Sea Kings’ bad day untimely in title match

CYPRESS — Corona del Mar High girls’ volleyball coach Bill Christiansen said it was the best match he’d seen Laguna Beach play all season.

For the Sea Kings, it was probably one of the worst.

Those two factors weren’t likely to add up in Corona del Mar’s favor on Saturday in the CIF Southern Section Division II-AA championship match at Cypress College.

Laguna Beach, the No. 2 seed, swept its former league rival, top-seeded CdM, 25-21, 25-17, 25-12. The Sea Kings must now regroup for the CIF state tournament, which begins Tuesday. Seedings and parings will be announced today.

Corona del Mar came in confident against a Laguna Beach team with which it had split two regular-season meetings. But the Breakers upped the ante when it counted.

“They played at an A-plus level, and we had severe passing and serving problems from everybody,” Christiansen said. “There was no way that they’d beat us by those scores if we have just a regular passing day.”

The bad passes, combined with often-errant serving, proved problematic for the Sea Kings (22-8), who were up 9-7 in the opening game after Shannon Johnson’s service ace and Kara Chatham’s kill.

But the Breakers (26-5) went on an 8-2 run to go up 15-11, capped by a CdM double-hit and a Laguna Beach kill into an open corner.

“They were definitely on fire,” said CdM senior Kelly Christian, who had eight kills and a co-team high 10 digs. “They put the ball away, got the balls up and didn’t miss too many serves. They basically just outplayed us.”

The Sea Kings battled back, tying the score at 20-all on a tipped kill by Chatham. But the Breakers won the next five points to take the game.

It didn’t get easier in the second game, where the only lead that CdM had was at 1-0. Up, 7-6, the Breakers went on a 7-1 run which featured three kills by Zoe Garrett, who had a match-high 16 kills.

Most of those kills came on perfect sets from Breakers sophomore Alexandra Palmer, who had 25 assists.

“She’s flat-out their best player,” Christiansen said. “She should be their MVP and CIF Player of the Tear. She’s that good. She sets perfect locations.”

Down, 23-12, Corona del Mar went on a 5-0 run but couldn’t get any closer.

“It was hard,” said CdM senior Kasey Kipp, who had two solo blocks. “We’d get down, and then we’d get fired up and we would come back. But we needed to be fired up in the beginning, so we didn’t get down in the first place.”

Laguna Beach kept its momentum in the third game. Up, 4-2, the Breakers went on a 5-0 run to force a CdM timeout. Out of the timeout, the Breakers won four of the next five points — two on kills by Garrett — to go up, 13-3, and cause another Sea Kings timeout.

“We were playing a lot more consistently than they were coming into this match,” said senior Juliane Piggott of the Sea Kings, who hadn’t lost a game in three previous playoff matches.

Laguna Beach, meanwhile, had barely won a five-game semifinal thriller over St. Lucy’s of Glendora.

“We thought that would play to our advantage,” said Piggott, who recorded a team-high 13 kills. “But we didn’t play with that much excitement or confidence today.”

The Sea Kings couldn’t get closer than nine points the rest of the game, Laguna Beach finishing off the match on an illegal lift call on Corona del Mar.

Freshman Madison Smith had 10 digs for CdM, and junior setter Jamie Lawson added 16 assists.

The Sea Kings now must shake off the loss and prepare for the state tournament, which will begin for CdM on Tuesday with a road match.

Corona del Mar was a Southern California regional semifinalist in 2004 before missing the CIF playoffs altogether last year.

“Just getting to the CIF finals was a good accomplishment for us, especially with what happened last year,” Kipp said. “But we just have to come back stronger in state.”

Christiansen said he remained confident in CdM’s chances, but acknowledged that it must play much better at the state level.

“Today was a bad time to have a bad day,” he said. “I’m very sad for our seniors, but at the same time, they’ll have a gut-check and decide what they want to do on Tuesday. The key is just for us to play the way we normally play, and we’re competitive with any of the top four teams in Southern California.”