Fourth straight trip to the Div. 1 state volleyball final for Newton North

NEWTON­ – For the fourth consecutive season, Newton North is headed to the state championship in Division 1 girls volleyball.

The Tigers rode a balanced offensive attack to secure a 3-0 state semifinal victory over Needham and book a date with Brookline in the state championship.

“This is what we work hard for the whole season,” Newton North head coach Nile Fox said. “We keep getting better and better and we do it for these moments. We want to be playing in the final game of the season, that’s always our goal.”

The Tigers fell in the 2021 state championship but have been able to claim the last two. This year’s squad is a bit younger, with only four seniors, but Fox said the younger players have really stepped up to lead the team.

“We have a lot of young kids stepping up,” Fox said. “It can be tricky sometimes, but as you can see they really made an impact on the game. We have a really bright future.”

The Rockets started hot in the first set and grabbed a 4-0 lead and eventually an 8-4 lead. However, the Tigers stormed back, eventually snagging a 21-18 lead and cruising to a 25-19 first set victory.

The second set featured more of the same, although Newton North led throughout the play. A key contributor to this was the dominant net play of seniors Devon Burke and Brianna Miliken at the net.

“Brianna and I have been working on that,” Burke said. “We watch the hitters, we’ve been doing it at practice a lot. We go up together, we are in sync.”

The third set saw Needham build some leads once again, but Newton North continued to battle back. A key contributor to this was sophomore Sasha Selivan, who impacted the game with strong passes and several fake-out hits.

“She’s always like that, she’s always on fire,” Burke said of Selivan. “She’s an excellent player, as everyone who watches us knows.”

This would help Newton North cruise to the eventual 25-18 victory and set the date with Brookline. The Warriors were the only team to defeat the Tigers this season, but Burke said the team’s experience is having it enter with a clear mindset.

“We aren’t going to walk in there and think ‘oh, Brookline beat us, we need to get redemption,’ ” Burke said. “It’s the biggest game of our season, we are just super excited.”