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

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