CdM has it rough at Mater Dei

SANTA ANA — The previous two matches for Corona del Mar High against Mater Dei this season have been short lived.

Those two matches at the Orange County Championships in March weren’t supposed to go past three games due to the best-of-three format.

The third meeting between these two boys’ volleyball teams lasted three games. Not exactly the way the Sea Kings wanted it to play out Tuesday night.

Mater Dei swept CdM, 25-18, 25-20, 25-22, in the second round of the CIF Southern Section Division I playoffs.

Before playing host to the Sea Kings, Mater Dei Coach Jimmy Munoz brought up something important to his players.

“It’s always hard to beat the team that third time,” Munoz told the Monarchs and they ignored him.

Mater Dei (26-7) made the third match look relatively easy. The Monarchs ruined the Sea Kings’ return to the postseason in Division I.

The top division is more of a challenge than Division II, where the Sea Kings had dominated in recent years. But the Sea Kings made things a lot tougher on themselves.

Serving and returning serves created trouble for CdM (23-9). The Sea Kings’ playoff run cut shorter than in previous years, a semifinal appearance last season after three straight title appearances.

“I think that was the difference,” CdM Coach Steve Conti said. “Our serves, we had some unforced errors. They were able to serve so tough and caused a lot of problems for us.”

Nothing flowed in the first two games for the Sea Kings. Their big hitters found it hard to attack with the kind of fervor they had all season.

For the match, middle blocker Dylan Davis finished with eight kills and outside hitter Weston Nielsen seven. These are the kind of numbers they can easily get in a game, for a match only hurt the Sea Kings’ chances of reaching the quarterfinals.

“They just hustle for every ball,” said Davis, a 6-foot-8 senior bound for UC Santa Barbara.

“They’re passing is just the one thing we didn’t have.”

The Monarchs limited Davis’ opportunities. The Sea Kings did as well.

Three balls against CdM dropped for service aces in the opening game. The Sea Kings totaled six service errors in Game 1. They cut the service errors in half in the following game, but Connor Hughes continued to hammer at the Sea Kings.

Going into the third game, Hughes, bound for UC Irvine, had 11 of his match-high 17 kills. The Monarchs appear like they have a solid chance to claim their first section championship in the program’s history.

“I think we had a shot,” Conti said of winning the school’s fourth section title in the top division. “But you’re going to finish where you deserve to finish. The years that we won championships, we deserved to finish there.”

Corona del Mar’s hope of getting back to the top was short lived.