Pleasant Valley volleyball coach John Gesiskie’s last regular season match came to a memorable end in a 25-11, 25-11, 25-10 Eastern Pennsylvania Conference sweep of Stroudsburg on Wednesday.

Gesiskie and the Bears completed a perfect 18-0 regular season in the coach’s 30th and final year.

“I told the girls before the season began, this is going to be my last year. “We had that out of the way, and we just wanted to move forward,” he said. “I didn’t expect us to be this good, but I knew we had it in us. The idea is to come and gel together as a team and understand their role as part of the team, and these players have done that.

“The important thing is when you get on that court, you play your role and do what you have to do as a team. The main object is to win the game, and do it the best way we can.”

The perfect end to the regular season came on Senior Night, and was made more special by the crowd that included many of Gesiskie’s former players.

“It was great,” Gesiskie said. “Having all these people and former players come here tonight and the well-wishes they had, the memories they bring back, and talks we had about their time here ... that’s why they came from all over.

“It means a lot to them to see how the program has come along. It’s a different generation, a lot of volleyball was new back then. It was really an emotional thing for me to see all these people come here for support. Our program did its job.”

Pleasant Valley began its undefeated regular season with a win at East Stroudsburg South, and the Bears dominance continued throughout last night. Senior Brianna Bruckman had 25 assists, three digs, a block and an ace in the convincing win over the Mountaineers.

“We were all pretty hyped up because it’s our Senior Night,” Bruckman said. “We were so excited. We all played the game like we usually play, going and finishing strong and encouraging everyone.

An 18-0 record is an absolute blessing to have as a senior. Now, we’re hoping to continue on and finish strong during the postseason.”

Bruckman’s efforts were aided by fellow senior Lexi Womack, who also had a great game for the Bears with 10 kills and seven digs.

Hannah Akob added to the contributions from the seniors with nine digs, eight kills, three assists and two aces.

“These seniors know they are coming closer to the final matches of their high school careers, and I know it’s getting closer to the last time I’ll see them playing,” Geskiskie said. “This is their final year and they’re going out. It’s nice to see them honored because most of them spent four years on the team and put in a lot of time and effort.

“Their commitment is a year-round thing. We run programs two-to-three days a week throughout the year, and these seniors were very dedicated. You always want to see the seniors set a good example for the underclassmen, and they did that. Hopefully, these younger girls see how all that extra time and dedication paid off.”

If the Bears had any nerves playing in front of the Senior Day crowd in Gesiskie’s final regular-season match, it never showed. Pleasant Valley dominated the first game and never looked back on its way to the sweep of the Mountaineers.

“We started off really well, and when you have an event like this, sometimes players get a little bit off-task,” Geskiskie said. “Their first game, they really came out determined and showed that we meant business.”

SWEEP CITY ... Pleasant Valley has posted 3-0 sweeps in 17 of its 18 matches this season. The only set the Bears dropped was to Emmaus in a 3-1 victory.

SERVING STRENGTH ... One of the many reasons for the Bears success this season has been their serving. They went into last night’s match serving 97% as a team. “In addition to our high success percentage, we are also serving a lot of aces or non-returnable serves, which is something we’re striving for because when you face the better teams, that can be play a huge factor,” said Gesiskie.

ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT

... Geskiskie stressed the importance of working on a few things to improve the team’s performance. “I think one of our biggest things we need to really improve on is our blocking. We’ve been working a lot of that in practice and just have to get the timing down. We’re getting there.

BRUCKMAN ON 18-0

...”No words can describe it. We all worked so hard to getting to where we are now. We all worked so to get where we are. This season is amazing.”