Girls Volleyball Continues Win Streak, Football Falls Again

September 19, 2025

• Girls Volleyball is on a roll, while Football is still winless on the season.

Needham Girls Volleyball is continuing their winning ways, following up a five set win at Milton on Tuesday, September 16th with a three set sweep of Weymouth on Thursday, September 18th. Needham Football, however, dropped their third straight game to start the 2025 season, 36-7 at Memorial Field against Lincoln-Sudbury on Friday, September 19th.

Back on the Volleyball Court, Head Coach Courtney Todesco’s team was taken to the limit by Milton, the first game this year the Rockets have needed more than three straight sets to determine a winner. After being swept by Newton North in their opener, Needham swept Brookline, Braintree and Walpole. Senior Bella Lee was a force as the team’s setter vs. Milton, finishing with 46 assists, while Junior Sam Sullivan had 20 kills, Senior Captain Sadie Stants had 16 kills and 12 aces, Senior Julia Burns added 15 kills and Junior Lilian Soulia had 6 aces.

On Thursday in the A Gym, Needham rode an early eight point streak, led by their returning Senior Captain and Libero, Lizzy Tam. She finished the game with 9 aces after missing some time with a minor injury. The Rockets are still playing without their third Senior Captain, Coco Cusick, whose foot is still in a boot.

After scoring eight straight early in the first set against Weymouth, they had another six in a row and rolled to a 25-12 win. The second set was even worse for the Wildcats, with the Rockets breaking a 3-3 tie and scoring 22 of the next 26 points to win 25-7 and take a 2-0 lead.

Needham jumped out to another early lead in the third set, but emptied their bench, giving Weymouth a chance for their best point total of the game. The Rockets still won 25-15 to sweep the Wildcats, then beat Barnstable in five sets on Friday to improve to 6-1 on the season. In that game, Stants had 21 kills, Burns had 15, Lee had 53 assists and Tam added five aces. The Rockets will be off until Thursday, September 25th, when they host Wellesley at 4pm, a game that will be recorded by the Needham Channel and debuted Friday, September 26th on-air and streaming online at needhamchannel.org.

As for Football, they held Lincoln-Sudbury off the board in the first quarter, but only had one drive of their own, which stalled after three plays. The Warriors ended the first on a 10 play, 64 yard drive that finished at the Needham 16, then opened the second quarter with a TD run by QB Mason Tarantino on the first play. Again the Needham offense went three and out, punting to Dominic Decanto who brought it back to the Rockets six yard line.

Matthew Tasker then took it in a few plays later, scoring on a three yard touchdown run. Needham again couldn’t get their offense going, but held the Warriors on a 4th down from their own 32. Later in the quarter, they forced a fumble that was recovered by Caden McNamee. L-S went into halftime with a 14-0 lead, as well as an advantage in total offensive yards of 153 to -19.

The 3rd Quarter was more of the same, with the Rockets losing the opening kickoff on a fumble and the Warriors recovering on the Needham 25. It took seven plays, but Lincoln-Sudbury still got in the end zone again, on another three yard TD run by Tasker.

Needham finally starting moving the ball on offense in their next drive, but QB Tyler Langford threw into a crowd of L-S players and threw his sixth interception of the season. Stavaughn Harris would make an incredible reception, gaining 44 yards to get to the Rockets 15, then two plays later, Tasker scored again, this time from 13 yards out. Tasker finished the game with 102 yards on 15 carries and the three TD runs.

Early in the 4th Quarter, Harris would get L-S on the board again, on a short TD run, making it 36-0 and triggering a running clock. Needham would make the most of one last possession, scoring for the first time since the first half of their week one game at Milton, when Langford and McNamee connected on a 40 yard touchdown pass.

McNamee finished with three receptions for 49 yards and his second TD of the season. In the game, the Rockets lost 19 yards on the ground, while Langford completed 6-of-15 passes for 66 yards, giving Needham just 47 yards of offense. L-S, meanwhile, had 217 yards on the ground, adding 111 more through the air, giving them 328 yards of total offense. Tarantino completed 8-of-10 passes for the 111 yards, while adding 58 yards on 13 rushes.

Needham (0-3) will have a week off before coming back to Memorial Field on Friday, October 3rd, when they resume their Bay State Conference schedule against Walpole. The Timberwolves are also still looking for their first win after being shut out at King Philip 21-0, losing 27-21 at home against Foxboro, then going to Natick at falling 42-14 Friday night to a Redhawks team that shut Needham out 27-0 last week.

The Rockets have a two year win streak over Walpole, winning at Turco Field last year for the first time since 2006 and only the second time since 1994. The last time the T’Wolves beat the Rockets was in 2022, a 31-14 win at Memorial Field. After their win over Needham, Lincoln-Sudbury (2-0) will host Brockton (0-3) on Friday, September 26th at 7pm.

For highlights from both Girls Volleyball’s win over Walpole, as well as Football vs. L-S, head to our Needham Channel YouTube Channel on Monday, September 22nd for the latest edition of Rockets Roundup. In the meantime, here is a clip of Needham’s late TD, featuring TNC’s own Mike Levin on the call:

 

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Also, TNC Sports has a brand new edition of Rockets Report, hosted by Mike Levin and Ashleigh Tobin. You can check that out here: Rockets Report – Fall 2025

The Needham Channel is your home for Needham Rockets Varsity Football and you can watch every game streaming on needhamchannel.org and our Roku app. This includes the oldest public high school football rivalry in the country on Thanksgiving against Wellesley, which this year is November 27th at Hunnewell Field. We will also have stories from every game on Needham Local, as well as highlights posted to our Needham Channel YouTube page. You can also follow live game action via our X page at: x.com/tnc_sports.

TNC is also looking for volunteers who want to help out as crew and announcers for all of our game broadcasts this school year. If you love sports or know someone on a team, send an email to TNC Programming Manager Mike Levin at: mlevin@needhamchannel.org.

Be sure to check out the TNC Instagram page, for all of our content from the 2025 Needham Fall Sports Season at: instagram.com/theneedhamchannel.