By Aaron Coloma

The Reseda Regents began their Mission Valley League title defense in convincing fashion, bringing home a victory against the Sylmar Spartans in four sets.

The Regents started strongly in the first set, jumping to an early 9-3 lead with kills from Emelia Gustavsson, Layla Reyes and Zarah Numa. Throughout the set, Sylmar only managed to string multiple points together on two occasions. A 9-2 scoring run from Reseda including a kill and an ace from Reyes saw the lead grow out of control as they secured the first set 25-12.

The Spartans found their spark in the second set as consecutive kills from Arianna Williams helped Sylmar build a 4-0 lead to open the set. Reseda managed to reduce the deficit to two, but Lauren Carroll followed up with back-to-back kills of her own to restore the Spartans’ 4-point lead. The Regents slowly clawed their way back within two points just for Sylmar to blow the set open with a 6-0 scoring run to make the score 19-11. They would go on to level the match with a 25-16 victory.

Reseda scored first in the third set through another ace from Reyes, and then jumped to a 3-1 lead after Gustavsson tallied another kill. The remainder of the set was a gritty battle with the teams exchanging the lead four times. With the score 18-17 in favor of the Regents, Gustavsson recorded her fourth kill of the set to give Reseda a two-point lead which Sylmar wouldn’t recover from. The Regents took the third set 25-21 to take the lead 2-1.

Just as they did in the first and third set, Reseda jumped to an early lead in the fourth set. Despite being down early once again, Sylmar continued to fight. A team effort, including an ace from Valerie Sicairos, resulted in a 15-13 lead for the Spartans. Just as things began to look up for the Spartans, Gustavsson blocked Carroll and swung momentum back into the Regents’ favor. They would retake the lead at 18-17 and wouldn’t look back, as Reyes ended the game with her sixth kill of the set.

“They got a little antsy, a little anxious and they let it get to them,” said Regents Head Coach Isebiu Reyes. “It’s a lot harder sometimes to play from the top. We started to calm down a little bit in the third and fourth and we just ended up taking care of business.”

After their 3-0 sweeping victory on Thursday against Kennedy, Reseda will travel to Rancho Dominguez for a non-league match Sept. 9 at 4:30 p.m. Sylmar will participate in the Chatsworth Invitational tournament, and will have three games Sept. 6 at 4;30 p.m., 6:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.