-0

NEEDHAM No Natick handed the No Brookline boys volleyball crew its first loss of the year last week Brookline made sure it stayed their only loss Tuesday night Behind fast starts in the first two sets and strong finishes in the last two the Warriors - further solidified their confidence as a leading Div title contender with another - sweep - - - over No Needham this time in a gym none of them had ever won in before Alec Smagula posted of his assists in a slugfest of a third set pairing with Kris Vaivars kills three aces to anchor an otherwise well-rounded win After losing in five sets when it didn t play its best against Natick this was a major boost for Brookline with the state tournament less than two weeks away I think that loss kind of woke us up a little bit we were getting a little bit too calm in the spot that we were stated Warriors head coach Lexi De La Cruz It also helped the coaches figure out what we needed to work on Right now I think the confidence is better than last week We re heading into playoffs Natick is a good company and they made us pay for a slow return from April break Vaivars added Coming back from that loss we know we don t want that to happen again So good win in the present day Needham took specific time to get into its rhythm falling into - holes in the first two sets The first never saw it get closer than a - deficit but a scarce quality stretches in the middle of the second and largest part of the third set evidenced the tenacious battle to expect if the two teams meet again in the state tournament Serving improved in that second set and Nathaniel Ross and Luke Vivaldi spread the wealth to Will McDonald Matt Cloonan five kills Andrew Kurdziel four kills five blocks Jeremy Smith six kills block and Will Rozman nine kills to pull Needham within a - deficit before teams traded straight side-outs Kurdziel ended the stretch with a kill and his two consecutive blocks of Vaivars gave it a - lead But out of a timeout Brookline ended the second set on a - run with a Liam Raybould block sandwiched by four Needham hitting errors The back-and-forth continued into a - third set as Tyler Goldberg s defense off the bench gave the Rockets a notable boost and Rozman heated up for five kills but the Warriors took of the next points My kids are focusing on getting the bigger run out of the two teams De La Cruz commented We know that they re going to get their points we re just trying to get the last run Vigor and belief from the whole group played a major role in fending off the Rockets Our vitality was high the whole time Vaivars commented Once we got that lead we just knew if we kept pushing we would win We re all good friends We all want to promotion each other create an vitality And I just think the society we have at Brookline allows us to do that Strong serve-receive and an aggressive attack played other major roles Needham s block anchored by Kurdziel arguably the state s top middle hitter challenged Brookline to finish off points after several rallies Smagula assisted Vaivars nine times while Amir Tomer eight kills block Liam Raybould six kills block Conor Christopher six kills block and Luka Gallucci also recorded kills I knew that Kurdziel was going to get blocks De La Cruz stated I was telling my kids Hey it doesn t matter if he s going to get you once twice or thrice In the end you re going to get your points so stay aggressive That s what happened We were aware that they ve got a good block on the other side