Sidney’s Cynthia Davidson, left, and Alena Swearingen pose for a photo after a 3-0 victory over Trotwood-Madison in a Division III district quarterfinal on Saturday at Fairborn High School’s Skyhawk Arena. Davidson broke the program’s career kills record and Swearingen broke the program’s career assists record in the victory.
FAIRBORN — Sidney junior setter Alena Swearingen has wanted to be a record holder for the Yellow Jackets since middle school. Senior outside hitter Cynthia Davidson wasn’t aiming for records when she transferred to Sidney last year.
While their paths weren’t the same, both players set program career records the same day.
Swearingen became the program’s career assists leader and Davidson became the program’s career kills leader in the 25-6, 25-7, 25-6 victory over Trotwood Madison in a Division III district quarterfinal on Saturday at Fairborn High School’s newly opened Skyhawk Arena.
“It’s incredible for both of them,” Sidney coach Dexter Tobie said. “… They’ve both been working on it.”
Tobie has known both since they were about 10 years old, when he coached them in club volleyball. He coached Swearingen at Sidney Middle School and said she told him then she wanted to be the best setter in program history.
“I’m glad I was there for that and she was able to accomplish that,” Tobie said while Swearingen was standing nearby on Saturday. “She doesn’t like me telling that story, but she said that. She’s been working hard on it.
“… I’m really proud of her. Alena has stepped up her game. She did it in three seasons, and she broke the record of a really good setter (Carrie Nuss, a 2018 graduate). That speaks volumes.”
Swearingen started as a freshman and surpassed 1,000 career assists last year. She had 25 assists on Saturday and now has 1,617 career assists to her credit. She leads Miami Valley League players with 519 assists this year.
“I feel like this year has been way different than the last two seasons,” Swearingen said. “The last two seasons I was kind of nervous, and I didn’t really take charge of the team as much. I think this year I stepped into my shoes as kind of a leader. So this year has been really fun for me.”
She had 655 assists last year, which is a program single-season assists record. She is 5-foot-10 and also helps the squad on the front line; she has 57 kills and 12 blocks this season and ranks second on the team with 211 digs.
Davidson played her first two years at Anna before transferring to Sidney last season. She was an honorable mention all-Shelby County Athletic League selection as sophomore and had 233 kills in her first two seasons.
Davidson had 269 kills as a junior and had 14 on Saturday to reach 258 for this season. She reached 527 kills at Sidney on Saturday, 10 more than 2024 graduate Kyla Rush, who set the program career kills record last year.
“It was very intimidating coming into a whole new school,” Davidson said. “But I knew people, and they all had welcome arms when I came in, and they just made another home for me.
“… Coach (Tobie) has been my coach since I started, and he’s just awesome.”
Davidson recently gave a verbal commitment to Union Commonwealth University in Barbourville, Kentucky. She ranks second in kills among MVL players and has a team-high 268 digs.
“She’s a hard-working athlete,” Tobie said. “I’ve been working with her for quite some time, and the dedication and the amount of time that she puts into the sport is really paying off. She was able to break it in two seasons, and not even two full seasons, because she lost four games with a concussion last year. I’m proud of her.”
Sidney captured its third consecutive MVL Valley Division title this year and finished regular-season play with a hard-fought 3-2 win over Greenville to improve to 12-10 overall.
The No. 6 seed Yellow Jackets opened tournament play by dominating the No. 13 Rams on Saturday in Fairborn. They will face MVL rival Vandalia-Butler in a district semifinal on Tuesday.
“We practiced some new defensive movements and stuff,” Swearingen said. “We’re excited for Butler on Tuesday.”
The squad lost to No. 3 seed Butler (18-5) in both MVL matchups in regular season, but almost every set was close. The Yellow Jackets lost 25-22, 25-23, 22-25, 25-20 on Sept. 5 in Sidney and 25-21, 25-9, 25-23 on Oct. 3 in Vandalia.
“We just have to have confidence in ourselves and believe that we can win,” Davidson said. “We can, because we’ve come close to them almost every time. We just gave up that one set that was far off, but the others were close, and we could have won.”
The Yellow Jackets are hoping the return of junior Kalesha Rush will help. Rush has 127 kills to her credit but hasn’t played in about a month due to injury. She missed the squad’s second matchup with Butler.
“Having Kalesha back is great,” Tobie said. “We’re easing her in. We’ve played them without her and were able to do pretty good. We’ve kept really close games with them, back-and-forth. Adding her back into the lineup will hopefully give us that extra edge.”
Kaitlyn Adams had seven kills on Saturday and Sophia Bosslet had six aces. Maggie Turner had a team-high seven digs.
Reach Sidney Daily News editor Bryant Billing at 937-538-4822, or follow @BryantBillingSDN on Facebook or @TopBillingSport on X (Twitter).
