NORWALK – The Corona del Mar boys volleyball team took advantage of Saturday’s opportunity at redemption.
The Sea Kings (30-3), who suffered a heartbreaking five-set loss to Loyola of Los Angeles in the CIF-SS Division 1 semifinals, capped the season with another five-set match, this time, a victorious one, defeating Esperanza, 25-18, 23-25, 25-16, 19-25, 15-9, in the Division II CIF SoCal Regional final at Cerritos College.
“Even if our season would have ended (with the CIF semifinal loss) and finished 27-3, I think there are a lot of other teams that would kill for a season like that,” CdM coach Steve Conti said. “We definitely had chances to get to the Division 1 final, but this will certainly take some of that sting away.”
In the fourth set, Esperanza’s Jake Arnitz suffered an ankle injury with the score tied, 6-6. He went to the bench, got it re-taped and returned.
“I wasn’t going to sit my last game on the bench,” Arnitz said. “It hurt really bad but it is something you had to push through if you really want it.”
His return sparked the Aztecs as they tied the match, outscoring the Sea Kings, 19-13, over the remainder of the set.
“When he came back in that inspired the whole team,” Conti said. “He came back and they took it to us.”
As the match moved to the final set, CdM looked to senior Joey Martino and junior Ryan Moss to lead the way. Martino had five kills in the fifth set and Moss had four to put the match away.
“They were huge,” Conti said of Martino and Moss. “Last year when we got knocked out of the playoffs in five games (to St. John Bosco), those guys weren’t able to put a ball away, so they’ve really grown a lot.
“Being through a lot of battles last year and this year has helped get us to this point. I thought even that loss to Loyola was going to help us grow. I was just hoping that we would have another chance to grow as a team and learn from that experience.”
Tommy Brooks led CdM with 24 kills. Moss and Martino had 17 apiece. Augie Miller added 10. Matt Ctvrtlik had 66 assists and 15 digs.
“We’re a good team when we’re spreading the ball,” Conti said. “That’s one of the reasons why we’ve grown the way we have because of the competition in practice.”
Arnitz led the Aztecs (30-7) with 21 kills. Ben Oxnard had 13 and Kevin Sowski added 10 for the Aztecs, who were looking for their second consecutive regional title. The Aztecs won the CIF-SS Division 2 title last week.
“I’m excited for Corona (del Mar), they played well and deserved to win,” Esperanza coach Isaac Owens said.
Contact the writer: dcalhoun@ocregister.com
