October 10, 2025
• Needham is peaking at the right time and continued a stellar season during the annual Dig Pink Night, as they beat Newton South.
The annual Dig Pink Game to benefit the Side-Out Foundation for Breast Cancer Awareness is a tradition for Girls Volleyball, always facing off against Newton South in the month of October, which is also Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The two teams alternate between the two home sites, with Needham hosting at the A Gym on Friday night and defeating the Lions 3-1 to extend their win streak to twelve games.
With Rockets Football playing at Newton North on Thursday night, Courtney Todesco’s team had the prime time slot to kick off the holiday weekend, with The Needham Channel also there to record a broadcast. Although the Rockets haven’t won a state title in a few years, Needham has advanced to the State Semis the last two years, falling to the Lions cross town rival Newton North, a Bay State Conference rival of the Rockets.
The Lions’ visit to the A Gym was part one of a two part visit by Newton teams to Needham, with North scheduled to play there Tuesday night. But more on the Tigers later, as Friday was all about Pink Night and the matchup with South.
“Dig Pink is always, since Freshman year, has always been my favorite game of the year,” Senior Captain Coco Cusick said prior to the matchup with the Lions. “Everyone’s united, we do, you can see, we make these shirts… we have all the levels come in, we decorate the gym. This year it really looks good, everyone was so creative. It’s a really good game with a really good atmosphere. When the crowd comes, the most amount of people and we love to see that support, makes us want to go to their games too. So it really is, the best game of the season.”
Cusick spent the first few weeks of the season on the shelf with an injury and while the team had been playing well in her absence, Coco’s return has been a key to their continued success. “It’s really awesome to be back out on the court,” Coco said. “Obviously the team did a beautiful job without me. It hurt not to be able to go out on the court and thinking about, ‘Oh my gosh, am I not going to be able to get a Dig Pink Game in? Was Junior Year my last Dig Pink Game? So I’m honestly just so excited to be here for this game today.”
Needham has been ranked as high as No. 2 in the MIAA Division 1 rankings, just this past week, though they fell to No. 4 with the rise of Chelmsford (15-0) to No. 1 and Shrewsbury (14-0) to No. 3. Newton North, who fell to No. 13 Natick (7-5) in four sets this week, is now No. 2. So with the home game against the Tigers on the horizon, Needham wanted to take care of business Friday night. Newton South is ranked No. 17.
“We’re obviously excited for Pink Night, but this is a really big game, so we have to keep that in mind,” Head Coach Courtney Todesco told us Friday night. “Every year it seems like the competition just gets higher and higher and Newton South is a really great program. Many of these Dig Pink games have actually gone to five sets. It’s a higher intensity atmosphere, it’s almost feels like playoffs in here when we have it. We are definitely prepping for a very big game as well.”
For Dylan Helfman, one of the twelve seniors on Needham’s Varsity roster, the Dig Pink Game holds an even greater meaning. “My mom was diagnosed two years ago and thankfully it was not that serious. I know a lot of people have been affected a lot more, so I’m very thankful for that. But it was definitely really hard, it was during the volleyball season actually. So that Dig Pink Game my sophomore year was definitely really special for me and all of them have been really special.”
“I feel like it’s getting bigger and bigger every single year,” added Coach Todesco, who played in Dig Pink Games when she went to Trinity College. “Different years we’ve done different things, like a silent auction. Newton South does different things when they host. It’s kind of nice because each school can put their own liitle spin on it when it’s their turn to host. It’s definitely evolved.”
“We do a fun serving game to raise money where people can serve over the net and play a dollar to serve,” Helfman told us. “There’s a lot of noise, a lot of excitement in the gym. Newton South is a great program, we always love playing them every year and it’s such an exciting game.”
With the A Gym rocking from the start, Newton South got off to a big start, leading in the first set 8-2. But Cusick spurred a response by Needham, with a kill and an ace to lead a 9-3 run that tied the score at 11.
After taking the lead, Helfman then deflected a ball that the Rockets controlled. Two more Needham seniors gave the Rockets a 14-12 advantage, Bella Lee on the set and Julia Burns on the kill. Cusick and one of her Senior Tri-Captains, Sadie Stants, had three kills each in the first set, which the Rockets won 25-20, finished by a kill from Coco.
The second set started back and forth, with the Lions taking another early lead, 8-3, before Needham tied it at 9. South went on a big run to go up 20-13 and 23-17, seemingly about to tie up the game at one set apiece, but Needham stormed back to tie the game at 23, then won in extra points, 26-24.
Burns had six kills in that second set and a team high thirteen in the game. Newton South dominated the third set, winning 25-14 and forcing a fourth set.
Stants had some big plays in the fourth, including some kills and an ace. Sadie finished with ten kills and two aces as the Rockets closed out the game with a 25-19 victory in set four.
Cusick finished with five kills, five blocks and four aces. Junior Sam Sullivan had six kills and two blocks, while Helfman added a pair of kills and a pair of blocks to keep Needham’s win streak, now at twelve games since being swept by Newton North in their first game of the year. Needham’s record going into their Tuesday game with the Tigers is 12-1.
While the win over the Lions Friday night was a big deal, the team understands that this night is about more than winning and losing. “It’s so special, what we do for the Side-Out Foundation, the reason behind it and in general, it brings so many people together,” Helfman said prior to the start. “I think it’s one of the busiest games we have of the season and I just think it’s just a really important thing that we do and I’m so thankful and lucky that our program is able to do such great things.”
The two Newton games represent the last true challenges on the regular season schedule for Needham. “South and North’s programs every year, they’re really strong,” said Cusick. “So this game is going to be a really good prep, to come back with North, see what we can do out on the court. But those games are usually very fun to play, just because of the competitive nature of our teams.”
After their big home game with Newton North on Tuesday, Needham closes out the regular season with a visit to Weymouth on Thursday, October 16th, Senior Night against Braintree on Monday, October 20th (the final regular season home game of the season), then a visit to Walpole on Wednesday, October 22nd.
Check out our Social Media highlights and Gallery from Dig Pink Night:
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