CdM claims first regional championship

IRVINE - All of this might be unchartered territory for the Corona del Mar boys volleyball team, but with another title on the resume, the Sea Kings are looking comfortably settled.

Corona del Mar, the CIF-SS Division 2 champions, put the finishing touches on a remarkable season by winning the CIF Southern California Division II Regional title by defeating Westlake, 17-25, 25-20, 25-23, 25-20, on Saturday night at Irvine Valley College.

The Sea Kings (32-4) claimed their seventh CIF title last week and this was their first regional championship.

“This team has a lot of heart,” CdM coach Steve Conti said. “To be able to get beat like that in the semifinals in game 1 and to come out like we did in game one in this championship match … a lot of teams would have packed their bags and think they don’t have a shot, but this team never stops believing and most importantly, never stopped believing in each other.”

OCVarsity Hot Shots from Saturday's games

CdM dropped the first game against Santa Margarita in the semifinals Wednesday night (25-10), but went on to defeat the Eagles in five.

Westlake, which defeated Mater Dei in the semifinals Thursday, jumped to a 7-1 lead against the Sea Kings. The lead would increase to double digits before it would end.

“We weren’t really playing as a whole in the first set,” CdM junior outside hitter Parker Brown said. “We were kind of playing as independents. Toward the middle of that game, we really started playing as a whole.”

CdM evened the match by winning the second set.

In the third set, CdM took a 23-21 lead on an ace from Brown. Westlake rallied to tie with points from a kill from Colby Magorien and a hitting error on CdM.

From that point, the Sea Kings put the set away with a kill from Brennan Anderson and a block from Spencer Haly.

Brown had eight of his 14 kills in the third set.

“We really needed to pick things up and win that game,” Brown said. “It was our last match and we wanted to leave everything out there on the court, like our coaches told us every day.”

Anderson added 14 kills with 13 digs for the Sea Kings. Jack Reed (seven), Evan Dean (six) and Haly (six kills and five blocks) all turned in solid contributions.

In the fourth set, Westlake tied the score at 14-14. CdM came back with three consecutive points, a kill from Evan Dean and two from Brown to take a 17-14 lead and never looked back.

“We had to step up our defense and make sure that we could serve tough and create some opportunities for us,” Conti said. “We didn’t do in game one, we kind of served to easy or we just made a lot of mistakes, but I think we put a lot of pressure on them with our serve as the match went on.”

Keats Stanley led Westlake with 18 kills and Magorien added 13, but it wasn’t enough to stop this special season for CdM.

“It is amazing what this team has done,” Conti said. “We’ve gone through some struggles along the way, maybe not always playing our best, but I always tell these guys that best memories are made in May and I believe we’ve been undefeated in May.”