Vardeh’s unstoppable effort fuels Newton North

HIGH SCHOOL BOYS VOLLEYBALL

Tigers oust Lexington, 3-1

Newton North’s Aaron Stien (6) celebrates a winning point with Simon Vardeh, right, during a 3-1 boys volleyball victory over Lexington on Friday. STAFF PHOTO BY STUART CAHILL — BOSTON HERALD

Newton North’s Kolbey Manuela dives for a dig during state tournament boys volleyball action. Newton North topped Lexington, 3-1. STAFF PHOTO BY STUART CAHILL — BOSTON HERALD

Newton North’s Peter Reale, right, spikes the ball at Lexington’s Alexander Jackson, left, on Friday. STAFF PHOTO BY STUART CAHILL — BOSTON HERALD

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By Tom Mulherin

tmulheri@gmail.com

NEWTON >> In the debate among Bay State Conference elites on which boys volleyball team has the best player in the state, Newton North head coach Nile Fox considers the case officially closed after witnessing something he never has before Friday night.

With a career-high 37 kills, highlighted by notching eight straight in an 8-0 run in the second set, Harvard-bound senior Simon Vardeh was unstoppable for the fourth-seeded Tigers (16-7) in a 3-1 Div. 1 state quarterfinal win (23-25, 25-13, 25-17, 25-15) over No. 5 Lexington.

Fox doesn’t shy away from saying Newton North drew the toughest quarterfinal matchup out of the top four seeds, and the Minutemen (20-3) showed 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 tomorrow’s winner between No. 1 Brookline and No. 9 Acton-Boxboro.

“He just showed that he’s the best player in the state today,” Fox said. “That’s what’s expected of him. He’s only shown a lot of greatness these past four years, and this game 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 team defense.

Nic Sanchez de Rojas (11 kills, 11 digs, 26 serve receptions), Ale Luciani (16 kills, five digs) and Nadav Vachtel (seven kills, 25 serve receptions) anchored the group in a 25-23 win in the first set for the 1-0 lead, and Kolbey Manuelian’s consecutive blocks in the second raised an early lead to 7-3.

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 said. “(Vardeh) caught on fire in the second set and I said, ‘Oh, they can’t stop him.’ I literally brought them in and said, ‘Give him the ball every single time, until he gets stopped.’ He didn’t get stopped. … I said, ‘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 9-7 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 12 kills in the frame, leading a 22-6 run that changed the whole trajectory of the match.

“I was locked in and it was really fun,” Vardeh said. “I thought everybody really started feeding off that energy. I thought that was a really big momentum shift in the game. 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 said. “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 8-0 Vardeh run.

Dwyer (eight assists) passed well and anchored the serve receive. Nelson starred in a well-rounded performance (48 assists, three kills, ace) and connected with Amaris Cotto (eight kills) and Peter Reale (nine kills, two blocks), especially, to complement Vardeh. Team 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 said. “They definitely came out strong, taking that first set. But after that — we know we’re the better team. 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 few.

“Those times hurt, but … every time when a wrench gets thrown (in) or something, we always come out on top,” Fox said. “It’s our story. Every year. … We always end up coming back. I think that’s the resilience that we play with.”