CdM earns No. 1 seed
Corona del Mar High and Newport Harbor played in a playoff-type, intense boys’ volleyball match Friday.
The real CIF Southern Section playoffs start Tuesday for one of the Back Bay schools. The other has a bye.
Fresh off its thrilling five-set triumph in the Battle of the Bay against the Sailors, CdM enters the postseason with momentum. The Sea Kings earned the top seed in the Division II playoffs.
Newport Harbor is the No. 4 seed in Division I. Sage Hill School is the third local team in the playoffs and the Lightning are in Division IV.
While the first round starts Tuesday for both Newport Harbor and Sage Hill, CdM (25-4) has a first-round bye.
The Sailors (22-8) open at home against Harvard-Westlake of North Hollywood at 7 p.m. Newport Harbor, the Sunset League champion, does not have an easy one against the Wolverines (9-9), who finished tied for third in the competitive Mission League.
The Lightning (10-14) play host to Bolsa Grande (10-6) at Harbor Day School at 7 p.m. Sage Hill placed second in the Academy League and Bolsa Grande was third in the Garden Grove League.
Both Sage Hill and Newport Harbor enter the postseason coming off devastating five-set road losses to their respective rivals. The Lightning fell to St. Margaret’s and the Sailors to CdM.
There is not much time to dwell on last week’s shortcomings.
Newport Harbor has rebounded almost every time after a loss. The only exception is after the Sailors dropped a match to Crespi of Encino on March 12. They lost three days later to Santa Margarita in three sets.
Harvard-Westlake has beaten Crespi this season and it challenged third-seeded Loyola of Los Angeles before losing in five sets. Loyola came from four points down in the fifth set and eliminated the host Sailors last season in the quarterfinals en route to claiming the section crown over Mira Costa of Manhattan Beach.
Coach Dan Glenn always likes to say that no playoff opponent in the top division is a sure win.
It probably did not matter whether Glenn’s Sailors had prevailed Friday against CdM in regard to receiving a better playoff seed. Mira Costa (24-1) is the top seed, followed by Santa Margarita (28-3) and Loyola (22-3).
The Sailors never got past Santa Margarita in the regular season, but they are the only team to knock off Mira Costa. Newport Harbor might not see either team again unless it helps senior Cody Caldwell.
The Loyola of Chicago-bound outside hitter is at times a one-man show and he is nearly unstoppable. But with teammates like senior outside hitter Rusty Sary and sophomore middle blocker Kevin Rakestraw contributing more consistently, Newport Harbor has a legit chance of going far in the playoffs.
The Sailors have one of the better setters in senior Ian Sequeira. Caldwell has said the Sailors have the talent to reach their first section final since his freshman season.
Getting to the title match is a realistic goal for the Sea Kings.
They are no longer in the top division, in which they advanced to the semifinals last season. That was the furthest CdM went in the past two postseason appearances in Division I.
In Division II, CdM swept No. 2-seeded Laguna Beach (17-10) twice and swept No. 3 Valencia (20-10) once during the regular season. No Division II team has challenged CdM. The Sea Kings’ losses have come against Division I teams Santa Margarita, Loyola and Newport Harbor.
The Sailors tried to beat CdM for a third time this season, only to see the Sea Kings raise their level of play. Junior Parker Brown, senior Evan Dean and Stanford-bound senior Spencer Haly led a balanced CdM attack.
The Sea Kings’ 25-22, 27-29, 25-23, 31-33, 15-11 victory in front of a packed gym gave Coach Steve Conti optimism about claiming the program’s first section crown since 2007.
“This does a lot for us because we haven’t been playing very good volleyball lately,” Conti said. “We’ve been winning, but we haven’t been playing volleyball like we played [Friday]. This is a good sign.
“If we can compete with that kind of energy, hopefully the coaching staff can put together a good game plan, and if our kids can play hard, play smart and execute the game plan, I like our opportunities.”