Corona del Mar Advances to Volleyball Final

Even when Corona del Mar doesn’t play its best volleyball, it takes a near Herculean effort to beat the top-seeded team in the CIF Southern Section Division 2 playoffs and one of the most balanced teams in Orange County. Unfortunately for Trabuco Hills, it didn’t play its best game either.

So for the 11^th time in school history and the first time since 2007, Corona del Mar returns to the section finals after a 25-16, 25-23, 25-13 semifinal victory over the Mustangs Tuesday night at Corona del Mar High School.

The Sea Kings (28-5) will face their “other” crosstown rival to the south, Laguna Beach, the defending Division 2 champion, Saturday at Cypress College (4:30 p.m.). The second-seeded Breakers defeated Beckman in four games in the other semifinal.

Amazingly, this will be the first time the two schools have met for a section title in boys volleyball. Corona del Mar defeated Laguna Beach twice during the regular season. “It’s going to be exciting,” Sea Kings coach Steve Conti said.

The semifinal match against Trabuco Hills was expected to be the toughest test yet for Corona del Mar. The unseeded Mustangs (25-7) won the Sea View League title and upset fourth-seeded Oak Park, which had been to three consecutive section finals, in the quarterfinals last Saturday behind the outstanding play of its bookend outside hitters, senior Beau Osborne and junior Brandon Stoker.

But neither Osborne nor Stoker could get their games going, combining for only 16 of the Mustangs’ 27 total kills against the Sea Kings' taller front line of Jack Reed (6-4), Evan Dean (6-4) and Spencer Haly (6-7).

“I think they took our game away,” Mustangs coach Dave Hollaway said. “I thought [Osborne and Stoker] played pretty well, but naturally, Corona del Mar is really good. That’s the reason why they are the No. 1 team. They hit the floor for balls just as much as we did. Steve Conti has got them playing hard.”

Adding injury to the sweep for the Mustangs was the loss of starting senior middle-blocker John Hansen, who collided with a teammate going for a kill and rolled his right ankle in Game 1 with the Sea Kings leading 18-11. Hansen missed the rest of the match, forcing Hollaway to alter his usual rotation and use his bench extensively.

“That took us out of our game at the middle position,” Hollaway said. “[Hansen] had been blocking a lot of ball.”

The Sea Kings won seven of the next 12 points to take Game 1, but the Mustangs fought back in Game 2 and led 18-14 following an ace serve by Osborne. But the Sea Kings rallied, scoring the next four points, and then tied the score four times before taking the lead, 23-22. A kill by Reed and another by Parker Brown (nine kills) gave Corona del Mar a 2-0 lead, although Conti wasn’t thrilled with his team’s play.

“We broke down on ball control and we were fortunate to win that game,” Conti said. “If they had won that second game, the gym would have erupted. I’m not sure if we would have lost [the match], but it would have given them confidence.”

Trabuco Hills kept Game 3 close for awhile, trailing only 11-7 on a kill by Stoker. But the Sea Kings steadily began pulling away behind the hitting of senior Brennan Anderson, who had six of his game-high 11 kills and a block in the third game, including the final kill to end the match.

The Sea Kings finished with nine aces compared to three for the Mustangs, and six players had five or more kills. Both setters, Nick Curci and Joe Ctvrtlik, had 13 assists apiece and Reed handed our six in a complete, all-around performance.