CdM may have to share league title

CORONA DEL MAR ? In a match as close as Friday night’s Pacific Coast League showdown pitting the Corona del Mar High boys’ volleyball team against Tesoro, both teams were looking for any slight edge to put them over the top.

The presence of Phil Bannon could have made a difference for the Sea Kings, but the setter’s aunt passed away earlier this week and his teammates had to do without him.

Perhaps the edge the Titans possessed was the prospect of sharing the league championship. For the Sea Kings, a loss would most likely mean sharing the league title, rather than winning it outright.

Regardless, Tesoro pulled out a 16-25, 25-20, 25-20, 18-25, 15-9 victory over the Sea Kings on Friday. As a result, the teams will share the league championship if they both win their final two league matches.

Corona del Mar would still go into the CIF Southern Section Division II playoffs as the first-place team out of the Pacific Coast League based on its earlier sweep of Tesoro, versus the Titans’ five-game victory Friday.

Corona del Mar, ranked No. 2 in CIF Southern Section Division II, would have preferred to get the victory over No. 4-ranked Tesoro and capture the title outright. But as far as high-intensity, five-game losses in matches with league-title implications are concerned, this one was comparatively manageable for the Sea Kings.

“Even though we could be co-champions, we’d go to CIF as the first-place team,” Corona del Mar Coach Steve Conti said. “Of course you want to win, but hopefully this could be a valuable lesson for us. When you’re winning all of your matches, it’s hard for kids to learn from their mistakes.”

Corona del Mar has been winning most of its matches this season ? Friday was its first league loss, dropping the team to 21-5, 9-1 in the Pacific Coast League.

The Sea Kings offense ran smoothly most of the night despite Bannon’s absence. Sam Stafford went the distance at setter for Corona del Mar.

“You’re going to miss your starting setter in a match like this,” Conti said. “But I thought Sam did a good job for us.”

The Sea Kings won the first game handily before dropping the next two by identical 25-20 scores.

Corona del Mar showed it wasn’t going to roll over in the fourth game. Junior Adam Smith had two consecutive kills followed by a block to give the Sea Kings a 10-5 lead. The Titans never pulled closer than five points the rest of the game.

The Sea Kings took their biggest lead of the game at 16-8 on a block by senior Scott Slaughter and led, 18-10 and 19-11, both after kills by Slaughter, who had a team-high 14 kills and also tallied four blocks.

Sophomore Gus Ellis and Smith had 11 kills each for Corona del Mar. Ellis added a match-high seven blocks.

Junior Blaine Nielsen (six kills) closed game four with a kill.

But after a kill by Nielsen to tie the score, 4-4, game five was all Tesoro. The Titans went on an 8-2 run, highlighted by a couple of well-placed tips, a pair of kills by senior James Hammel and a key block by 6-foot-8 junior Paul Spitsen.

Conti called two timeouts during Tesoro’s run, to no avail.

“I was trying to slow down their momentum,” he said.

A block by senior Hardy Wooldridge and kills by seniors Grant Keene and Brett Cossairt closed the game and match for the Titans.

“We did not execute the blocking technique we practice very well tonight and we didn’t get the ball to the right spots on broken plays,” Conti said. “Our effort and energy was very good and so was Tesoro’s ? they just played better.”

Corona del Mar closes the Pacific Coast League season at University on Tuesday and at home against Santa Ana Calvary Chapel on Thursday. The Sea Kings’ regular season finale will be a Battle of the Bay match at Newport Harbor on Friday.

Tesoro will end the regular season with Pacific Coast League matches at home against Laguna Beach and at Northwood.dpt-volley29.IMGGraphicInfoU21QFAV420060429U21QFAV4No Captiondpt.29-vb-tes-cdm-3-CPhotoInfoL41QFAOT20060429iygqphnc(LA)dpt.29-vb-tes-cdm-1-CPhotoInfoL41QFAO020060429iygqmzncPHOTOS BY MARK DUSTIN / DAILY PILOT(LA)Above, Tesoro’s James Hammel, left, tries to hit over the block of Corona del Mar’s Sam Stafford, right, during Friday’s Pacific Coast League match. Below, Corona del Mar’s Blaine Nielsen stretches out to dig a ball.dpt.29-vb-tes-cdm-2-CPhotoInfoL41QFAT720060429iygqoincMARK DUSTIN / DAILY PILOT(LA)Tesoro’s Jeff Zornig, left, tries to block Corona del Mar’s Brad McCoy, right, in the second game of Friday evening’s match.