On Saturday afternoon, the volleyball team faced a familiar rival in Long Island Lutheran, pulling out a 3-1 victory before a loud Homecoming crowd to improve to 8-0 in league play. The victory gave LuHi its second loss of the season, so with just two games left on the Bears’ schedule, they have clinched a share of their sixth consecutive regular season League Championship. A victory in either of their last two games or another loss from LuHi would give the Bears the outright title.
The victory also gave The Brook a 46th straight league win and the 39th victory in a row on the home floor, despite their streak of 26 straight league sweeps being snapped. After the Bears looked dominant in a 25-10 opening set, LuHi bounced back by winning the second set, 25-21, to ensure the Bears would not sweep them for a ninth straight time. After losing their first set to LuHi in their last 25, the Bears bounced back with a key 25-14 win in set three to set up a taut fourth round.
The Bears led 14-12 before a pair of errors from both sides moved the score to 15-13. Lilly Keegan followed with a spike to usher in a 5-0 spurt that left the Blue & White up 20-13. Ella Middlekauff followed Keegan with a block and kill, Keegan slammed a kill off the top of the net, and Ava McCormick fired an ace to give the Bears a seven-point advantage with five points to go. However, LuHi showed their toughness by grabbing the next four points to pull back within 17-20 and prompt a Stony Brook timeout.
Out of the break, a pair of Keegan spikes, including one that clipped the back line, pushed the advantage to 22-17. Two points later the visitors sent a kill long to move the score to 23-18 and spur another LuHi timeout. Out of the timeout, Middlekauff registered a key block for a point and two points later, Keegan brought the Homecoming crowd to its feet with a kill to give the Bears a 25-19 win and clinch another Blue & White banner for the Swanson Gymnasium walls.
Lilly Keegan and Ava McCormick led the way on offense with 18 and 11 kills, respectively. Niamh Scanlon, Gillian Bernier, Ella Middlekauff, and Keegan each served up multiple aces. Georgia Apazidis’ 11 digs led the defense.
The Bears are back on the court on Friday night in a home Senior Night match-up vs. St. John the Baptist.
Historic Win
The win gave the Bears a sixth straight regular season title, dating back to 2017 when they won a Section XI League Championship. They followed that up with PSAA regular season titles in 2018, 2019, 2021 (spring), 2021 (fall), and 2022 to join the rarified air of Stony Brook Teams that have won six straight championships over nearly 100 years of competition:
| Boys’ Cross Country | 1955-1969 | Ivy League Champions |
| Boys’ Track | 1956-1967 | Ivy League Champions |
| Boys’ Cross Country | 1971-1977 | Ivy League & Section XI Champions |
| Boys’ Lacrosse | 1994-1999 | Section XI Division II Champions |
| Girls’ Basketball | 2005-2011 | Section XI League Champions |
| Girls’ Basketball | 2006-2011 | Suffolk County Champions |
Stats
| Aces (13) | Scanlon (5) | Middlekauff (3) | Bernier (3) | Keegan (2) | |
| Kills (43) | Keegan (18) | McCormick (11) | Bernier (5) | Scanlon (5) | Middlekauff (4) |
| Blocks (9) | McCormick (4) | Middlekauff (2) | Scanlon (2) | Keegan (1) | |
| Digs (36) | Apazidis (11) | Bernier (8) | Keegan (6) | Middlekauff (4) | Scanlon (3) |
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