CdM falls in semis at Las Vegas tournament
LAS VEGAS — Corona del Mar came to the Durango Fall Classic needing any victory it could get. The county's preseason No. 1 girls volleyball team arrived at the nationally acclaimed tournament seeking its first victory after being swept in two matches.
They had to make the nearly 300-mile trip to get it, but the Sea Kings finally found the success they have been searching for.
After sweeping through its three matches Friday, Corona del Mar advanced to the semifinals Saturday before being swept by No. 1 seed Assumption of Kentucky, 25-19, 25-20, at Durango High.
Corona del Mar (5-4) finished fourth overall, falling to Redondo Union, 25-18, 25-16, in the third-place match. Torrey Pines of San Diego downed Assumption in the final, 25-22, 14-25, 25-16.
"We talked after the Marymount and Mater Dei matches and did a lot of self reflection," Corona del Mar coach Marissa Booker said. "I knew we would come out striving to get better and better and we met that goal this weekend."
Corona del Mar was the only county team to reach Saturday's championship qualifying round here.
Los Alamitos, Mater Dei, Newport Harbor, Beckman, El Dorado and Edison were eliminated from gold contention during Friday's play-in round.
Meanwhile, Corona del Mar opened play Saturday by sweeping Liberty of Bakersfield, 25-17, 25-14, to make the gold-bracket quarterfinals. There, Corona del Mar swept Horizon of Arizona, 25-13, 25-22, to set up its match with Assumption.
In the semifinals, the score was tied at 17 in Game 2 before Assumption used an 8-3 spurt to seal victory. Tied at 18 in Game 1, Assumption went on a 7-1 run to close it.
Senior setter Kelsey Humphreys, who is committed to Stanford, and sophomore outside hitter Hayley Hodson were selected to the all-tournament team.
Mater Dei (7-2) was the next highest county placer, coming in 17th. Mater Dei was knocked from gold contention Friday when it lost its play-in match to Liberty, 25-19, 25-21.
Los Alamitos (13-2), last year's runner up and ranked No. 1 in the county heading into Durango, lost its play-in match to Horizon, 25-10, 25-19. It was Los Al's first loss of the season. Los Al was defeated by Xavier Prep of Arizona, 25-17, 20-25, 25-23, in Saturday morning's qualifying round and eventually finished 25th.
"We played some good teams, some different teams," Booker said. "Horizon is huge. Assumption was all defense. So we got to play a wide variety of teams."
