Boys’ Volleyball: Fults makes smooth switch for CdM
Like most teenagers, Kevin Fults is looking forward to spring break. It cannot come soon enough for the Corona del Mar High senior.
Fults won’t be traveling or partying during spring break. The plan for Fults is to get physical therapy, massages and rest.
He’s only in his second week with the CdM boys’ volleyball team. If you’re wondering why he needs a break, from Nov. 6 to March 14, the CdM boys’ basketball season kept Fults busy. The program’s longest season in 15 years took a toll on Fults, definitely on his knees.
“I’m definitely going to enjoy spring break when it comes around [on April 6-10], just get some time off,” said Fults, who is trying to recover from leading the basketball team to the CIF Southern Section Division 3A final and the CIF State Southern California Regional Division III quarterfinals. “It’s definitely hard to transition in from one sport, you know, just the emotional side and everything, and then playing another sport.
“But luckily for me, I have a bunch of guys that are doing the same thing. We all kind of know what we have to do and we have a big goal in mind.”
Fults is one of four Sea Kings who stand out on two courts, in basketball and in volleyball. After the basketball season ended, those four, Fults, Ryan Moss, Matt Ctvrtlik and Sam Kobrine, had two practices in the first eight days with the volleyball team.
On four of those days, CdM played, and the foursome didn’t look like it missed the first month of the volleyball season. Fults, an opposite bound for UC Santa Barbara, played well. He helped the Sea Kings sweep a nonleague match at Laguna Beach last week, and then they won their first five matches at the Orange County Championships on Friday and Saturday to advance to the Division 1 final at Edison High.
The finale is where CdM stumbled for the first time with its four key players back. The result went to Huntington Beach, which swept the best-of-three championship, 25-21, 25-19, on Monday. This time, the Sea Kings weren’t afraid to face the program that has now won a CIF Southern Section record 84 straight matches.
“We know there’s a bunch of good Orange County teams,” Fults said. “We always have our eye on Huntington just because [the Oilers] have been so good the last few years. But we knew we could get to the finals, even with the limited amount of practices. It’s definitely a changed year. I can tell just all of our guys know that we can compete with that team and we can compete for a CIF championship. It’s good to play these guys early in the year, so we can see how we’re doing.”
Fults and the Sea Kings (11-4) have a couple of months to close the gap between them and Huntington Beach (20-0). The CIF Southern Section Division 1 playoffs aren’t until May, and if the two schools meet again, it will be in the postseason.
The team to beat is the Oilers, winners of the last two section titles. They swept CdM for the third time since last season, twice in the OC Championships final and in last year’s Best of the West Gold Division semifinals in San Diego.
Fults is tired of losing to Huntington Beach, which features three top-notch seniors, outside hitter TJ DeFalco, setter Josh Tuaniga and opposite Ben Vaught, who also compete against Fults, Moss and Ctvrtlik in club volleyball. Fults, Moss, a USC-bound senior outside hitter, and Ctvrtlik, a junior setter, play for Balboa Bay Volleyball Club, while DeFalco, Tuaniga and Vaught are with Huntington Beach Club.
“I wouldn’t call it a buddy-buddy,” Fults said of the relationship between the CdM and Huntington Beach players who go up against each other in high school and in club. “I would say our personalities don’t necessarily blend, but they’re a great team and we have respect for them, but at the same time we really want to beat those guys.
“They’re aggressive. They try to incorporate that intimidation factor. It’s kind of worn on us. We’ve played them for so long, it’s just kind of like, ‘Let’s just play volleyball.’ They’re an expressive team. That’s a positive for them and it makes them good. We really don’t have respect for that anymore. Let’s play volleyball. We just want to play.”
Once La Verne Damien knocked CdM out of the state basketball tournament on March 14, Fults was eager to play volleyball. Without Fults, Moss, Ctvrtlik and Kobrine, the volleyball team got off to a slow start. The four missed the Best of the West tournament in which the Sea Kings went 3-3 and placed fifth in the Silver Division.
The Sea Kings returned home, holding their first practice the following Monday. Fults, Moss, Ctvrtlik and Kobrine showed up, and after their first volleyball practice, CdM Coach Steve Conti held the four out of the starting lineup in their first match against Laguna Beach. Fults said he agreed with the move, knowing he and the three others weren’t with the team for the first month.
“I don’t know if there’s any kind of right answer how to do this, when you get guys coming back this late,” Conti said. “We wanted to slowly integrate them back in. [We] had Matt set three rotations in the first set, Moss had three rotations in the first row to get the rust off.”
Fults got his chance in the second set at Laguna Beach, and recorded two of his five kills. His numbers and the play of the two-sport athletes improved the more they saw time, with Fults totaling 25 kills during the three-day OC Championships. In a couple of the matches, he had no errors.
Not bad for Fults, who says he doesn’t have the typical 17-year-old body. It takes him longer to warm up and he gets stiff easily. Once he gets going, Fults, a 6-foot-3 and 195-pounder, is a fierce competitor.
Last season’s five-set loss at Los Angeles Loyola in the semifinals of the CIF Southern Section Division 1 playoffs drives him to make this season special. He still remembers how close the Sea Kings were to moving on to the final. Fults, who shared the Pacific Coast League MVP award in basketball, said that setback hurt more than the basketball team’s 55-47 loss to Beverly Hills in the CIF Southern Section Division 3A championship game at Azusa Pacific University earlier this month.
“Just because how close we were in that fifth set,” said Fults, whose team had match point twice against Loyola, which rallied for a 25-17, 20-25, 18-25, 25-23, 16-14 win. “Last year we really got to see what it takes, five sets playing against a real good team. It’s tough to beat those teams, especially on the road. You’re going to have to go and beat those teams [to reach the section final to play Huntington Beach].
“[Against the Oilers] you can’t have mistakes. You can’t let them get on a run and start scoring points because they’re such a good team. They can make up for some of their mistakes and we really can’t against them. We have to play confident and I think we did in the OC Championships. I think we got to continue to just keep working and everyone’s got to be ready to step up, because to beat that team, we’re going to need everyone on our team to really contribute.”
—
Kevin Fults
Born: April 23, 1997
Hometown: Marin County
Height: 6-foot-3
Weight: 195 pounds
Year: Senior
Coach: Steve Conti
Favorite food: Steak
Favorite movie: “The Shawshank Redemption”
Favorite athletic moment: “Our final game in [Pacific Coast League play in the 2013-14 season at] Northwood, when I got the alley-oop game-winner to beat them, [43-42, to share the league title].”
Week in review: Fults helped the Sea Kings reach the Orange County Championships Division 1 best-of-three final, which Huntington Beach swept, 25-21, 25-19.