On Tuesday afternoon, the volleyball squad improved to 5-0 on the season with a 3-0 victory over Shelter Island. The Bears have now played each League VIII opponent once, dispatching each in a sweep to stake their claim to first place.

In set one, the Bears opened up a 6-0 lead thanks to the dynamic serve of Sam Petersen. That lead mushroomed to 17-9 after a Hannah Detwiler kill. The Bears held a 20-12 edge when a savvy touch shot by Petersen and another Detwiler kill left the Bears up 22-12 before they closed out the game, 25-14.

The Brook built a similar lead early in set two, building a 5-1 edge behind Petersen’s serve. They held an 8-4 lead when Sydnie Beausoleil took over serve and expanded the advantage to 13-4 in a blink. The Bears maintained the lead throughout, refusing to let the islanders engineer a run. A nifty drop shot by Petersen put them up 18-10 before a run of three straight unreturnable serves from Danielle Graves pushed the edge to 24-15. A Petersen kill capped the 25-16 win.

The Bears fell behind early in the final set, but maintained an unshakable control on the match. Trailing 3-6, they promptly tied it at 6-6 then again at 8-8 before taking a 9-8 lead. They would not trail again. A Graves block pushed the lead to 13-10, a Liz Robbins ace made it 15-10, a Lois Ezi kill extended the advantage to 20-13, and Detwiler followed with back-to-back aces to all but seal the match on the way to the 25-17 set three win.

This was the Bears’ third straight victory over Shelter Island, their longest winning streak against the islanders in program history.

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