Bruins Volleyball Breaks Through For State Championship

Although the Broadneck volleyball team knew they had a special group last year when they reached the state finals, head coach Tracey Regalbuto always had 2025 as her target for the girls to take the big leap.

Call it a hunch. Call it destiny. For Regalbuto, the prediction came from her conviction that she had a talented roster full of selfless players. And she was right.

Broadneck beat Urbana in straight sets (28-26, 28-26, 25-22) to win the Class 4A state championship at Harford Community College on November 15.

Every set played out in nail-biting fashion, especially the last one. The Bruins capped a furious rally in the third set, which saw seven ties and three lead changes.

“I feel like even though we won in three, that was a really good game,” Regalbuto said. “I feel like Urbana fought in every single set and that was not easy for us. … I feel like tonight there was nobody in this building but us. They were just so focused, and I feel like the outcome was well earned and deserved, and I’m really proud to be their coach.”

Broadneck started off with a 4-0 lead in the first set behind the serves of Barrett Bolter, who finished the night with five aces. The Bruins jumped out to an 18-9 advantage after Anna Graves spiked one over the net and Kennedy Smith added another point, but the Hawks battled. Camryn Bedell stuffed a hit to slow the Urbana attack, yet they continued their scoring run to a 25-25 tie. With the score at 26-26, a service error gave Broadneck a chance to finish the set, which they did as Bedell sent a dink through the Hawks’ defense.

The second set remained back and forth throughout, with Broadneck making several stellar plays. Graves dove and flung an arm behind her back to secure a dig, which went to Bedell, who slammed it home. Sydney Lawrence denied an Urbana kill at the net to set up a Smith score. Smith floated a shot off the fingertips of a Hawks defender. And Bedell smacked a perfectly placed shot just inside the left baseline. With 12 ties and five lead changes, the set gave hope to both teams until the Bruins pulled ahead 28-26.

As impressive as those sets were, Broadneck saved their finest moment for the third set. An 8-7 lead quickly morphed into deficits of 11-18 and 14-22. One serve hit the net. Several Urbana hits were placed just out of Broadneck’s reach. Momentum swung to the Hawks, but the Bruins did not panic.

Smith spiked the ball through a gap and went airborne to block a shot and send it back for another kill. Graves pushed one through a bevy of hands that met her at the net. Eleven unanswered points later, the Bruins rushed the court and collapsed with arms around one another as they took the set 25-22.

“The other coaches were like, ‘You guys got to fight’ and I just said, ‘I don’t know. Call me crazy. I have a really good feeling that we’re going to win this set,’” Regalbuto said. “I said, ‘Their best players are now out of the game, they’re on the sidelines, and they’re going to tip and roll everything and you guys need to go out slugging,’ and we did that and it was just chipping away at the score.”

Setters Lawrence (28 assists, four digs) and Bolter (four assists, nine digs) were key to the victory as they facilitated the offense and set the tone on defense. During the season, they were leading serve scorers for the team.

“Our serving was a main focus going into this game because we knew their big middles were going to be a problem,” Regalbuto said. “And so how we prepared for this game was serving accurately, aggressively and attacking their setters so that they couldn’t set their middles.”

The Bruins returned 11 of 14 players for 2025, but the freshmen played important roles too. Bedell had six kills and 13 digs, and she received the most serves.

“We knew going in tonight that Camryn was going to be the serving target because Urbana watched our Churchill game and Camryn was the serving target, and so we knew what tonight was going to be, and I feel like mentally she was very focused all day today and was ready to pass balls,” Regalbuto said.

The selfless play became a theme. Smith, a two-year co-captain who had a team-high 15 kills in the championship, emphasized that a special bond kept the team close all year as they went 17-3 leading up to the state final.

“I feel like the fact that we had two freshmen starting and the fact that nobody on our team made it like, ‘Oh, they are playing over us and they’re freshmen,’” she said when asked how the team grew during the fall season. “We all stuck together to stay as an actual family like we say at the beginning of every year.”

Players were jubilant after the game, grateful to be on the other side after last year’s 3-0 championship game loss to Richard Montgomery. Their confidence never wavered and neither did their coach’s because, after all, she knew the outcome.

“I really did not have any doubt in my mind that we were going to win tonight,” Regalbuto said. “With that deficit, I still knew we were going to win.”

The team will graduate Addison Britton, Graves, Smith, Lawrence and Chloe Richie. Several players are expected to return next year: juniors Bolter, Marley Evans, Chloe Hays, Molly Robison; sophomores Lexi Britton and Julie Wagner; and freshmen Bedell, Alexis Luscomb, Ella Luscomb and Neely Olish.