NEWTON ­– For the third consecutive season, the Newton North girls volleyball team is heading to the Division 1 state championship.

The No. 1 Tigers (24-1) swept No. 5 Needham (17-4) 3-0 to advance to the title game and get the chance to win the state championship for the second straight year.

“It feels great,” Tigers coach Nile Fox said. “We work hard for this all year. We always want to make it to the last game of the season, so it feels great because the girls worked hard. This is us getting the fruits of our labor.”

Newton North won the opening two points, which Fox said was huge as the team emphasized strong starts to sets in preparation of the matchup.

“(Starting strong) is something we have been talking about the last couple of days,” Fox said. “During the whole playoff run we have been starting slow, so we really wanted to come in and start off strong. That’s been our focal point at practice because we know Needham is a great team and if we started slow it could bring trouble for us.”

The teams traded point for the early stages of the opening set, but the Tigers were able to grab a 14-9 lead and maintained that pace en route to a 25-9 opening set victory. This would be the closest set of the match and Newton North hit its stride after this.

“We got that confidence after the first set and we really took it and ran with it,” junior outside hitter Devon Burke said. “We just had fun, that was a fun game.”

The Tigers jumped out to a 9-3 lead in the second set and carried that into an 18-9 lead with excellent play from Burke, Sasha Selivan and Chloe Lee. Fox said the fluidity of the hitters was the driving force behind this surge.

“Our hitters did really great today,” Fox said. “They were being aggressive. Devon Burke really carried us on the offensive side, but it was really big from everyone. It was really big that we were physical at the net, we needed that to win the game.”

The Tigers would win that set 25-12 and quickly jumped out to a 13-3 lead in the third set. Needham would utilize its timeouts and played much better at this point, but the stage was already set as the Tigers held on to complete the sweep with a 25-17 win.

Burke said the Tigers are looking forward to the moment and for the chance to contribute to the excellent culture the program has.

“I’m so excited,” Burke said. “This was our goal at the beginning of the season. I’m happy to be back there, that’ll be my third time there. I’m really excited to get after it, hopefully we get a win.”

Other action

Sadie Wellbeloved put up 33 assists, while Molly Fredo, Molly Gleason and Charlotte Sullivan recorded 12 kills apiece as No. 3 Barnstable (21-3) bested No. 10 Franklin 3-0 in a Div. 1 state semifinal.

Newton North’s Devon Burke spikes the ball at Needham’s Katie Mercer, left, and Claire Smith during Newton North’s 3-0 state semifinal conquest. (Chris Christo/Boston Herald)