Finding effective words of positivity amid an unfamiliar rough patch can be a little tricky.
About two weeks ago, Milford became the first boys volleyball team in over four years to take a 2-0 match lead against three-time defending Div. 1 state champion Needham. In need of just one more set win to remain unbeaten and to stamp itself as a mid-season title favorite, the team oozed swagger.
Instead, though, Needham did what Needham does and pulled off the reverse sweep. Losses at BC High (five sets) and at Winchester (four sets) followed. And when the Scarlet Hawks (9-4) boarded their bus to head home from Natick on Monday night, they had just lost their fourth straight game for their longest losing streak in over five years.
Obviously, this isn’t the kind of stretch the Scarlet Hawks are used to after most recently playing out of the Tri-Valley League. But it is the kind of challenge head coach Andrew Mainini expected when he decided to split from the TVL to go independent two years ago – a move he hopes will propel the long-time program to its first state title.
Just about every game on their schedule is against last year’s major powers, and they’ve either won or been competitive in each one.
“Every time I get on the bus, I say, ‘Hey, we competed in that match and that match was a lot of fun,’ ” Mainini said. “I was like, ‘Do you want to win every league game, 3-0, for 16 games, or do you want to have these (epic) matches against really good teams and potentially come out on the losing side?’ ”
“We had 100 percent agreement on the bus that we like our schedule. … We might lose but we’re going to get better and we’re going to have fun playing the best competition out there.”
As of the latest MIAA power rankings, Milford has the toughest opponent rating (2.4567) in the state. That all of the losses have come within the pinnacle of that difficulty, all on the road no less, tells us not to shake the preseason confidence in the senior-laden group as a major contender.
Before Needham surged to the reverse sweep, Milford was in control in the Rockets’ gym. Alex Guerra can dominate as a high-volume outside hitter, complemented by elite threats in the middle from Joey Newman and Ryan Franklin. Arthur Gomes stars whether Milford needs him at libero or outside hitter, while Gustavo Da Silva provides another quality option for setter Owen Callahan.
The current skid isn’t ideal, but Mainini looks at the losses positively on top of quality wins over Brookline, Cambridge, Acton-Boxboro, Lexington, North Quincy and Medfield. All four losses are to teams ranked in the Div. 1 power rankings’ top 10. Natick, Needham and Winchester are even the top three teams, while Milford ranks fifth.
It’s not quite as glamorous as going 52-14 from 2018-21, though they never made a run past the modern-day state quarterfinals in that stretch. Advancing to their first state title appearance since 2013, and winning it, is more important.
“Being able to build our own schedule,” Mainini said, “has allowed us to see more talent around the state. It’s allowed us to be able to measure our own skills and our own success better against the people we’re going to have to compete against in the tournament. Every team that comes through here wants to be the first one to win one.”
This switch to go independent, which is mostly possible because the Hockomock League that Milford is a member of doesn’t have boys volleyball, benefits more than just going for the program’s first state title this year, too.
When realignments put the Scarlet Hawks in Div. 1, Mainini appealed to stay in Div. 2 with extensive data suggesting it was the right spot for the school. The appeal was denied, though Mainini wasn’t concerned with what the move for his team would look like for the next few years.
Playing in a league has great benefits of league titles, league camaraderie and all-stars. But while some teams worked beyond what they needed to make sure Milford’s junior varsity and freshman teams got games against them, not all the schools were able to accommodate.
Stacking the independent schedule with well-established programs has helped the Scarlet Hawks’ feeder programs thrive.
“It has dramatically helped us,” Mainini said. “These (subvarsity) teams are good, these are promising athletes. Currently our freshman team, which is a true freshman team, is I think 11-0. I think our JV team is 10-2. We have a lot of kids that are really interested in playing volleyball. There were three or four (TVL teams) that only had varsity teams and I had three levels.“
“It wasn’t a good situation, so leaving and being able to pick up these bigger programs has fixed some scheduling for us.”
Milford was still in a league when it made consecutive trips to the state final in 2012 and 2013. The same goes for its run to the Div. 2 state semifinals in 2022. But there’s no denying how impactful this new schedule is for it.
Part of what made Needham’s 77-game win streak so impressive was how it navigated the historic stretch against the best of the state. Head coach Dave Powell made it a point to never deny any contender that wanted to play the Rockets. Playing out of a top-heavy Bay State Conference, along with availability to stack up several nonleague games, made it possible.
It’s that type of schedule that helps Natick, Newton North and Brookline rank high among contenders. The same goes for teams out of a Dual County League with looser scheduling requirements. A premier schedule is almost vital to a championship run, which is why Powell appealed within the expanded Bay State Conference this year when it was set to take him out of the division the other three premier conference teams were in.
“I think (the hard schedule) keeps them super focused and it’s good for boys volleyball and the Commonwealth to be able to have the freedom to not be confined to 16 league matches,” Powell said. “It’s on the coaches to get the kids better during (practice) but then the match … scheduling matches like that, that Milford has, it puts responsibility on the kids to do those things.”
