It had been a few years since the Marlboro volleyball team had beaten the Highland Huskies.

That changed Wednesday when the Dukes swept the Huskies, 3-0, in a non-league contest at Marlboro High School.

“It feels great,” libero Kalista Birkenstock said. “Highland is our rival. Marlboro and Highland is like the Black and Blue Bowl, and we really haven’t won against them for volleyball in like two years, so it feels good to finally beat them.”

The Dukes didn’t trail the Huskies very often, although they did early in the first set, before Emma Jackson took the service line. She went back with the Dukes trailing by two, and when the Huskies finally got her off the line, the Dukes were leading by three.

From there, they went on to beat the Huskies, 25-17, in the first set.

“We love to take the first set because it makes it so much easier instead of having to come back for three more,” Birkenstock said. “We can just take two more, so it definitely makes it a little less stressful when we take the first one, so that gave us a lot of momentum.”

That momentum carried into the second set, even though the Huskies got the first point. However, Marlboro immediately tied the set and took the lead for good on a kill by Jackson.

The Dukes widened the lead to six points before Highland coach Colleen Giametta called for a timeout.

“I just feel like some days, we just can’t pull it together and close it out,” Giametta said. “It was the kind of night we were having tonight. We’ve been working with some different offensives. We’ve been playing with some different offenses to see what really works for us, getting most of our hitters in. Tonight, I just feel like our defense failed us.”

The Huskies struggled to dig out the Dukes’ serves and had a difficult time setting up their hitters.

“When our outsides were getting the ball, they were killing it nice,” Giametta said.

The Dukes’ biggest lead in the second set was by seven points midway through and widened their lead to eight for the first time on a hitting error by Christina Johnston.

The Dukes won the second set, 25-17.

They looked to bury the Huskies early in the third set by taking a quick 4-0 lead. The Dukes pulled to within two points, until a second long service run by Jackson gave the Dukes an 11-6 lead.

Birkenstock’s ace gave the Dukes a 20-14 lead and she scored four straight service points to pull her team within a point of winning the match.

The serve went back to the Huskies, but Marlboro won the next point for a 25-15 win in the third and final set.

Birkenstock had 17 digs and three aces, while Madison Gibney had 11 digs and two aces. Giana Fiore had 11 kills.

Cadence Meltz led Highland with 24 digs.

The Dukes got off to a slow start to the season after opening with a 2-4 record. They’ve since won four of their last six to run their record to 6-6.

They had two more regular season matches on Monday and Tuesday. They opened with a non-league contest against the Newburgh Free Academy Goldbacks, and they finished the regular season with a league game against the Rondout Valley Ganders.

“I think we definitely got a lot better from where we first started,” Birkenstock said. “I think that our energy keeps on continuing to build. So, I think going into sections, we’re going to have a lot more energy and it’s going to help us with our play, overall.”

The Huskies opened the week with a win over Onteora and followed with a home match against Mount Academy on Thursday. They lost that match, 3-0 by a score of 25-18, 29-19, 25-10.

“We just have to learn from every match and get better,” Giametta said. “The more we play, the better we get, and they learn how to make adjustments to what they’re doing wrong. We talk about that every practice.”