Marathon win goes to Methuen - Boston Herald tab

HIGH SCHOOL VOLLEYBALL

Marathon win goes to Methuen

Rangers edge Chelmsford in five-set MVC showdown

Chelmsford’s Lewis Bunleng reacts to a call during a volleyball game at Methuen on Friday. Chelmsford fell 3-2 in a marathon. LIBBY O’NEILL — BOSTON HERALD

Methuen’s Elijah Jean and Andrew Cox jump up to the net during a volleyball match against Chelmsford. Host Methuen won, 3-2. LIBBY O’NEILL — BOSTON HERALD

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By Tom Mulherin

tmulheri@gmail.com

METHUEN >> It took 26 years for the Methuen boys volleyball team to finally reclaim the Merrimack Valley Conference title last year.

Friday night, the must-win Rangers kept their hopes for a repeat alive.

Seniors Lucas Giard (24 kills, five blocks) and Shawn LaDuke (55 assists) erupted in a match No. 19 Chelmsford clawed back several times in, pairing with Andrew Cox (19 kills) to help No. 14 Methuen (9-3, 7-2) gut out a 3-2 (25-17, 23-25, 25-22, 26-28, 15-12) win.

After dropping their MVC opener to the Lions (7-3, 6-2) and then a five-set thriller to Lowell (10-1, 7-0) on Monday, the Rangers knew just how much they needed this one.

“We talked about it, we knew it was an (MVC) must-win for us,” said Methuen head coach Matt Twomey. “If you have three Merrimack Valley Conference losses, it’s going to be really hard and you’re going to need a lot of help. … Hopefully when (Lowell) comes here, we play as tough against them as we did against Chelmsford today, and I’m sure it will still be a slugfest.”

Part of that 3-2 loss to Lowell included a 30-28 loss in the fourth set after leading the match 2-1. After Methuen led 21-17 and 24-22 in Friday’s fourth set, Chelmsford’s Liam Quinn (17 kills, three aces) combined with Ridty Tauch (24 kills, three blocks) for 14 kills in the frame to overcome the deficit and force a fifth set with a 28-26 win.

But unlike Monday, the Rangers pieced together enough in the fifth to take the match.

Giard notched a kill early as part of a 6-1 start, then notched two more ahead of an Adrian Blake (10 kills, two blocks) block that gave Methuen a 9-2 lead. Kills from Blake and Cox extended the lead to 12-5, which proved enough of a cushion to withstand a 7-2 response from Chelmsford — anchored by a pair of kills from Tauch and Gavin Lin (10 kills).

The Lions needed just two points to force more extra points, but LaDuke connected with Cox to cap off an impressive win despite missing starters Thomas Le (middle hitter) and Cole Tourkantonis (outside hitter).

Jayden Cox (seven kills) also played well for Methuen.

“Guys have really stepped up big, I feel like we put a lot of emphasis on making sure that we limit our unforced errors,” Twomey said. “When this team plays clean, they’re tough. This is a tough team. I think a lot of people counted us out having lost Drew (Eason) and James (Levesque) last year, but as you can see, we have firepower for days.

“It just speaks to how hard these guys have worked. … When other teams are getting gassed, these guys are just getting going.”

Limiting Quinn and Tauch enough to pull this one out was a major highlight for Twomey, especially from libero Gavin Sparks’ 25 digs positioned in the middle-back.

“Just in the middle-back, he was able to touch far more balls in the back row and that definitely helped us,” Twomey said. “And our defense down the stretch was great. … I think (Blake) and especially (Giard) did a great job of kind of shutting down (Quinn) tonight.”