CdM, Mesa on road

The two Newport-Mesa area boys’ varsity volleyball teams left standing in the CIF Southern Section playoffs, Corona del Mar and Costa Mesa, lost coin flips on Saturday and will hit the road for their respective CIF semifinal matches.

No. 2-seeded Corona del Mar, which swept San Marcos in the quarterfinals Friday night, will travel to Santa Barbara to take on the Dons in the Division II semifinals on Wednesday. The Sea Kings have not played Santa Barbara yet this season. The Dons, seeded third in Division II, captured the Channel League title this year with a senior-laden squad.

Corona del Mar Coach Steve Conti said although his team will have to overcome a long bus ride, it has played well away from Corona del Mar High.

“We’ve had some success on the road,” Conti said. “We were down, 2-0, in Newport Harbor’s gym and came back. But I hope we don’t put ourselves in that boat again. We’ll have to be mentally tough.”

Santa Barbara earned a first-round bye in the playoffs before sweeping San Luis Obispo in the second round and Arcadia in the quarterfinals.

Corona del Mar had a first-round bye before sweeping Yucaipa in the second round and San Marcos in the quarterfinals.

The winner of the Corona del Mar-Santa Barbara match will take on the Tesoro-Valencia winner in the championship match at Cypress College on Saturday. Last year, Corona del Mar defeated Valencia in the Division II championship match.

Golden West League champion Costa Mesa, seeded second in Division III, will play at No. 4-seed Orange Lutheran in the semifinals on Wednesday. Costa Mesa is no stranger to competing on the road after taking on Los Altos in Hacienda Heights on Wednesday.

“That was a tough one, they had a rowdy crowd,” Costa Mesa Coach Chris Komer said. “But we had a good turnout, too, which helped.”

Costa Mesa took four games to beat Loara in the first round and Los Altos on the road in the quarterfinals. In between, the Mustangs swept Warren in the second round.

Orange Lutheran swept Ocean View (fourth place, Golden West League) in the first round, Sierra Vista in the second round and San Gabriel in the quarterfinals.

The winner of the Costa Mesa-Orange Lutheran match will take on the Santa Monica-Downey winner in the Division III finals Saturday at Cypress College. Santa Monica is the No. 1 seed, while Downey was ranked No. 5 in the final regular season poll.