Sea Kings Edge Santa Margarita in Regional Volleyball Semifinal

Two teams entered the semifinals Wednesday of the CIF Southern California Division 2 Regional Championships with the same “hangover” from the Southern Section finals, but for vastly different reasons.

Corona del Mar was still in the afterglow of its seventh all-time championship after defeating Laguna Beach in four games for the Division 2 sectional title. The Sea Kings looked as if they had overslept after playing their first-round regional game on Tuesday, scoring only 10 points in their second straight Game 1 loss. But the Sea Kings again came roaring back and played solidly the remainder of the match.

(The semifinal game was scheduled for Thursday but moved to accommodate Santa Margarita’s Prom Night.)

Santa Margarita was still somewhat in shock after having its championship bid slip through its fingertips in losing to Mater Dei in the Division 1 final. It was the Eagles' first loss in a final, the Monarchs' first CIF title, and the Eagles' third loss in four matches to their Trinity League rival. But Santa Margarita was determined to get back something they lost, and were motivated to possibly see Mater Dei a fifth time in the regional final on Saturday.

Neither team disappointed the crowd that filled half of the gymnasium at Corona del Mar High for "Hangover 2." The Eagles and Sea Kings traded serves, traded points and traded winning games, and in the end Corona del Mar won most of the big points at the most opportune time to defeat Santa Margarita, 10-25, 29-27, 26-24, 23-25, 15-12.

Corona del Mar (31-4) will face the winner of Thursday's semifinal between Westlake and Mater Dei on  Saturday, 5 p.m., in the regional final at Irvine Valley College.

“It didn’t look very good for us after Game 1," Sea Kings coach Steve Conti said. "But the leadership of our seniors took over. Our guys did a tremendous job tonight. You don’t know how it’s all going to work out at the time. You hope to get most of the big shots. We won some big points.”

Junior outside hitter Parker Brown finished with a game-high 20 kills on 22 assists by Nick Curci and 20 assists by Joe Ctvrtlik. Evan Dean added 11 kills and Jack Reed six. Senior Brennan Anderson, who contributed 13 kills, including a twisting spike to put the Sea Kings up 13-11 in Game 5, said the game was tough from the start.

‘It’s difficult being in the CIF Regional after winning CIF on Saturday,” said Anderson, who will be attending Ohio State in the fall. “It was like we won and we felt all this relief in winning CIF, which was our goal at the beginning of the season. Then coach says, ‘OK, let’s start getting ready for regionals.’ Then first thing, we lose that first game; I don’t know what happened. But luckily we overcame it and we got a couple big blocks in the second game and we began thinking that we were going to win.”

In close games, Corona del Mar won three of four. The Eagles were within one point of being up 2-0 in games, but a service error, a kill by Brown and a block by senior Spencer Haly tied the score. A few plays later, a hitting error and a kill shot by Brown off an Anderson dig tied the match at 1-1. Then in Game 3, the Eagles led, 24-22, but a kill by Anderson, a block by Haly, another kill by Anderson, a couple long rallies and a serve by libero Keegan Jakosky that clipped the top of the net and fell straight down for an ace suddenly put the Sea Kings ahead, 2-1.

Santa Margarita refused to go down without a fight and turned the tables on the Sea Kings. With the scored tied at 22, Ryan Blaine nailed an ace and Eagles captain Spencer Buckley put down two of his biggest kills for a 25-23 win to force a Game 5. Buckley finished his career with a great game: 18 kills, eight blocks and three aces.

In Game 5, the Sea Kings shot to a 4-0 lead behind three consecutive kills/blocks by Haly, the Stanford-bound middleblocker who, in his last game at Corona del Mar, blocked nine shots for points and got his hands on dozens of others. The score, however, was tied at 10 when Brown’s kill and Haly’s block (a familiar combo) put the Sea Kings ahead. After a hitting error by the Eagles, a Parker-to-Curci-to-Parker kill shot ended the match.

For Santa Margarita, which finishes its season 33-5, the ending was all too familiar, especially for a team with high expectations going into the playoffs. But Bryan Cottriel said just getting his team ready for the regionals was tough after Saturday.

“Extremely hard,” the Eagles coach said. “Plus prom, and a bunch of other things, it seems everything was going against us. But I was really proud of our players. We fought back in a tough place to play and to win. In the end they played hard — I’m not saying harder — but probably deserved to get into the final.”

For the Eagles, seniors Evan Engel (nine kills), Baine (18 kills), and Matt McDonald and Mitch Vallis (six kills each) played their final game proudly. And senior setter Taylor Hammond, who is headed for Penn State, ended his final game with 45 assists and four kills.