NATICK – Regular season trophies don’t fulfill what the Natick boys volleyball team strives for, but that doesn’t make its revenge any less sweet against the Bay State Conference rival that ended its season last June.
With a 3-0 (25-19, 25-19, 25-17) win on Thursday, the No. 2 RedHawks (12-1) swept No. 6 Brookline for the second time this season to properly avenge their loss in last year’s Div. 1 state tournament second round.
Balance and close-out execution was at the heart of the win for Natick, ending the Warriors’ six-game win streak by extending its own to 10 straight.
“I call it revenge,” said RedHawks head coach Peter Suxho. “Let’s get revenge for last year. We messed up last year, let’s do it this year. They all agree with me. They all still remember what happened.”
Despite dropping all three sets again to Natick, Brookline showed off its strength as a contender by trading blows through almost 80 percent of each set. Deficits of 19-16 in the first, 18-17 in the second and 16-15 in the third kept it in all three, as Kristaps Vaivars (11 kills), Amir Tomer (nine kills) and Conor Christopher (seven kills) gave sophomore setter Alec Smagula (25 assists, three kills) plenty of hitting options to orchestrate.
Natick just executed better when it mattered most.
Led by Nicholas Bonavire’s game-high 14 kills, the RedHawks outscored Brookline a combined 22-8 over the last 10 points of each set. That includes a 7-0 run to close out the second, and an 8-2 finish to the match.
Natick junior Branch Barnes (12 kills, five assists, two aces) once again presented problems, while Matt Salerno (eight kills) and John Carroll (two kills, three blocks) also complemented Bonavire’s big night around senior setter Harrison Landry (30 assists, three aces, two blocks).
Passing, led by senior libero Collin Chin, also stood out.
“It’s a strategy for us to play side-by-side … it gives us three options,” Suxho said. “The players, they did that. They receive the ball and we play side-by-side. That’s why (Bonavire) played well, (Salerno) played well, (Barnes) played well at right-side.
“(Brookline) is a good team, but we made them look bad. We made them look like we are better than them. We are no-so better than them, we (played smart). … We can run strategy. We know how to win. We know where to push.”
Much of what makes Natick so dangerous is Landry’s play at setter, which Suxho was nervous the team would miss as he recovers through an ankle sprain. Landry missed the last matchup, but told Suxho he was good to go.
As always, it made a huge difference.
“I was worried, I said, ‘I’m not going to (play) you because I need you for the future,’ ” Suxho said. “He said, ‘I feel better.’ I was worried about our setting, maybe he’d be able to do it, maybe not. But he did it. He played well.”
