All streaks come to an end.

Edwin Moses finally faltered after winning 122 consecutive 400m hurdle races. The UConn women’s basketball team saw their 111-game winning streak dashed. Even “the great DiMaggio,” as Hemingway called him, went o-fer after 56 straight games of hitting safely. But the next day, he began a 16-game streak, eventually hitting safely in an astonishing 72 of 73 games.

From 2016 to 2023, our volleyball team amassed the most impressive winning streak in school history that spanned 52 league games and eight seasons. That came to an end in a 1-3 loss to Long Island Lutheran last week, but on Tuesday afternoon, like the great DiMaggio, they began a new streak with a 3-0 victory over Heschel in a rematch of the 2019 and 2022 PSAA Championships. It also extended their winning streak on the Swanson floor to 47 matches.

Cassandra Rohan began the afternoon with a spike to give The Brook a 1-0 lead, but Heschel scored the next five points to energize their side and put the Bears in an early hole. Another Rohan spike ended the run before the Heat grabbed another point on a service error. But the Bears answered with a 6-0 spurt and would not trail again in the set. Gillian Bernier registered a kill to open the run and added three more kills in quick succession to give the Blue & White an 8-6 edge. Heschel knotted the set at 8-8, but consecutive Bernier aces pushed the Bear lead to 11-8 and gave them the lead for good. The Heat got back within a point, but Charlotte Cisz fired four aces in five points to push the Bear advantage to 17-10. Rohan blocked a Heschel strike for a 21-11 lead, then spiked one into the deck for a 22-13 margin. A Bernier kill ended the round, 25-14.

The Bears led wire-to-wire in set two, surging out to a 12-2 lead behind Rohan’s aces and Bernier’s big swings. A Sandy Tao kill into the back left corner gave The Brook a 16-5 lead, then a Rohan missle pushed it to 18-6. Julianna Sparacio registered an ace for a 20-8 advantage. Consecutive aces from Tao put the Bears on the brink at 24-9 before Rohan ended it with a spike, 25-13.

Heschel showed some “we didn’t come all this way for nothing” energy in the third game as they battled the Bears to the very end. The set was deadlocked seven times in the early going, but the Bears finally took the lead for good when a Bernier kill gave them a 15-14 advantage. The Heat edged back within 15-16, but three straight Bear points, punctuated by a Bernier spike, gave them a four-point cushion, and Heschel would get no closer the rest of the way. A Rohan block gave the Bears an emphatic ending to the 25-17 win.

The Bears have a rematch with LuHi on the home floor on Monday.

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