Boys Volleyball Defeats La Salle Academy for Third Straight Win

• The Rockets went past three sets for the first time this season against the Rams. 

Needham boys volleyball defeated La Salle Academy 3-1 (25-17, 25-18, 22-25, 25-10) at home on Thursday, April 23, to improve to 7-1 on the season.

The win marked the Rockets’ third straight, after suffering their first loss of the season to Natick on April 14. Senior Will Rozman led the way with 21 kills, while Needham’s serve game collected 14 aces.

Needham quickly took a 3-0 lead in the first set behind two quick kills from Matthew Cloonan and an ace from Landon Lou. Senior Thomas Klein gave the Rockets their biggest lead of the set with a block in the middle to make it 14-7. Rozman closed the set with a kill on the left side to take the set 25-17. Rozman had four of his kills in the set, while Cloonan and Klein each added three.

La Salle took its first lead of the game with the first point of the second set, but Cloonan answered with back-to-back kills. Needham built a 9-3 lead, which prompted an early timeout from the Rams, but the Rockets later extended the lead to 18-10. La Salle pulled within four, but Needham won the set 25-18 on a service error from the Rams. Rozman and Cloonan each had four kills in the set, and Cloonan added two aces.

After building a 16-8 lead in the third, Needham gave up a 13-2 run to La Salle and fell behind 21-18, their biggest deficit of the game. The Rams closed out the set, 25-22, forcing a fourth set, the first time the Rockets have gone to past three sets this season.

Needham responded in the fourth, jumping out to a 5-0 lead. The Rockets controlled the entire set, going up 18-7 and then 22-8. Rozman continued his dominant play, adding six more kills in the set to finish with 21, as Needham took the set 25-10 to win the match 3-1.

The Rockets will travel to Boston College High School (4-5) on Saturday, April 25, looking for their fourth straight win. 

Mike Levin has the highlights from this game in the video box below:

The highlights above ran as part of the Needham Channel News, a weekly newscast airing on The Needham Channel every Thursday at 7:30pm. The Needham Channel News can be found on the Community Channel: Comcast 9, Astound 15 and Verizon 29. Most Thursdays it also can be viewed on our HD Channel on Verizon 2129, Astound 613 and streaming on this site.