Manteca’s Garrison Reis erupted on a 16-point service run behind three aces in the second set Monday night and used a five-point run in a back-and-forth third set to give the Buffaloes the lead for good in a 25-14, 25-13, 25-20 sweep of visiting East Union in Valley Oak League boys volleyball action.
Reis (five aces, two digs, kill) toed the service line with the Buffaloes (3-0 VOL, 14-6 overall) leading 3-1 in the first set and the next point for the Lancers (0-2, 6-11) came at 18-2. Following six ties and two lead changes in the third set, Reis went from a 12-13 deficit to a 17-13 lead and Manteca never trailed again.
“We do a lot of serving on practice,” Reis said. “It’s good to start seeing that work pay off after you do it more and more. It’s nice to see those results.”
As usual, Camden Steckler led the Buffaloes attack with 13 kills, two blocks and two aces, but as the season has progressed, so too has Manteca with other players shouldering more of the load than at the beginning of the year.
“It feels good to have the whole team get better as a team,” Steckler said. “We are slowly but surely starting to reach our potential, and I think we can go really far if we keep going and keep our heads in the game
“I think we can do anything, and that this team has come a long way. I can’t wait to see what is going to come.”
Manny Ramirez (two aces) churned out seven kills for the Buffaloes.
“I came out to play our rival East Union,” Ramirez said. “I came out and did what I had to do.”
East Union scored 12 of the final 17 points in the second set.
“When we get up like we did in that second set, that gives us the liberty of putting guys in that don’t normally get to play a whole lot,” Manteca coach Jennifer Reis said. “Momentum can be a tricky thing in volleyball, and you never want to give too much of that away.
“Obviously, they gained some momentum to end that second game and they came out ready to play that third one, too.”
Julio Mateo added six kills for Manteca with Nick Grabowski and Cedrick Maglinao adding four kills apiece. Connor Navarro dished out 15 assists for the Buffaloes and Mark Bondoc (five digs) had seven assists.
After the Lancers fell behind 18-1 in the second set the rest of the night was virtually even with Manteca scoring just one more point the rest of the way than East Union.
“We had a tournament this weekend where our starting outside Jai Aquino rolled his ankle, and our other starting outside didn’t play today,” Lancers coach Sabrina Ballin said. “We were missing two of our starters, so we were a little discombobulated to start and it took us until the third set to figure it out.
“That was a little late but that’s OK. We tried our best and that’s all we can do. We made it work with what we had.”
Braulio Reyes led the East Union attack with seven kills, seven assists and two digs. Cash Galvez added five kills, Eden Yang had eight assists, two digs and an ace; Noah Holdren chipped in three kills and a pair of aces and Angel Medina added three digs.
On Wednesday at 6 p.m., Manteca travels across town to Sierra, while East Union hosts Central Catholic.
Junior varsity
Manteca 2, East Union 0
Jesus Gomes helped propel the Buffaloes to a 25-21, 25-8 sweep with nine aces, eight digs and seven kills.
Manteca’s A.J. Palmer added five kills.
Guadalupe Reyes led the Lancers with three kills and a service point. Keenan Yang added four assists and two kills followed by Gabe Holguin (two aces, two kills, block), Rudy Rocha (two kills, dig, service point), Ian Wilcox (two service points, ace), Klaio Simpao (three service points, three assists, ace), Gabe Torres (block, kill), Cristiano Barajas (two digs) and Tyler Dobbins (dig).
