Boston, MA

Newton North handles Winchester in 3-1 volleyball win

Published

2 years ago

May 22, 2024

Newton North handles Winchester in 3-1 volleyball win

WINCHESTER — As the regular season dwindles down to its final days, the Newton North boys volleyball team keeps making its case as the bona fide favorite in the Div. 1 state title race.

Despite losing the first set while missing head coach Nile Fox on the sidelines, the No. 1 Tigers (17-2) handled business as usual Wednesday night with yet another signature win — this time via a 3-1 (21-25, 25-17, 25-21, 25-18) nonleague victory over No. 7 Winchester (15-4).

Adam Christianson led the way with 20 kills, 15 assists and three blocks, pacing an otherwise well-balanced effort that saw several others carve out high-impact roles.

The win comes in assistant coach Claire MacIntosh’s debut leading the varsity team’s sideline, giving Newton North 11 straight wins and its fifth win over a top-six team in the latest MIAA Div. 1 power rankings.

“We didn’t play the best, we got it done thankfully, but it was ugly,” MacIntosh said, before getting into the mentality without Fox there. “I think the guys know what they need to do. They’re all smart, they all understand volleyball. They know the plan, and what they don’t know, I can supply.”

The Red and Black came out on fire and energized in the opening set, using contributions from premier hitter Jamie Watt (13 kills, two blocks), Adam Lubomirski (33 assists), Tuto Sampaio (10 kills) and middle Kirk Levesque (six kills, five blocks) to edge out a 25-21 win.

But Newton North responded fast with a 5-0 start to the second set and didn’t look back from there.

Christianson posted seven of his kills in the frame to help keep the Red and Black at an arm’s length the whole way. Simon Vardeh (15 kills, three aces) closed out the win with an ace while Paul Nelson posted both of his blocks and two of his four kills in the 25-17 frame.

Winchester matched Newton North with side-out volleyball in stretches of the third and fourth sets, but a collection of mini-runs from the Tigers boosted them to close out each one.

Joaquin Cuevas-Torres (26 assists) helped Christianson cook for four kills in the third set to turn an 18-17 lead into 23-20.

Sam Huang (seven kills, five blocks) heated up with a kill and block to finish off a 25-21 win in the third, before catching fire in the middle of the fourth for a 14-9 lead. Nelson, Christianson, Peter Reale (four kills, two blocks), Huang, Vardeh and Amaris Cotto all notched points from there to hold off a couple Winchester charges for a 25-18 win and the match.

That included a 4-1 run that built up the lead to 20-15 as the Red and Black hung around.

Middles have been featured a lot lately in the attack, but Newton North approached this one a bit different.

“Winchester has one really good middle, (Levesque), who we just decided we can’t go at,” MacIntosh said. “With (Watt) being so big also and helping on the middle on every ball, we just thought it was better to go to the outsides a lot of the time.”

Newton North libero Brady Dwyer also played well while dishing six assists.

With just Milford left on the schedule (Friday) before taking on the state tournament, the Tigers are well aware of the challenge ahead.

Their 11th straight win shows they can handle the task.

“I think the biggest difference between this year and last year is that we know going into the tournament we’re the team to beat,” MacIntosh said. “We have the target on our backs. Last year it was Needham, it’s been Needham for four years. I think now we know it’s us, every team wants to take us down. Every time we show up to a gym, the other team is going to give us their best. I think we’re really stepping up to the pressure.”

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Boston, MA

Historian clears up one of the biggest myths about the Boston Tea Party

Published

10 hours ago

June 30, 2026

Press Room

Historian clears up one of the biggest myths about the Boston Tea Party

When Americans think of the beverage that fueled the American Revolution, they usually picture black tea — but it turns out that green tea was just as popular.

The Founding Fathers and their contemporaries drank both types of tea, Bruce Richardson, the Kentucky-based founder of Elmwood Inn Fine Teas, told Fox News Digital.

British subjects “were as likely to be drinking green tea as black tea, whether you were in Jane Austen [era] England … or you were in colonial Boston,” he added.

“There were five teas, all from China, because that was the only country that was exporting tea,” Richardson said. “And of those five different teas, two of them were green and three of them were black.”

Richardson, a tea historian who works as the tea master at the Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum, said the five types of tea dumped into Boston Harbor in protest of the Tea Act of 1773 included three black varieties — Bohea, Souchong and Congou — as well as the green teas Hyson and Singlo.

Bohea, the most common and least expensive black tea of the era, was often made from older tea leaves harvested after the highest-quality leaves of the season had already been picked.

Most of the tea dumped into Boston Harbor was Bohea, Richardson said — and it was so ubiquitous that he compared it to the way Kleenex has become synonymous with tissues today.

The Founding Fathers and their contemporaries drank both types of tea, Bruce Richardson, the Kentucky-based founder of Elmwood Inn Fine Teas said. Getty Images

“It was so common that often teapots at the time, or some that I’ve seen, would say Bohea on the side of the teapot,” he said. “If they wanted tea, they’d say, ‘I’ll have a cup of Bohea.’ It was that common.”

Not only did colonial Americans distinguish between green and black tea, they even stored them differently.

“They still wanted their tea time, but they didn’t want to support the British government.”

“The well-to-do people would have a tea caddy – a wooden, beautifully made tea caddy to store their tea in,” he said.

“It was kept under lock and key. And in that tea caddy, [there] would be two compartments, one for green tea and one for black tea.”

Pouring sencha or genmaicha from a green clay teapot into a ceramic teacup. — There were five teas, all from China, because that was the only country that was exporting tea, and green and black teas were very popular! Kristina Blokhin – stock.adobe.com

Merchants often favored black tea because it held up better during the long voyage from China to Europe and onward to the American colonies, Richardson said.

“The green tea was what China had always drunk,” he said.

“And so they were exporting that as well, but they found that the black tea actually made the voyage better than the green teas.”

Even after many colonists swore off British tea, they kept the ritual of drinking it — or at least a close substitute.

Many patriots brewed so-called “Liberty Teas” made from ingredients such as dried apples, blueberries, chamomile and herbs grown in their gardens.

“They still wanted their tea time, but they didn’t want to support the British government,” Richardson said.

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Boston, MA

Boston Pops surprise travelers at Logan Airport with July 4th preview performance

Published

20 hours ago

June 30, 2026

Press Room

Boston Pops surprise travelers at Logan Airport with July 4th preview performance – CBS Boston

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The Boston Pops surprised travelers at terminal E at Logan Airport with a preview of their July 4th performance.

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Boston, MA

Scottish soccer fan who died in Boston was ‘Tartan Army to his core,’ fundraising page says – The Boston Globe

Published

1 day ago

June 29, 2026

Press Room

Scottish soccer fan who died in Boston was ‘Tartan Army to his core,’ fundraising page says – The Boston Globe

A Scottish man who died after collapsing outside a Boston pub while visiting for the World Cup is being remembered as a devoted soccer fan who was “Tartan Army to his core.”

Thomas Murty, known as “Tam,” died June 19 after collapsing near The Dubliner pub in downtown Boston a day earlier, according to a GoFundMe fundraising campaign to return Murty’s body to Scotland and pay for funeral expenses. Murty was born in 1963.

“Tam was Scotland daft his whole life,” the GoFundMe page reads. “He lived for it — the highs, the heartbreaks, the songs, the hope that never died no matter how many years went by. Following Scotland wasn’t just something he did; it was who he was.”

Murty had waited three decades to see Scotland play in the World Cup. Watching the Scottish team compete in the tournament was “the dream of a lifetime,” the fundraising page said.

Oram McGonagle, who owns The Dubliner, said he was at the pub when Murty collapsed. He said he saw a Scottish fan with an oxygen tube standing by a pillar outside the building. McGonagle said employees called an ambulance when they realized he needed help.

Caitlin McLaughlin, public relations director for Boston EMS, confirmed that medics took a patient from The Dubliner to an area hospital around 4:30 p.m. that day.

McGonagle later learned from a media report that Murty had died.

The Dubliner has donated 1,000 pounds, or about $1,325, to the fundraiser.

“We had a really good few weeks with the Scottish people,” McGonagle said Monday. “This felt like a way to give some back to them.”

Murty is the second Scottish soccer fan known to have died in Boston while visiting for the World Cup tournament. Donny Strathie, 76, died June 14 after collapsing in a hotel in Norwood. Fans paid tribute to Strathie in the 76th minute of Scotland’s game against Morocco in Foxborough on June 19.

About 2,800 people have donated more than $85,000 to the GoFundMe campaign set up for Murty’s family, as of Monday afternoon.

Ariela Lopez can be reached at ariela.lopez@globe.com. Follow her on X @ariela__lopez.

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