Methuen's depth proves superior in 3-1 volleyball win over BC High

Source: Boston Herald
Author: Tom Mulherin

DORCHESTER - Not even last year's Methuen boys volleyball team, which was the program's winningest since 2006, was still unbeaten this deep into the start of the regular season.

With a 3-1 (26-24, 25-23, 18-25, 25-17) win over No. 9 BC High on the road Friday night, the No. 14 Rangers moved to 8-0 for yet another early-season confidence boost in their high hopes for a better state tournament run than last year's second-round exit.

James Levesque (18 kills) and Drew Eason (13 kills, five blocks) supplied their typical star punch in a physical display, while Shawn Laduke (42 assists) connected with complementary pieces to ultimately pull away from a fellow quality Div. 1 team. Mason Cleary led the match with 21 kills for the Eagles (5-2), though Matt Kovacev was one of several players to dig out some of BC High's hardest hits.

"These guys, they came into the season, I was getting phone calls in the fall - they couldn't wait to come back," said Methuen head coach Matthew Twomey. "This team is into it, and they really believe they can do something really special this year. They're just all in."

"(Confidence), it skyrockets," Levesque added. "We knew they're one of the top teams in the state, and we knew that we haven't really proved much yet, just playing (Merrimack Valley Conference) teams. So coming out here and showing up against great competition out of the MVC and winning like that, it gives us a bunch of confidence."

The first set was as close as it comes, with Mason Cleary and Ben Cleary (nine kills) helping the Eagles trade blows with the Rangers. Only once did either team lead by more than two points, and Methuen's 17-14 lead was quickly erased by a BC High 5-0 run. Levesque notched three of his seven kills down the stretch to knot the score at 22-22, setting up Eason's kill and block to pair with a Lucas Giard (eight kills) kill for the 26-24 win.

BC High responded in the second by building 5-1 lead on Rangers errors. That turned into a 14-6 lead with a couple Mason Cleary kills, and two more built it up to 16-9.

Methuen clawed back, though, using a barrage of errors from the Eagles and a pair of points from Eason (kill, block) to storm back, 16-16. Mason Cleary again turned on the jets to build a 23-21 lead, though Giard and Eason recorded kills and a Jack Flynn (three kills, two blocks) block powered a 4-0 close for the 25-23 win.

"I think if we had lost the second set, there was a good chance BC High would've pulled out the match," Twomey said. "I didn't expect us to get down that big, and then they really picked it up."

The Eagles didn't falter with a big lead in the third, using eight combined kills from the Clearys - along with seven assists from Martin Alvarez (21 assists) and four more from Pedro Araoju (16 assists) - to get a set back, 25-18.

But Methuen's depth really showed once the fourth set came. Giard, Levesque and Andrew Cox each had two kills in a 12-8 start. Giard, Flynn and Eason added another each to counter a block and kill from BC High's Liam Poole, before taking off for an 8-1 run to close out a 25-17 set win and secure the match.

"(Depth) is huge," Levesque said. "We used to be just athletes who play volleyball, now we're volleyball players that play other sports."