East Brunswick High School athletics · Sunday, Oct. 11 through Saturday, Oct. 17, 2026
East Brunswick girls tennis has a sectional title. On Tuesday the Bears beat Marlboro 4-1 to win the NJSIAA South Jersey Group 4 championship, and two days later they were at Mercer County Park playing for all of Group 4. They lost that one, 3-2, to a Bergen Tech team that finished 18-0. The only team to beat East Brunswick all season is the Group 4 champion, and even that came down to a single flight.
The rest of the week kept pace. Boys soccer is eleven games without a loss, and Giovanny Sousa has scored hat tricks in back-to-back games. Girls volleyball, which lost its first sixteen matches, has now won three in a row. Gymnastics scored over 102 for the first time this season. And field hockey lost for the first time all fall on Thursday, then came from behind to win on Saturday morning.
Add it all up: fifteen varsity results, eleven wins, four losses. No week this fall has produced more wins.
Girls Tennis: South Jersey Group 4 Champions
If East Brunswick was going to win a sectional title, Marlboro was going to make the Bears earn it. It was the closest anyone had pushed them in the state tournament, and two of their four points went to a deciding tiebreaker.
At second singles, Aiona Cheng dropped her first set 6-4, won the second 6-3 and took the tiebreaker 10-6. At first doubles, Kaitlin Wang and Prisha Patel lost a set for the first time all season, 6-2, then answered 6-4 and won their tiebreaker 10-5. Kellyanne Mossi at third singles and Kelsey Zhao and Andrea Baraian at second doubles kept things simple, both winning 6-2, 6-1. Final: 4-1, and a sectional championship.
Wednesday’s regular-season match against South Brunswick offered no breather, at least not at third singles. There Kaylynn Mossi, not to be confused with teammate Kellyanne, won 7-6, 3-6 and 10-7 in the tiebreaker. Baraian and Zhao went the distance too, 7-6, 4-6, 10-5. Kellyanne Mossi, playing second singles, won 6-0, 6-0, and Wang and Patel won 6-4, 6-0. Another 4-1 win.
Then came Thursday and the Group 4 final against Bergen Tech, which won at first singles, second singles and second doubles on its way to an 18-0 season. East Brunswick’s two points came from the two spots that hadn’t lost all year: Kellyanne Mossi won 7-5, 6-1, and Wang and Patel won 6-1, 7-5.
They still haven’t. Kellyanne Mossi is 16-0 and has won all 32 sets she has played. Wang and Patel are 16-0 at first doubles. Cheng is 14-1. As a team, East Brunswick won its first 17 matches, is 17-1, and has won 78 of the 90 flights it has played.
Next up is the GMC Tournament at Hamilton Veterans Park, on Oct. 20 and Oct. 23.
Boys Soccer: Two Hat Tricks, Eleven Games, No Losses
Giovanny Sousa’s last two games: six goals. His last four: eight.
Last Saturday he scored three in a 6-0 win over Manalapan. On Tuesday he did it again against Sayreville, in another 6-0 win, and added an assist for good measure. Keko Michael scored twice and set up two more, Kareem Amer had a goal and an assist, and Liam Kim and Joshua Ferreira had an assist apiece. East Brunswick put eighteen shots on goal, and at the other end Rosario Volino and Joshua Matthews shared the shutout.
Thursday’s GMC game at North Brunswick was a tougher test, and the Bears passed it, 4-2. Michael scored twice again and assisted on another goal, Amer and Sousa each scored, and Mateo Dela Cruz and Lucas Henriques had assists. Volino made eight saves.
Michael’s week deserves a line of its own: four goals and three assists. He has 13 goals and 10 assists this season, and every one of those goals has come during the unbeaten run. He and Amer have each scored in five straight games. The defense has a streak going too, with five shutouts in the last seven games.
East Brunswick is 10-3-2 and hasn’t lost since Sept. 10: eleven games, nine wins, two ties. Spotswood visits on Monday, Oct. 19, in the first round of the GMC Tournament.
Girls Volleyball: Three in a Row
Sixteen. That’s how many matches East Brunswick lost to open the season. Now the number that matters is three, as in three straight wins, starting with last Saturday’s victory over Colts Neck. The streak ended Thursday, but only after the Bears took 14-2 South Brunswick to a third set and lost it 27-25.
Tuesday’s 25-22, 25-16 win at Edison came from everywhere. Smitha Srinivasan had eight kills and two blocks, Ava Catanho and Danielle Manning had four kills each, Addyson Danchak served three aces, and Zoe Holeman set up seventeen assists. East Brunswick out-blocked Edison 8-3.
Against Timothy Christian in Wednesday’s GMC Tournament preliminary round, the Bears served their way through it: eight aces in two sets (25-17, 25-13), three from Alexandra Doneva and two each from Manning and Eva Munoz. Srinivasan had ten kills and Holeman had seventeen more assists.
Thursday’s first-round loss at South Brunswick was about as close as a loss gets: 21-25, 25-23, 25-27. Srinivasan saved her best for last, with thirteen kills and four blocks. Holeman had eighteen assists and three blocks, Munoz dug fifteen balls, and the Bears blocked eleven shots.
For the week, Srinivasan had 31 kills and seven blocks, Holeman had 52 assists and Munoz had 30 digs. East Brunswick is 3-17 and has won three of its last four. Next it plays at South Plainfield on Oct. 19 and at West Orange on Oct. 21.
Field Hockey: A First Loss, and a Quick Answer
Monday’s 8-0 win at North Plainfield looked like most of the season so far: 6-0 at halftime, sixteen shots on goal, none allowed. Rachel Gerould scored a hat trick, Madelaina Whyte scored twice, and Alexa DeRado, Gianna Spinello and Logan Hooper scored once each. Jolie Salamon had two assists; DeRado, Hooper and Paige Pecesky had one apiece. Reagan Umbach and Samantha Balsamo shared the shutout.
Thursday was different. Hooper put East Brunswick ahead in the first quarter off a pass from DeRado, and then Kent Place scored the next four goals to win 4-1, ending the Bears’ unbeaten start at thirteen games. Umbach made six saves. Just how unusual was that game? East Brunswick has allowed eight goals all season. Half of them came against Kent Place.
The answer came Saturday morning, and it took a comeback. Montclair scored first, in the second quarter. Hooper tied it before halftime off a pass from Carissa Kovarcik, then scored again in the third quarter, this time from Salamon. Salamon then scored one herself, from DeRado, for a 3-1 lead. Montclair got one back later in the quarter, and East Brunswick held on to win 3-2.
Hooper scored in all three games and finished the week with four goals and an assist. She now has 18 goals and eight assists, one goal behind Gerould’s 19 goals and nine assists. The team is 14-1, with 71 goals scored and eight allowed in fifteen games, and eleven shutouts.
The GMC Tournament is next. The school calendar has East Brunswick hosting a first-round game on Oct. 20, with the opponent still to be set.
Gymnastics: A New High, and a Winning Record
East Brunswick came into Thursday with a season-high score of 101.3. It left with a new one, 102.425, and a win by more than seven points over Hightstown.
Isabella Wasserman posted the best all-around score in the meet, 33.6, including 9.075 on floor. Caroline Surabian won floor with a 9.175 and bars with an 8.45. Ellah Levi won vault with an 8.85 and added 8.6 on beam. And on bars, East Brunswick took the top five places: Surabian, then Alexandra Cooperman (8.025), Wasserman (8.0), Eleanor Kim (7.9) and Grace McVicar (7.45). Cooperman also scored 8.55 on vault.
Tuesday’s win over Union Catholic was a much closer call, 99.25 to 97.5. Cooperman had the best bars score in the meet, 8.45, with Surabian right behind at 8.35. Surabian also scored 9.125 on floor. Wasserman was East Brunswick’s top all-around gymnast at 32.575, and she, Kim and Levi all scored 8.45 or better on vault.
Two wins put the Bears at 4-3, over .500 for the first time since they won their season opener. The GMC Championships are on the calendar for Oct. 24.
Girls Soccer: Five Goals, Five Scorers
Spreading the scoring around doesn’t get more literal than Tuesday’s 5-0 win over Edison: five goals, five different scorers.
Emily Kaplan got it started in the ninth minute. Samantha Baker and Lauren Baker scored before halftime, and Talya Guneren and Clare Hitchins scored after it. Alanna Kienle set up two of the goals, and Scarlet Barrero, Hannah Cheraibi and Abigail Alexio had one assist each. Edison’s goalkeeper made fifteen saves, so five could easily have been more. At the other end, Keira Smith saved all three shots she faced for the shutout.
East Brunswick is 5-7-1. South Brunswick visits on Oct. 20 in the GMC Tournament.
Football: A Tough Night at Old Bridge
Friday at Old Bridge was a hard one. Old Bridge, now 7-1, led 31-0 at halftime and won 43-0, and East Brunswick is 3-5.
The Bears get back at it on Thursday, Oct. 22, at North Brunswick.
Marching Band and Color Guard: Hosts of the 43rd Annual Home Show
Every fall the East Brunswick Marching Band hosts its own NJMBDA contest at the high school, and Saturday was the 43rd Annual Home Show. Fourteen visiting bands, from Class 1 through Class 4, competed starting at 5 p.m. The last performance of the night belonged to the hosts: East Brunswick closed the evening at 9 p.m. with its show, “Phases.”
A host band performs outside the competition, so NJMBDA’s official results score all fourteen visitors and list no score for East Brunswick. (Scotch Plains-Fanwood won Class 3, East Brunswick’s class, with a 77.9.)
The scoring picks back up next Saturday. A week before the Home Show, “Phases” finished second of five in Class 3 at Monroe Township with a 77.1, up 6.9 points from its 70.2 at J.P. Stevens the week before that. Next comes the NJMBDA Class Championships at Piscataway High School on Saturday, Oct. 24. The band director’s schedule lists East Brunswick’s performance for 6:55 p.m.
The color guard performs as part of the marching band this fall, so its work counts in every band score. The winter Indoor Color Guard hasn’t posted a 2026-27 competition schedule yet; for now, its calendar shows tryouts in November. Last winter’s guard finished as TIA Chapter 7 champion and an All Chapter bronze medalist.
Cross Country: Championship Season Starts Wednesday
A quiet week for cross country, with no meet for either team, and a big one ahead. Both run the GMC Championship at Thompson Park on Wednesday, Oct. 21, and the NJSIAA Central sectionals follow on Oct. 31. They head into it off a strong XC Fall Classic last week, where the boys junior varsity won the team title and the boys varsity finished third of 38 teams.
The Week in Full
| Sport | Result | Record |
|---|---|---|
| Girls Tennis | W 4-1 vs. Marlboro, NJSIAA South Jersey Group 4 final (10/13) · W 4-1 vs. South Brunswick (10/14) · L 2-3 vs. Bergen Tech, NJSIAA Group 4 final, Mercer County Park (10/15) | 17-1 |
| Boys Soccer | W 6-0 vs. Sayreville (10/13) · W 4-2 at North Brunswick (10/15) | 10-3-2 |
| Girls Volleyball | W 2-0 at Edison (10/13) · W 2-0 vs. Timothy Christian, GMC Tournament preliminary round (10/14) · L 1-2 at South Brunswick, GMC Tournament first round (10/15) | 3-17 |
| Field Hockey | W 8-0 at North Plainfield (10/12) · L 1-4 vs. Kent Place (10/15) · W 3-2 vs. Montclair (10/17) | 14-1 |
| Gymnastics | W 99.25-97.5 vs. Union Catholic (10/13) · W 102.425-95.325 vs. Hightstown (10/15) | 4-3 |
| Girls Soccer | W 5-0 vs. Edison (10/13) | 5-7-1 |
| Football | L 0-43 at Old Bridge (10/16) | 3-5 |
| Marching Band | Host band, 43rd Annual Home Show, East Brunswick High School (10/17) | n/a |
| Cross Country | No meet this week | n/a |
Coming Up: Oct. 18 to Oct. 24
Schedules can change, so check with the school before heading out.
| Date | Sport | Game |
|---|---|---|
| Mon., Oct. 19 | Boys Soccer | vs. Spotswood, GMC Tournament first round |
| Mon., Oct. 19 | Girls Volleyball | at South Plainfield |
| Tue., Oct. 20 | Girls Soccer | vs. South Brunswick, GMC Tournament |
| Wed., Oct. 21 | Cross Country | GMC Championship, Thompson Park |
| Wed., Oct. 21 | Girls Volleyball | at West Orange |
| Thu., Oct. 22 | Football | at North Brunswick |
| Sat., Oct. 24 | Marching Band | NJMBDA Class Championships, Piscataway High School |
Sources
- Game results, box scores and season records: NJ.com High School Sports, East Brunswick, including the tennis sectional final, the Group 4 final and the Group 4 bracket
- Schedules: East Brunswick Bears Athletics calendar and NJ MileSplit for cross country
- Marching band: NJMBDA Home Show page, NJMBDA 2026 results, the Home Show Class 3 recap, the East Brunswick Marching Band page and the Indoor Color Guard page
Go Bears.
