Girls Volleyball Sweeps Walpole, Football Drops Home Opener

September 12, 2025

• While Football’s 2 year win streak over Natick was snapped, Girls Volleyball swept their third straight this season.

After a run of a few years where Needham was “Volleyball Country,” the last two seasons saw the Football team “Rocket” to the top of the hearts of fans, making the State Semis in 2023, then the MIAA D1 Championship at Gillette Stadium in 2024. But after two games, Needham Football is struggling, dropping their second straight game, 27-0 in the home opener vs. Natick, while Girls Volleyball is riding high, sweeping their third straight game Thursday, September 11th at the A Gym.

Although they lost their first game of the year, a 3-0 sweep to Newton North, who have won each of the last three MIAA D1 titles, the Rockets Girls Volleyball team has swept each of the last three opponents, Brookline, at Braintree and Walpole. Newton North, by the way, is the only other team to win the D1 title since Needham won two in a row in 2019 and 2021. (There was no tournament in the 2020 Covid year.)

On Thursday, the Rockets were led by seniors Julia Burns (12 kills) and Sadie Stants (8 kills), as well as Isabella Lee, who is the team’s primary setter and was heavily involved on offense and defense. Lee had 17 assists and 10 digs in Needham’s win over Brookline in their home opener on September 4th.

Needham jumped out to a quick first set win over Walpole 25-11, but the Timberwolves kept it close in the second set before the Rockets pulled out a 25-21 win. The third set was similar to the first, with Needham winning 25-11 to secure the sweep.

Head Coach Courtney Tedesco’s team includes a huge senior class, with 12 members of the Class of 2026, most of whom saw at least some playing time a year ago, when they made it back to their second straight state semifinal. However, on Thursday they were playing without two of their captains, Lizzy Tam and Coco Cusick. Tam had a minor injury, but should be back next week. Cusick, however, had a foot in a boot and it’s unknown what her status will be moving forward.

Needham will hit the road to visit Milton on Tuesday, September 16th, before returning home to host Weymouth on Thursday, September 18th. The Needham Channel will be recording the Weymouth game, which will debut on Friday, September 19th.

On Friday, September 12th, Needham Football hosted Bay State Conference rival Natick in the home opener for the Rockets at Memorial Field. Head Coach Doug Kopcso’s team was hoping to rebound after a rough 46-12 loss on opening night the week prior at Milton.

But it didn’t go Needham’s way, as the Redhawks rushed for 251 yards, with 304 total yards of offense. Needham had just 7 yards on the ground, though they added 113 yards passing by QB Tyler Langford, for 120 total in the game. Langford completed 14-of-31 passes with an interception.

Jack Showstead lead Natick with 13 rushes for 122 yards and a touchdown, while James Mortarelli added 10 rushes for 87 yards. QB Matt Caissie was 5-for-10 for 53 yards passing and a pair of touchdowns.

The Redhawks opened the game with a 9 play, 83 yard drive capped off by a 12 yard TD from Caissie to J0e MacDonnell. The Rockets countered with a 9 play drive of their own, but it stalled on a 4th and 2 from the Natick 47. Natick then went on another 9 play drive, going 54 yards for a score, a 24 yard pass from Caissie to Colin Bubonovich to make it 14-0 Redhawks at the end of the 1st quarter.

A pair of Needham punts, with Natick punting in between started the second quarter, but Natick returned the second one by Needham to the Rocket 38 yard line. Showstead took the very next play the distance for his lone TD of the game, giving Natick a 21-0 lead.

Needham moved the ball well on a two minute drill to end the first half, with a 17 play drive that included receptions of 16 and 10 yards by Caden McNamee, runs of 10 and 8 by Langford  and an 8 yard reception by James Lalonde. An intentional grounding call on Langford seemed to end the half, but the Rockets ended up with one last untimed down, which ended up being an interception.

There were plenty of penalties in the game, with Natick being flagged 9 times for 86 yards, 4 of which were for 15 yards. Needham was whistled 6 times for 45 yards. That’s a total of 15 flags for 131 penalty yards on both teams.

The Rockets got the ball first in the third quarter, but were quickly forced to punt. Their defense, however, came up with a huge play, recovering a fumble forced by Colin Mancino. But a penalty and a sack halted Needham’s momentum and they were forced to punt again. Natick started their drive from the Needham 41 and took 7 plays to score again, on a 4 yard TD run by Jesse Gagliardi. The extra point was no good, so the Redhawks lead became 27-0.

Needham closed the third quarter with a 12 play, 67 yard drive that started from their own 20 and finished at the Natick 9 yard line. The Redhawks were flagged for two 15 yard penalties and Lalonde caught a 25 yard pass.

The Rockets were able to get to the Natick one yard line, but were stopped for losses of three and four yards that dropped them back to the 8, then couldn’t convert on 4th down. The Redhawks ran the clock out from there.

Lalonde led Needham in receiving yards, with 52 on four catches, while McNamee led in receptions, with 6 for 42 yards.

Natick moved up from #12 in the Boston Globe rankings to #11 after opening the season with a 35-0 win at home over Newton North. Needham dropped from #10 out of the rankings after their loss at Milton.

Needham (0-2) will next host non-conference foe Lincoln-Sudbury (1-0) at 6:30pm on Friday, September 19th, while Natick (2-0) hosts Walpole (0-2) that same night at 6pm.

We have a few highlights from the Girls Volleyball win below, via our TNC Instagram, but stay tuned for full highlights from the Girls vs. Walpole and Football vs. Natick, in a new “Rockets Roundup” Monday on our YouTube Channel.

 

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