Girls Volleyball Outlasts Braintree For Victory

October 23, 2025

• Needham improved their standing in the MIAA Power Rankings with a win over the Wamps, but fell later in the week.  The Needham girls volleyball team is gearing up towards another run in the postseason and on Monday, Oct. 20, the Rockets played their last home game of the regular season, topping Braintree 3-2 on senior night. But the Wamps didn’t make it easy, winning the second and fourth sets and pushing Needham to the limit and a fifth and deciding set.

Every senior on the team saw action and, in fact, each scored at least one point throughout the game. In the first set, Needham took an early lead thanks to a kill by senior Julia Burns. After the Wamps took a 3-2 lead, the Rockets went on top and never trailed again in the set.

Braintree kept it close most of the way, with Needham getting some space thanks to a kill by Morgan Kraft, set up by Isabella Lee, that deflected off a Wamp to make it 19-15. Coco Cusick had a big block to give Needham a set point, which Burns closed out on a kill. The Rockets won set one 25-19 led by Sadie Stants, who had four kills with Cusick adding two kills and three blocks.

In set two, Needham jumped out to a 5-0 lead, but Braintree tied it at eight, then went up 13-11. The set continued back and forth with the Rockets going up 21-19 on an ace by Eleanore Alley. But the Wamps forced extra points and despite Needham going back up 25-24, Braintree answered with three in a row, the last by Norah Downey off a block as the Wamps tied the game with a 27-25 win.

In set three, sophomore Arianna Tu entered for the first time, delivering her first of many aces on the game. Lee and libero Lizzy Tam set up several big kills by Stants. The Rockets took a 20-12 lead thanks to an ace by Lee, but Braintree went on an 8-1 run before Needham closed with a four point run to win set three 25-20.

Needham tried to finish it off in set four, leading 5-1 early, but the Wamps tied it and the two Bay State Conference rivals went back and forth again, tying at 20. Braintree would close with a 5-2 run, winning set four 25-22.

In the fifth and final set, Needham came out strong, going up 8-2. Braintree would get back within three, but that was the closest they would get, as the Rockets won 15-8 to win the game 3-2.

Stants led the Rockets with twenty kills, Cusick added ten kills, six blocks and two aces. Eva Andrews had eight kills and seven blocks, Francesca DePaul added nine kills and two aces. Tu had eight aces, while Lee and Tam each added five and Alley had four.

In their first game following the loss to Needham, the Wamps beat Milton 3-2. Downey racked up eighteen kills in that match and became the second in Braintree volleyball history to surpass 400 kills. Braintree sits at No. 26 in the MIAA Division 1 Power Rankings. After their win over Braintree, the Rockets moved up one spot, from No. 7 to No. 6.

On Wednesday, Oct. 22, Needham (15-2) closed out the regular season with a three-set sweep at Walpole, but their hopes of continuing to move upward in the rankings disappeared on Friday, when the latest brackets were released with Needham dropping all the way to #10. The playoff brackets will be posted on Tuesday, Oct. 28 and Needham is expected to host at least one, if not more, playoff games at the A Gym.

If they finished in the top four, that would guarantee them to host games through the quarterfinals and if they finished in the top eight, that would have guaranteed the Rockets to host games through the Round of 16. Last year, the Rockets were No. 5 and hosted a quarterfinal game when No. 4 Attleboro was upset by Winchester.

Assuming they stay as the 10 seed, Needham would match up in a first round game with #23 Brockton. If they win, Needham would play either at #7 Central Catholic in the Round of 16, or host Braintree again if the #26 seeded Wamps pull off the upset. Another Needham win would set them to face the #2 seed in the Quarterfinals… Newton North. But those are all theoretical matchups and we’ll have to wait until the brackets are released and games begin.

The Needham Channel and Needham Local will have full coverage of the Rockets fall playoffs, with select broadcasts, highlights and all the scores here, on-air and on our social media pages.

Mike Levin has highlights from Girls Volleyball vs. Braintree, from this week’s edition of the Needham Channel News: