BG coach Matt Erb and his players celebrate their historic girls volleyball win over Bedford on Wednesday night. (BG Volleyball Instagram photo)

NASHUA – Bishop Guertin High School girls volleyball coach Matt Erb knew exactly what to say to his team prior to Wednesday night’s season opener vs. five-time defending Division I champion Bedford.

The JV match ran over, and the varsity wasn’t going to start until 7 p.m.

“I told them we better win in three sets, otherwise we won’t be done until 9:30,” he said. “High school kids aren’t built to go through a seven, eight hour day of school and stay until 9:30.”

It worked. The Cards made history last night, ending the Bulldogs’ incredible 101-match win streak spanning five years with a 25-21, 25-14, 25-20 three-set sweep.

“We wanted to be the ones to end the streak,” Erb, who took over the varsity program after coach the JV team last year. “I’m a next-game kind of coach, and we had a whole summer in which we knew our next game would be Bedford.”

And that was big because it was the Bulldogs who ended Guertin’s season in the Division I semis last November, a five-set thriller in which the Cards had a 2-1 lead in sets and had leads in the fourth and fifth sets but couldn’t close it out.

“We had them on the brink,” Erb said. “And then when we saw the schedule come out and saw they’d be coming to us to start the season, we spent hours in the gym preparing. Obviously last year left a bad taste in our mind.”

Last night Guertin was paced offensively by Caitlin Harrington (seven kills, 12 digs) and Annie Hammond (12 kills, 10 digs) who were literally assisted by setter Claudia Daniel (18 assists) while libero Alissa Maillet was a defensive key with 10 digs. Thalia Drapeau also had four blocks.

The Cards led throughout the three sets, trailing by maybe only a couple of points in the third set. Erb hardly had to call time out the entire match.

“I told the girls, we need to keep our foot on the gas the whole time,” he said.

The Cards did just that, driving all the way into history. And then home at a decent hour.