Fast start keys CdM triumph

Rick Devereux

Steve Watson and the rest of the “Monster House” crew should

seriously consider having Corona del Mar High boys volleyball coach

Steve Conti on the show, because no one can rebuild faster or better

than he can considering what the Sea Kings have done this season

after losing eight players to graduation last year.

Last year CdM was ousted in the quarterfinals by Arcadia. At home

against San Luis Obispo Friday night, the Sea Kings avenged that loss

with a 25-10, 25-18, 22-25, 25-23 victory in the CIF Southern Section

Division II playoffs to move on to the semifinals.

“I think there are a lot of teams out there that didn’t think we’d

win league this year and didn’t think we’d get this far this year

because we lost so many good seniors last year,” Conti said. “This is

real special for these guys to get where they are. They really had to

fight to get here.”

The Sea Kings (22-10), who play top-ranked Valencia Wednesday at a

site to be determined, exploded out of the gate in the first game,

taking a quick 5-1 lead. The Tigers (17-2) were not able to string

together back-to-back points the entire game, while Corona del Mar

put together three separate runs of five points.

“As a team, collectively we do good when we start well,” outside

hitter Tom Welch said. “If we get off to a 5-0 start, it’s hard to

get back to us because we pass so well and we’re able to sideout so

well.”

The Sea Kings jumped out to an 8-3 lead in the second game, but

SLO fought back due to the play of their middle blocker, Jon

Wintermeyer. The 6-6 senior started swinging with more purpose and

began to disrupt the CdM offense. But when Tom and his brother Kevin

Welch started getting more and more attention, Dominic Rubino would

set inside or dump the ball himself.

“A lot of the time their middle would cheat over because they knew

Tom and Kevin hit well, so when I started setting the middle he had

to stay, which Tom and Kevin open on the outside,” Rubino said.

Kevin had 18 kills and Tom finished with 15 for the night while

Rubino dished out 44 assists.

The adrenaline of the first two games ran off by the start of the

third game with SLO taking a 5-0 and 8-2 lead.

“We played so well that first game, sometimes there’s nowhere to

go from there to bring it up to another notch,” Conti said. “You

could kind of see it dropping off as that second game was winding

down and we got off to a real slow start in that third game.”

Corona had a slow start in the fourth game, but a dump by Rubino

followed by an ace gave the Sea Kings a lead too big for the SLO to

overcome.

As for the rebuilding, Conti said there is more to a team than

experience.

“I think because of our athleticism and because of our heart,

that’s why we’re here right now,” he said.