NATICK – No opponent has taken the first set against the Natick boys volleyball team yet this season, and the signature wins keep rolling in off that early momentum.

Junior Branch Barnes notched eight of his game-high 17 kills in the opening frame Monday night, helping the No. 2 RedHawks (10-1) sweep No. 5 Milford, 3-0 (27-25, 25-16, 25-20), for their eighth straight win.

Maintaining early tenacity was a key for Natick, especially after its only loss came to No. 1 Needham despite a 1-0 lead in an eventual 3-1 defeat.

Mark it yet another confidence-booster in Natick’s longest winning streak since before the pandemic-cancelled season.

“Natick High School boys volleyball, we have a good name, so we try to keep it,” said RedHawks head coach Peter Suxho. “We don’t want to go down, we want to stay up; so to do that, we have to beat good teams. … This is a great win. It’s good for the practice, it’s good for the city, and it’s good for the mindset (of) the players.”

“It’s huge for us … (the streak) really goes to show how strong the team is this year,” added senior captain Harrison Landry, who finished with 24 assists and two kills. “Against Needham, that first set, we had really high energy but we kind of lost it – used it all up in the first set and lost the later ones. This one, we were able to keep the energy high all game.”

Every bit of a top-five matchup showed in that first set, which could have gone either way.

Barnes heated up early as Natick started on an 8-2 run and built the lead up to 14-7. Milford’s (9-4) balance kept it in range and it erupted for nine of the next 10 points to take a 16-15 lead. Owen Callahan (37 assist) dished the ball evenly for the Scarlet Hawks, including an early pair to senior Alex Guerra (11 kills) to kick off the run.

Natick trailed by as much as 20-17, but Landry connected with Barnes four times over the next seven points to knot it at 22-22. Neither team led by more than one point from there until the 27-25 RedHawks win.

“That was huge, I think that was our closest set,” Landry said. “It set the tone for the rest of the match. … I think our team is really good at coming out of the gates, high energy. That’s what we did.”

Callahan used a wealth of hitting options in Guerra, Joey Newman (nine kills, two blocks), Arthur Gomes (eight kills) and Ryan Franklin (seven kills) to help Milford claw the rest of the way, but Natick seemed in control.

Senior liber Collin Chin played exceptionally in the second and third sets, helping force Milford into longer rallies. A back-and-forth second set turned into a 13-error frame for the Scarlet Hawks, contributing toward a 25-16 win for Natick while Barnes and Matt Salerno (four kills) hit well.

Momentum carried over into a 6-1 start to the third for the RedHawks, but Milford chipped away at the deficit to pull as close as 14-12. Three more kills and a block from Barnes helped put away the 25-20 set to close out the match while the Scarlet Hawks couldn’t finish off its explosive hits.

Suxho said changing up its style throughout played a major role.

“We try to play two, three ways – we don’t only have one way to play,” Suxho said. “We mix it up and it works very well for us.”