Needham Girls Basketball Ready for 2025-26 Season
December 12, 2025
• The Rockets kicked off their season with a 72-35 win over Weymouth.
After a 12-10 finish last season, Needham girls basketball is entering the winter leaning on its experienced senior class and a new head coach.
Lindsay Miller stepped in as Needham’s head coach following the departure of Hannah Carroll. In her two year tenure, Carroll led the Rockets to a 27-17 record and helped develop the group of seniors leading the team this season.
“The girls are a dream,” Miller said. “To get to coach that group of seniors, with not only their talent but who they are as people and all the intangibles they have, I couldn’t ask for better leaders.”
Miller won two state championships as a player at Westwood High School before going on to play at Harvard University. She later became an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator for the Crimson and most recently coached at The Rivers School, bringing plenty of experience and knowledge to Needham. Her coaching philosophy centers around creating a positive environment on and off the court.
“My philosophy is about empowering young women to succeed on the court and in their relationships with their teammates in ways that are transferable off the court and their relationships with other people,” Miller said. “I just really want to be a pillar of positivity and be able to lift people up.”
The captains say the transition to playing under Miller has been smooth and her positivity definitely stands out.
“Coach Lindsay has been amazing, we all love her so much,” senior Hannah Levine said. “I put my full confidence in her every single day. Practices and tryouts went great, and the vibe in the gym is super fun and positive and I think with her guiding our team this season can go in so many different positive ways.”
“We love her, she’s like such a great community builder and just like full of positivity so it’s been a really easy transition,” senior Dani Deroian said.
Last year, the Rockets played two extremely close playoff games, picking up an overtime victory over Andover at home before going on the road to face Braintree, where they lost by just five points to one of the top four teams in the division. They hope the lessons they learned in those games will push them even further this season.
“We’ve learned that we want to get far in playoffs, we want to do the best we can,” said senior Noa Richman. “Playoff games are always tough, so just staying in it, continuing to fight, going into every game, whether it’s regular season or playoff just with that toughness mentality. We’re gonna go out there and do our best and learn and grow and I think that will hopefully get us far.”
“We can compete with anyone,” Levine added. “We’re able to keep our cool in situations that are high intensity, and both of those teams and programs are super strong, and it just showed to us that when we work together we can beat anyone and compete with anyone.”
The Rockets started their season strong, earning a 72-35 win at Weymouth on Thursday, Dec. 11, with four players scoring in double digits. Levine led the team with 17 points, eight assists, six steals and five rebounds. Aislin Flaherty added 13 points and eight rebounds, while Andrews recorded a 10 point, 11 rebound double-double. Needham will travel to Brookline on Dec. 16 at 4:30 p.m for their next game.
