Sykes leads Sequoias past MC volleyball

It’s been a while since Reina Sykes last played a game in her home town.

The College of Sequoias freshman setter last graced a Merced court as a senior at Golden Valley in 2011, sweeping rival Merced in her final regular-season match.

Sykes has gotten a little older, added some ink and fought back from a major injury in the four years since then. But one thing that hasn’t changed is the smoothness of her game. Sykes made the Giants’ offense go on Wednesday evening, spreading the ball around and racking up 29 assists in a 25-19, 25-17, 25-21 sweep of Merced College at Don Reid Court.

“It feels great being back here,” said Sykes, who entertained a small army of well wishers after the game. “I missed the game so much. From fighting back from the injury I suffered at my first school to coaching at UC Merced the last couple years, I decided I really wanted to get back on the court.

“It’s gone pretty well, actually. Things came back to me pretty quickly. I guess it’s kind of natural.”

Sykes made it look natural as she navigated her squad past a scrappy Blue Devils (5-6, 2-2 Central Valley Conference) team that pushed COS (5-3, 3-1 CVC) in every set.

MC could never find an offensive rhythm, however.

The Devils got off to a quick start in the first set, taking a 14-12 lead. The bulk of that came off of Sequoias errors, however. Merced produced just four kills in the first set, one fewer than the Giants’ Idalis Rubalcava (match-high 14 kills) as COS pulled away for a 25-19 victory.

The Merced attack only got marginally better from there. Emelee Croninger and Lindsey Hartman led the team with five kills each.

“That’s a legit team that’s going to go on and do very well in conference, and we were right there with them the whole night,” Merced coach Jessica Casey said. “It makes the loss all the more frustrating. Our passing kept us in the game. We were doing a good job digging, and our serve-receive game was right where we wanted it to be. We just couldn’t get anything going with our hitters.

“They never got on the same page with our setter and they never got hot.”

Sequoias never trailed in a 25-17 win in the second set, but MC looked like it might make a game of it to open the third set.

Hartman and Croninger recorded back-to-back kills to open the set, and the Blue Devils used an 8-1 run to take a 14-7 lead.

COS stormed right back behind Rubalcava and Gabi Crookshanks (eight kills). The Giants whittled the lead down to 18-14 and then went up for good with a 6-0 run.

“We just weren’t consistent enough to win,” Croninger said. “We’d put together a nice pass, set and kill and then follow it up with an error. Even when we went up 14-7, we couldn’t seem to get momentum going. We were right there all night, but we didn’t finish when we had chances.”

This story was originally published October 7, 2015 at 9:44 PM with the headline "Sykes leads Sequoias past MC volleyball."