Newton North rides Simon Vardeh’s unstoppable performance to victory

NEWTON In the debate among Bay State Conference elites on which boys volleyball unit has the best athlete in the state Newton North head coach Nile Fox considers the incident officially closed after witnessing something he never has before Friday night With a career-high kills highlighted by notching eight straight in an - run in the second set Harvard-bound senior Simon Vardeh was unstoppable for the fourth-seeded Tigers - in a - Div state quarterfinal win - - - - over No Lexington Fox doesn t shy away from saying Newton North drew the toughest quarterfinal matchup out of the top four seeds and the Minutemen - displayed that by controlling momentum before Fox called an early timeout in the second set Enter Vardeh who changed the entire flow to get the reigning-champion Tigers back to the Final Four to face the coming day s winner between No Brookline and No Acton-Boxboro Newton North s Kolbey Manuela dives for a dig during state tournament boys volleyball action Newton North topped Lexington - Staff Photo By Stuart Cahill Boston Herald He just demonstrated that he s the best player in the state in the current era Fox declared That s what s expected of him He s only shown a lot of greatness these past four years and this match really cemented it for me The performance he did tonight I ve never seen anything or coached against it It was amazing Vardeh did plenty of damage in the first set with seven kills though Lexington was able to manage around that behind its own three-headed monster and its signature standout organization defense Nic Sanchez de Rojas kills digs serve receptions Ale Luciani kills five digs and Nadav Vachtel seven kills serve receptions anchored the group in a - win in the first set for the - lead and Kolbey Manuelian s consecutive blocks in the second raised an early lead to - Newton North s Peter Reale right spikes the ball at Lexington s Alexander Jackson left and on Friday Staff Photo By Stuart Cahill Boston Herald Lexington had a great rhythm but Fox saw something earlier in the set he needed to share with his guys in a timeout After the first set we went down in the second Fox revealed Vardeh caught on fire in the second set and I noted Oh they can t stop him I literally brought them in and mentioned Give him the ball every single time until he gets stopped He didn t get stopped I declared Paul give him the ball every single time I don t care where you re at Give him the ball every time Nelson setting for the first time since coming back from injury at the start of the tournament connected with Vardeh six straight times to flip the deficit into a - lead Libero Brady Dwyer fed the senior on the next two points and after Luciani broke up the run with a kill Vardeh responded with yet another He finished with kills in the frame leading a - run that changed the whole trajectory of the match I was locked in and it was really fun Vardeh disclosed I thought everybody really started feeding off that vitality I thought that was a really big momentum shift in the encounter Everybody started getting kills everybody started getting more confident I m happy I was able to spark that Vardeh Dwyer Nelson and freshman starter Aaron Stein all missed substantial time over the last couple weeks of the regular season with injury All four are back It sucked to be out Vardeh commented But it s good to be back and to know that I m through the injury now and can play to the fullest of my ability The rest of the Tigers lineup dialed up their play after that - Vardeh run Dwyer eight assists passed well and anchored the serve receive Nelson starred in a well-rounded performance assists three kills ace and connected with Amaris Cotto eight kills and Peter Reale nine kills two blocks especially to complement Vardeh Crew defense flourished as well All of that was needed against Lexington which stayed in striking distance through the middle of the third and fourth sets with relentless rallies a strong serve-receive and its balanced attack I thought they played good Vardeh stated They definitely came out strong taking that first set But after that we know we re the better gang When we play at the best of our ability nobody can beat us After that first set we really locked in Aside from what Vardeh brought to the table Fox felt Newton North s response to Lexington was a reflection of the adversity it s had to overcome not only this year but over the last meager Those times hurt but every time when a wrench gets thrown in or something we reliably come out on top Fox revealed It s our story Every year We unfailingly end up coming back I think that s the resilience that we play with