Surging Bruins Claim Third Straight County Title

When onlookers considered the Broadneck volleyball team, they thought about all the departed players from the 2025 state championship squad.

They considered the fact that two of the key returners for the Bruins were lost to injury before the season even started.

What they didn’t account for, though, is that the returning players had been playing four to six days a week against a dominant championship-caliber team for multiple years in practice. That standard is all they know.

And now they get the chance to show what they can do, and they’re making the most of it.

Behind a rock-solid system that doesn’t give points away and a punishing attack, Broadneck is 13-2 on the season and claimed its third straight county championship on October 24, sweeping Severn Run in straight sets, 27-25, 25-13 and 25-15.

“These girls have always been talented. I don’t want to take anything away from them, thinking about like we’re some underdog team. I’ve been excited to see them play all offseason, and I’m glad they’re getting the opportunity to play in front of everyone,” said Broadneck coach Tracey Regalbuto. “I never felt like we didn’t have control, even though the score was tight. We were playing too consistently to lose that set. We made some changes and talked about what we were going to attempt to do in the second set, and it was a completely different story. Severn Run is a good team, and we might see them again in the playoffs.”

Broadneck got kills from across the board in the county championship. Neely Olish, the team’s leading attacker, had eight kills to lead the way, while Chloe Hays added seven, Ella Luscomb had six, and Marley Evans added five.

The county championship win was the team’s sixth win in a row, and their seventh in the month of October, five of them coming in straight sets.

The Bruins’ only setback in that stretch was a four-set loss to the Academy of the Holy Cross, which is loaded with talent and one of the premier private schools in the Washington, D.C., area. Otherwise, they’ve taken all comers, including five-set marathons with both Arundel and Crofton in the same week.

Unlike other sports, the volleyball season extends for an additional week past the county championships. Broadneck will play Howard and Reservoir in the final two games, knowing that a pair of wins means that everyone has to come to them in the playoffs.

Because of the youth on this team, there has been a huge amount of growth, and there is further room to improve.

“We’re still not done with the progression that we want, with still a week left in regular season, we can still grow even more,” Regalbuto said. “We have a tough last week of the season, and we want to do everything we can to win these two games.”