Boys’ Volleyball: CdM sweeps to final
Before the Corona del Mar High boys’ volleyball team attempted to go on another title run in the postseason, it took the first day of this school week off.
The Sea Kings held no practice on Monday, and Coach Steve Conti had a bona fide reason why. He wanted to give his team the day off after CdM went the distance with Huntington Beach, before the Oilers won the CIF Southern Section Division 1 crown, 22-25, 25-14, 25-22, 26-28, 15-8, on Saturday.
“I just felt like that it would’ve done more harm than good for us to practice, just emotionally,” Conti said. “I was just trying to be smart about it. I don’t think I would’ve got much out of them. It would’ve been counterproductive.”
The time away from volleyball allowed the Sea Kings to decompress and move on from the five-set loss to Huntington Beach. They’re now going to return to the same site of their setback to the Oilers.
The Sea Kings won’t see the Oilers again, but they will get to defend their CIF Southern California Regional Division II title at Cerritos College. Top-seeded CdM easily advanced to the championship with a 25-15, 25-17, 25-20 win against No. 5 Fresno Clovis North at home on Thursday.
The sweep marked CdM’s second in as many matches in the SoCal Regional. While CdM (30-7) has so far breezed in the tournament, it expects a challenge in the finale against No. 2 Oak Park (35-5) on Saturday at 5 p.m.
“They’re a team that [in the regular season] beat Newbury Park, which was the [No. 4 seed] in [the CIF Southern Section Division 1 playoffs],” Conti said of the Eagles.
“I thought we played well tonight, but we didn’t play with the same kind of emotion that we played pretty much throughout the playoffs, [especially] since the [section] quarterfinals. Not only have we been really, really efficient, but we played with a certain level of energy [that] has allowed us to elevate our game to another notch. I think when we get back in that environment [at Cerritos College] I’m hoping [we can turn it on].”
Matt Ctvrtlik said it’s important for CdM to close out the season as champions again. Ctvrtlik will be the third member of his family to face Oak Park in the playoffs, his two brothers, Erik and Josef, lost to Oak Park in the CIF Southern Section Division 2 finals three years ago, ruining CdM’s back-to-back section title run.
The win against CdM gave Oak Park its first section title in the program’s history, and it now has two championships, having claimed Division 2 last week. Oak Park swept No. 3 El Segundo, 25-18, 25-19, 25-16, on Thursday to advance to the SoCal Regional finals for the second time since 2012.
The Sea Kings are making their third SoCal Regional finals appearance under Conti after Ctvrtlik spread the ball around, collecting 36 assists against Clovis North (32-12). The CIF Central Section Division I runner-up had trouble stopping senior Ryan Moss, who finished with 14 kills on 18 attempts, enabling him to hit a staggering .778. The future USC outside hitter added six digs, two blocks and two service aces.
The first set began in CdM’s favor right away, as the host school scored seven of the first eight points. Augie Miller opened things up with a kill, and the next two points Will Hunter produced, first off a block and then a kill. After Clovis North got on the scoreboard, Ctvrtlik recorded the first of his three aces.
With CdM jumping out to a big lead, it could afford to set up its setter, Ctvrtlik, for a shot. The junior’s ball went wide, and Ctvrtlik returned to getting Hunter (six kills, five block assists), Miller (four kills, one ace), Kevin Fults (five kills, five digs) and Sam Kobrine (nine kills, three digs) involved in the offense. Kobrine and Miller had three kills apiece in Game 1, which Miller clinched with a winner.
The fast starts continued in the next two sets for CdM, which has swept six of its seven opponents in the playoffs. The one team the Sea Kings failed to sweep or beat is Huntington Beach. They would love another shot at Huntington Beach, but the Oilers are in the SoCal Regional Division I finals for the third straight year after they extended their winning streak to 103 matches.
“I’m not going to say that it doesn’t mean as much because it does,” Ctvrtlik said of returning to the SoCal Regional Division II finals. “Playing the best competition around makes you better. I think we were one of the top teams in Southern California, and I think that it’s a bummer [that we’re not in Division I because of the size of our school]. I wish that we got to play the Division I teams, but we got to deal with [what] we have.”