CdM sweeps San Jacinto

CORONA DEL MAR - Students were still showing up when Corona del Mar

High’s Sea Kings almost had it wrapped up.

Their opponent, San Jacinto, spent four times as long on the Southern

California highways Thursday as it did on the volleyball court.

San Jacinto’s Tigers, the third-place team from the Skyline League,

recorded zero kills and scored no points on its own merit, as host Corona

del Mar won, 15-1, 15-2, 15-2, in 44 minutes, a girls first-round CIF

Southern Section Division III-AA match.

“Everyone on the team works hard in practice, and the best thing that

happened tonight was that everyone got in to play,” said CdM Coach Steve

Conti, whose program won the CIF III-AA championship two years ago and

reached the semifinals last year.

The third-seeded Sea Kings (14-5), Pacific Coast League champions,

will play Rosary in the quarterfinals Saturday, and Rosary will be the

host school.

San Jacinto (8-5), which scheduled a 2 1/2-hour bus trip to the Land

of Volleyball but needed only 1 1/2 hours to arrive, got a lesson in

serving from CdM senior Dimitra Havriluk, who scored 15 unanswered points

from behind the line in the first game.

“We’ve played Chaparral and Rim of the World, so we’re kind of used to

playing good teams, but I don’t think our girls understood what the

volleyball was like down here by the beach,” San Jacinto Coach Dan Quam

said. “This was actually a very good experience for us to come down here

and see the level of play they can aspire to if they want to work hard.”

Unable to snag the serve away from Havriluk in the opening game, San

Jacinto ran into the same problem in the second game, as Havriluk (nine

aces and six kills) lifted the Sea Kings to a 12-0 lead, but a mishandled

ball by CdM provided the Tigers with only their second sideout of the

game.

The Tigers scored their only point in the first game on a return by

Havriluk that was too long. Their points in the second and third games

came on four rotation violations on CdM.

“I didn’t really know what to expect,” Conti said. “In the first

round, you expect the other team to have one or two good players, and we

recognized early who they were and just tried to keep the ball out of

their hands.”

CdM senior Jamie Brownell had three kills and three digs, while Kate

Petry and Katie Duggan each had two kills for the winners. Marissa Becker

contributed nine assists, five digs and one kill. Meghan Gallagher had

one kill for CdM and didn’t appear to ever break a sweat.

In the third game, CdM’s Sara Deming made a solid block at the net

that created a loud pop in an otherwise quiet gym, as CdM jumped out to a

12-1 lead.