Riding excellent senior poles Jack Curran and Jimmy Kenney, the Needham boys’ lacrosse team got hot at the right time this spring. The Rockets stunned Lincoln-Sudbury with a huge second half in the Division 1 quarterfinals, then squeaked out an 8-7 win over Acton-Boxborough in the semifinals. They ultimately fell short in the state final to a St. John’s Prep program that has won four straight championships and went undefeated against in-state competition while holding the top spot in the Globe’s Top 20 from wire to wire.
Needham earned the No. 2 spot in our final poll after giving Prep a scare in a 17-13 loss.
Marshfield stunned Duxbury in the Division 2 semifinals, only to fall to Longmeadow in a triple-overtime thriller. Hingham’s run also ended at the hands of Longmeadow. Medfield secured the school’s first title since 2016 with a Division 3 championship, taking down Scituate, which survived an overtime battle against Falmouth. After falling to Falmouth on April 9, Nantucket rattled off 18 straight wins, including a 7-6 victory over Sandwich to win the Division 4 title.
Girls’ lacrosse
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Notre Dame (Hingham) held the top spot in the Globe’s Top 20 poll from start to finish, clearly proving itself to be the state’s top team. Central Catholic earned the No. 2 spot after capturing the first state title (Division 1) in team history.
It wouldn’t be at all surprising to see a Central Catholic vs. Wellesley rematch in Division 1 and NDA vs. Walpole rematch in Division 2 next year. Lincoln-Sudbury is No. 5, based on its body of work, and Division 3 champion Medfield and Division 4 champion Cohasset follow.
Baseball
BC High’s vaunted pitching staff delivered all season and that was no different in the Division 1 final as the Eagles captured a 5-1 win over St. John’s Shrewsbury to claim the team’s first state title since 2009.
BC High finished the season atop the Globe’s Top 20 poll, a position it held for four weeks during the regular season. St. John’s (S), the top-ranked team in the final poll of the regular season, ended at No. 2 followed by Catholic Conference rival Xaverian. Plymouth North rose to No. 4 after winning the Division 2 title over Walpole, while Division 5 champion English High checks in at No. 15 and Division 4 winner Seekonk slots in at No. 17. St. Mary’s made the biggest jump, moving from No. 18 to No. 9 after advancing to the Division 3 final.
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Softball
After winning its fourth consecutive Division 1 championship with a 25-0 season, Taunton maintained its season-long grasp on the top spot behind the dominant pitching of Sam Lincoln and hitting of Brooke Aldrich, Aniyah Bailey, Bella Bourque, and Co. After a ferocious run to the Division 1 final, King Philip claimed the No. 2 spot. Walpole, the Division 2 champion, rose to fifth, while Dighton-Rehoboth and Joseph Case, the Division 3 and 4 champions out of the South Coast Conference, sit at No. 6 and No. 7.
Boys’ tennis
Following an unbeaten regular season, No. 1 St. John’s Prep cemented itself as the state’s top team with a 4-1 victory over No. 2 Concord-Carlisle in the Division 1 final. The Eagles never ceded more than one match in any postseason contest, rolling to the team’s first state title in 23 years behind dominant doubles pairings. Meanwhile, No. 3 Lexington, which replaced every starter from last year’s Division 1 champion, lost only one match in the regular season before falling short in the semifinals against Prep.
Bay State powers Brookline (No. 4) Newton North (No. 5) battled all season, with Newton North taking both regular-season matches 3-2, before Brookline secured a 3-2 victory in the Division 1 quarters. No. 6 Duxbury came a few points shy of defending its Division 2 title, falling to Westborough in an epic 3-2 title match. After bumping up to Division 3, No. 12 Weston weathered an up-and-down regular season to claim its seventh straight title.
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Girls’ tennis
After holding the No. 2 spot in the Globe rankings all season, Wellesley stunned top-seeded Lexington in the Division 1 semifinals, and went on to beat Boston Latin, 4-1, in the state final. The Raiders’ only loss was a 5-0 defeat to the Minutewomen in the regular season, while Lexington, the two-time defending champion, was undefeated prior to its semifinal loss. No. 3 Boston Latin rallied to advance to the team’s first final in two decades. After a rough 2-4 stretch in early May, No. 4 Newton South’s young lineup put things together to advance to the team’s first Division 1 semifinals in recent memory with a 3-2 quarterfinal victory over No. 5 Westford.
In Division 2, Notre Dame (Hingham) had its undefeated season broken in a crushing 3-2 loss to Longmeadow in the final. In Division 3, No. 13 Pembroke edged No. 18 Newburyport, 3-2, on a challenged third-set super tiebreaker at No. 3 singles and remained steady in a win over No. 16 Weston in the championship.
Boys’ volleyball
New season, same story: the top four teams in the Bay State Conference only lost to league opponents. Subtract Newton North, and Needham probably completes its fourth consecutive unbeaten season. The Tigers beat Needham three times, including in a five-set championship match, to solidify their standing atop the Globe’s Top 20. Not only did Nile Fox became the first coach in state history to win a girls’ and boys’ title, but he did it within the same school year. In both tournaments, just 11 matches were not sweeps. Winchester and BC High were the only two to take a set against a top Bay State squad.
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Matt Doherty, Trevor Hass, Cam Kerry, AJ Traub, and Matty Wasserman contributed.