Boys’ Volleyball: Corona del Mar stuns Loyola

LOS ANGELES — When Corona del Mar High lost for the second time in five days to Loyola last month, Cubs Coach Michael Boehle said it would be hard to beat the Sea Kings for a third time in one season.

He was right.

There won’t be a rematch in the CIF Southern Section Division 1 finals between Loyola and Huntington Beach. The Sea Kings earned a date with powerhouse Huntington Beach after they ended their losing ways to Loyola by turning in their most dominant performance of the season on Wednesday.

No. 3-seeded CdM went on the road and stunned the No. 2 Cubs, 28-26, 25-22, 28-26, to advance to the finale in the premier division for the first time in 15 years.

“This is big,” CdM Coach Steve Conti said of reaching the Division 1 championship. “There [have] been times where I think the teams are just as good in Division 2. What makes this division is just the depth of it.”

The trip to the section championship match marks CdM’s 11th in 20 years under Conti. He has led his teams to the finals in the top four divisions, winning it once in Division 1, three times in Division 2 and once in Division 3.

Winning it again in Division 1 under Conti will be daunting. The Sea Kings (28-6) face Huntington Beach (36-0) at Cerritos College on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. The top-seeded Oilers beat Manhattan Beach Mira Costa in the semifinals, giving them their 100th straight win.

For the chance to end the Oilers’ winning streak, CdM had to get through Loyola, which had owned the Sea Kings the last three times the two schools met. All the setbacks stung, losing in three sets in this year’s Santa Barbara Tournament of Champions’ final on April 18, and four days later, CdM lost in four at Loyola in a nonleague affair.

But the one that hurt the Sea Kings the most was last year’s semifinal at Loyola, where CdM was unable to close out Game 5 at match point twice.

This time around, the Sea Kings finished Loyola (29-2) in three sets to make their first section finals appearance in three years. Ryan Moss sealed the deal for CdM, recording his 14th kill at match point.

“All year we knew this team had the experience. We knew we had the skill. We just needed to play together,” said Moss, who added six digs and two block assists. “Tonight we played together, we played for each other, and it felt great.

“I was just talking to the guys today at school [about how] we’ve had a rough season [losing to Loyola twice], but there was never a moment of doubt. We came in here thinking we were going to sweep.”

The Sea Kings became the second team to down Loyola, each time the Cubs were swept. Huntington Beach beat Loyola in a best-of-three finals match at the Best of the West tournament on March 14, and many believed the two programs would meet for the third straight time in the section championship two months later.

The Sea Kings ruined those plans. Opposite Kevin Fults and setter Matt Ctvrtlik played vital roles to CdM winning at Loyola for the first time under Conti’s watch. Fults recorded 10 kills on 18 attempts, with no errors, and finished with a career-high 14 digs, to go with five block assists, while Ctvrtlik totaled 38 assists, four kills, six digs and one block assist.

It took six trips for Conti to celebrate a win at Loyola. The night before, he believed the semifinal would go the distance again. That’s how close he said CdM and Loyola are when it comes to talent.

The evening began with two long rallies, CdM winning both and Moss played a role. The 6-foot-7 outside hitter bound for USC teamed up with Augie Miller to block Matt Reilly, and then Moss finished the second rally by pounding a kill.

Throughout Game 1, the action went back and forth. The biggest lead belonged to Loyola, which went ahead, 13-9, but CdM responded after calling a timeout. The Sea Kings evened the score at 14-14 after Miller produced consecutive kills.

It seemed like the teams were even for most of the time in Game 1, and they were 13 times. Then CdM created some distance. The Sea Kings took a 23-19 lead on Fults’ service ace, but the Cubs fought back. Loyola staved off set point three times, and after the first two, it almost stole Game 1.

The Cubs went on a 6-1 run to take a 25-24 lead, and then Moss tied it up with his fourth kill in the first set. Game 1 began to resemble last year’s Game 5 in the semifinals in which Loyola rallied to move on to the finals for the fifth time in six years.

Despite CdM struggling to close things out in Game 1, it came through on its fourth set point opportunity. Will Hunter hammered one of his six kills late, and the middle blocker and Fults partnered up to stuff the Cubs to clinch Game 1.

Winning the first set gave the Sea Kings confidence. They had never won Game 1 against Loyola in the previous four times they played, including in the Sea Kings’ previous win against the Cubs, coming in a nonleague contest at home on April 30, 2014.

“What was really important was that we kind of got off to a good start and played with some energy,” said Conti, whose team had lost to Loyola in the semifinals twice since 2010. “Last time in Game 1 up here … we got off [to a] sluggish [start]. What I liked is that this team has shown a tremendous amount of poise. Today I think we found the right balance between poise, intensity and focus.

“This is some of the best volleyball we’ve played all year, and I think we’re going to need to play at this level and probably play a little bit better [to beat Huntington Beach, which swept CdM in the finals of the Orange County Championships on March 23]. I still think we still have room to play a little bit better.”