"When Franklin won its Final Four match against Newton South on Wednesday, first-year head coach Chris Ridolfi smiled when his next opponent was mentioned. As he remarked, if you want to be the best, then you need to beat the best, and three-time defending champion Newton North certainly qualifies.
On Saturday night at Billerica High, Franklin, playing in its first-ever state title match, took down one of the state’s premier programs in a 3-2 (25-15, 25-27, 19-25, 25-23, 15-11) thriller. Franklin (23-2) took the crown from the Tigers and for the first time in program history are the Div. 1 champions.
Ridolfi said, “It was a heck of a first year. You come into a good team and that’s what you get.”
“That took so much out of us,” senior hitter Makayla Kuykendall said about battling back over the final two sets. “You could tell how badly we wanted it at the end. Personally, I did not want to lose that game at all. It was the last game of the season no matter what, so you may as well go out giving everything you have. And everyone did.”
By Josh Perry || HockomockSports.com Managing Editor (subscription required)
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