CdM boys’ volleyball sweeps Loyola in final playoff tune-up

After playing five matches against each other in the past two high school seasons, maybe the Corona del Mar and Los Angeles Loyola boys’ volleyball teams have no secrets left to keep from each other.

Perhaps that is why the teams did not mind facing each other on Thursday, the eve of the release of the CIF Southern Section playoff brackets. The programs have met in the Division 1 championship match in each of the last two years.

Rather than playing a game of deception, the No. 3-ranked Sea Kings saw the match as an opportunity to fine tune their performance ahead of what they hope will be another deep playoff run.

CdM did just that, proving remarkably efficient whilst on the attack in dismantling the No. 2 Cubs.

Senior middle blockers Tyler Flood and Brandon Hicks each had nine kills, as the host Sea Kings came away with a 25-19, 25-21, 25-17 victory in Thursday’s nonleague match.

Flood, a New York University signee, produced a .643 hitting percentage with two blocks. He said that beating the Cubs (21-2) meant a lot to him since he had to watch last year’s defeat in the CIF State Southern California Regional Division I final from the bench.

“I didn’t get to play in the matches last year, so I kind of took it personally when we lost,” Flood said. “[I was doing] anything that I could do to help my team, whether that was hitting, blocking, or just drawing the other middle.

“I just swung at every ball and tried to do my best.”

Sea Kings coach Steve Conti saw the aggression of Flood from the get-go. He said that Flood has taken advantage of his playing time after waiting his turn on a very deep roster.

“That’s what I expected of him,” Conti said. “He should be hungry to go out there and play. There would be some years in my 23 years where Tyler would have started at a younger age.

“In that time, we had a lot of good middles in our program, so he kind of had to wait his turn.”

The convincing victory over Loyola will have no bearing on the playoff bracket, as the CIF seeding meeting was held on Thursday.

Conti said it was not unusual for his team to play a marquee match that had no impact on playoff seeds, saying that the Battle of the Bay used to be played on the Friday prior to the playoffs.

Against the Cubs, the Sea Kings (26-4) stayed in system throughout. Sophomore setter Jaden Glenn finished with 32 assists.

A key to CdM’s success was its ability to avoid Cubs liberos Luke Grafton (Pepperdine) and Ryan Pecsok (UC Santa Barbara).

“They’re great serve receive passers, so we kept the ball away from them a lot,” Glenn said. “When we were hitting the ball, we decided to go to the middle or the right back to keep away from them. That worked really well for us.”

UCLA-bound opposite Kevin Kobrine had a match-high 10 kills for the Sea Kings. He added three service aces and two blocks.

Junior outside hitter Adam Flood, a USC commit, provided five kills, two aces and 1½ blocks.

The Sea Kings have an embarrassment of riches in terms of talent and experience. Hicks, a UC Santa Barbara commit, believes that his team is the one to beat when they play together.

“Not a lot of teams have a lot of great individuals like we do,” he said. “I think we have a really talented group, a really gifted team, and at the end of the day, it’s the best team and who plays the best as a team together.

“That’s why when we go to CIF, if we play together as a team, I think we’re unstoppable, whoever we match up against.”

andrew.turner@latimes.com

Twitter: @ProfessorTurner