Rockets Volleyball Topped Again By North, Baseball Drops Nail Biter

May 17, 2024
• The Boys Volleyball team has only lost to one team this year, but it’s happened twice, while Baseball is clinging to a spot in the postseason.

Although the Needham Boys Volleyball team rose up the MIAA Division 1 rankings again to take the top spot, they also lost their second game of the season to rival Newton North, 3-1 on Tuesday night at the A Gym. The Rockets Baseball team, well below the .500 win percentage mark for the season, dropped a close game at home, 6-5 to Framingham on Wednesday.

The latest MIAA rankings were released on Friday, with Baseball hanging in at #32. Despite their sub .500 record, if the Rockets stay at #32 or above, they would still make the postseason. For Boys Volleyball, they had dropped to #2 behind another Bay State Conference rival, Natick. But the Redhawks were swept 3-0 by Newton North on Thursday, so the average win margin helped Needham rise back up to the top. Newton North is now #3 and all three rivals are poised to be seeds 1-3 once the postseason brackets are revealed on Tuesday, May 28th.

In Tuesday’s loss to the Tigers, Needham took the first set 25-22, but lost three straight, 25-15, 25-21 and 25-19. It was only the second loss for Coach Dave Powell’s team since 2019, having won the last three straight MIAA Division 1 state titles with undefeated seasons.

By the way, the Rockets will host Natick in the regular season finale on Friday, May 24th, a game you can watch on The Needham Channel and needhamchannel.org.

Back on the diamond, Needham Baseball took a 3-1 lead in the second inning on Framingham on Wednesday, but gave up three straight runs, to trail 4-3. The Flyers led 5-4 in the fifth inning, when Needham tied it on a sacrifice fly. But Framingham scored another run in the top of the seventh inning, then held the Rockets from scoring to clinch the win. Needham has three more games left in the regular season, with the last being on Wednesday, May 22nd at 6:30pm, Senior Night against Walpole at Memorial Park.

Here are the highlights from both games:

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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.