Rockets Review: MIAA Seeding and Gatorade's Player of the Year

A look back at Needham High School sports in the last week.

  The Rockets made a few waves in the sports world last week, as one player picked up an award and a team has been seeded in an upcoming tournament. Gatorade and USA Today's High School Sports section teamed up to award their Player of the Year award to a Needham Rocket last week. For the 2012-13 season, Needham High senior forward Mac Steeves has been named Player of the Year by the paper and sports drink maker. He lead the team to a 21-1-3 record this year. See more on Mac Steeves on the Patch piece from last week.  The Mass. Interscholastic Athletics Association recently released its 2013 seed rankings, and Needham Girls Basketball is #13 for the upcoming tourhament. The first game is Feb. 27 at 7 p.m. Needham High School Athletics sent…

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Boys Volleyball Falls to Newton North in Semi-finals

The final score was Newton North 3, Needham 0.

Throughout the first two sets of the Division 1 South semi-final on Friday, June 1, the Newton North boys seemed to anticipate every move the Needham High School Rockets made—blocking, reaching and diving at just the right moment. Newton North easily defeated the visiting team 25-13 and 25-12 to take a quick 2-0 lead. In the third set, Needham started to pick up on the skill and intuition Newton displayed in the first two sets. The Tigers, on the other hand, stumbled—making small but costly mistakes that resembled much of the Rockets' efforts in the first two sets. Slowly but surely, the Tigers clawed their way back to the top, tearing into a six-point streak before Needham managed to pause the scoring run at 18-15.  After a brief time out…

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Needham Boys LAX Ranked Sixth

The local team will face the winner of Braintree vs. Andover at a date and time TBA.

By Micah Hauben, NHS Director of Athletics Needham High School boys lacrosse finished 13-5 (10-1 Bay State Conference) and earned the sixth seed in the 26-team Division I East bracket.  While the team's winning percentage is not as high as some of the other teams in the bracket, three of the Rockets' defeats were to teams ranked in the top 8 in EMASS, including two one-goal overtime losses and a loss to top-ranked Duxbury.  The boys will get a bye in the preliminary round and will face the winner of the No. 22 Braintree at No. 11 Andover game in the first round of the East Tournament. Game date and time are currently TBA. Girls lacrosse and boys volleyball tournament rankings were released last week. Boys and girls tennis seeding and …

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Needham High Girls' Lacrosse Team Top Tourney Seed

The Needham High girls' lacrosse team is the No. 1 seed in the Division 1 South tournament.

    The Needham High girls' lacrosse team is the No. 1 seed in the Division 1 South tournament. Needham will play the winner of the New Bedford-Whitman-Hanson match. 1. Needham (19-1) 2. Notre Dame (19-1) 3. Westwood (18-2) 4. Natick (16-3-1) 5. Franklin (13-5) 6. Wellesley (11-7) 7. Newton North (12-5) 8. Walpole (11-7-1) 9. King Philip (13-7) 10. Hingham (13-7) 11. Dartmouth (16-2) 12. Marshfield (12-3) 13. Plymouth North (10-7-2) 14. Norwood (10-8) 15. Braintree (10-8) 16. Whitman-Hanson (12-6) 17. New Bedford (10-6-2)

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Boys Tennis Remains Poised, Advances to State Final

Needham beat St. John's Prep, 4-1, on Monday in Newton.

Unlike Lebron James, the members of the Needham High School boys tennis team did not wilt at crunch time. Instead, the Rockets (21-0) exhibited grace under pressure defeating St. John’s Prep, 4-1, in the Div. 1 state semi-finals at Newton North High School. The victory catapults Needham to the title match against St. John’s, which is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. Thursday at Algonquin High School. “These guys were all pretty nervous coming in,” said Needham head coach Andrew Lawrence. “It was great to see them pull it out and actually continue to stroke the ball. One of the things I really try to get them to do is whatever you do, don’t be tentative. If you are going to miss shots, miss them swinging. And that’s kind of what they did. They never…

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St. John's Prep Ends Boys LAX Season

The Eagles were too much for the Rockets on Saturday, as they ended Needham's season in dramatic fashion during the MIAA Semi-Finals.

Needham’s boys varsity lacrosse season came to a screeching halt Saturday evening at Memorial Field, as No. 9-seeded St. John’s Prep defeated the Rockets in dramatic fashion, 10-9, and secured a berth in the MIAA Division I East State Finals on Tuesday. “It was dramatic,” Eagles head coach John Roy said. “I was a little frustrated. We could have possessed it, sort of tried to take some more time off the clock, but [Needham] ended up scoring those two quick goals. [Mark] McDonald did well at the face-off for us, but being able to score that 10th goal made a big difference and at the end for the defense to [secure the win] in the last minute [was great].” St. John’s Prep registered the first goal of the contest when Colin Blackwell connected…

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Girls Lacrosse Falls in South Sectional Finals

Seventeen saves from Anne O’Connor wasn’t enough to hold off No. 1 ranked Westwood on Friday.

The Needham Rockets played Westwood's varsity girls lacrosse squad closer than any team has over the last month but still came up short on Friday. Westwood, the No. 1 ranked team in the state, defeated Needham 14-8, grabbing their fifth consecutive Division 1 South Sectional title. The Wolverines will play the winner of Andover/Lincoln-Sudbury on Tuesday at Wellesley College in the State Semi-Finals. Westwood started out no different than usual on Friday, as the team went up 7-0 early on the No. 2 ranked Needham Rockets. Sarah Biron, Kate Rich and ElaHazar each put in two goals of the first seven and Emily McGrail netted the other. The difference on this day, however, was that Needham refused to bow down to the home team and matched …

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Patch Facts

Five Things You Need to Know Today: June 10

Needham High School teams keep on rolling in the MIAA tournaments.

"Five Things You Need to Know Today" is a Patch column that provides readers with essential, daily information at a glance. 1. A little cooler: We’ll have a nice sunny Friday with a high temperature around 78 degrees, according to the National Weather Service. Tonight, it will be mostly cloudy with a chance of showers after 1:00 a.m. and a low temperature around 55 degrees. 2. All together now: Ed Morgan will lead a sing-a-long for preschool-age children starting at 3:00 p.m. at the Needham Free Public Library. Be sure to arrive on time so you can sing, clap and move along with the rest of the group. 3. Teen scene: Teen bands from Plugged-In will open a weekend-long series of benefit concerts tonight from 7:00-11:00 p.m. at Christ …

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Rocket Fuel: Teams Continue in MIAA Tourneys

Rocket Fuel is an occasional column written by Needham Patch sports reporter Matt Noonan.

The high school sports season continues this week for the Rockets, as four teams remain in the hunt for MIAA glory.  Today, the boys tennis team will host Framingham at 3:45 p.m. in the MIAA Division I South Quarter Finals at Needham High School. The Rockets beat Natick 5-0 in the first round and with a win today, they'll advance to semi-finals on Wednesday, as well as host the winner of Brockton vs. Bridgewater-Raynham. Meanwhile, the girls tennis team will move on to the South Section Semi-Finals against Barnstable at 4:00 p.m. on Wednesday, June 8. In lacrosse, the NHS girls team will host Notre Dame Academy at Memorial Field at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, June 8 in the South Section Semi-Finals. And the boys will battle Maconomet Regional …

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