Girls’ Volleyball: CdM swept on road
RANCHO SANTA MARGARITA — Corona del Mar High girls’ volleyball coach Steve Astor characterized his team’s season as a bit up and down.
On Thursday night, the Sea Kings visited a team whose arrow has been steadily rising all season. CdM had a tough task in the second round of the CIF Southern Section Division 1 playoffs, playing at top-seeded Santa Margarita, a team that hasn’t lost a match in six weeks.
The Sea Kings were up to the challenge, but it was the Eagles who claimed a 25-23, 25-8, 25-23 sweep to end CdM’s season.
Stanford-bound senior outside hitter Meghan McClure had a match-high 18 kills for Santa Margarita (29-4). Junior setter and UC Berkeley commit Devon Chang had 43 assists for the Eagles, who are ranked No. 6 nationally by Maxpreps.com and will play Great Oak in the Division 1 quarterfinals on Saturday.
Corona del Mar (19-11) was led by sophomore tri-captain Kendall Kipp and her 14 kills. Kipp appeared ready to lead the Sea Kings to an upset in the opening set. CdM recorded its first six points on five kills and a service ace by Kipp, and jumped out to an 8-3 lead. Astor liked what he saw.
“We knew the key to beating that team was getting good starts,” Astor said. “They’re a much different team when they’re ahead versus when they’re down. I thought that going in, but it was pretty obvious in the match. When they’re ahead, they’re in their system, they’re in their rhythm, they’re setting everybody, they’re digging the ball and everything’s good. When they’re behind, they play a little different. That was to our credit in games one and three; I thought we did a good job of keeping them off the net with our serves.
“When that team’s on the net, they’re the No. 1 seed in CIF. When they’re off the net, we’ve got a chance to beat them.”
Santa Margarita Coach Katy Daly did not call timeout after CdM’s fast start. Instead, she let her team keep playing. The Eagles had tied the score by 14-14, on a kill by junior opposite Sarah Ciszek (eight kills).
CdM fell behind 24-20 on a service error, giving Santa Margarita its first set point. CdM won three straight points, two of those coming on kills by junior Ashley Humphreys, who finished with seven. But, at 24-23, a block by Santa Margarita’s Haley Carmo gave her team the opening set.
“A few plays here or there we make, it’s a different match, especially if we steal set one,” Astor said. “That would change the match entirely. You’ve just got to steal one more set, then you go to a game to 15, which is a coin flip half the time.”
CdM quickly fell behind in set two, but refused to go quietly. The Sea Kings, infused by the back-row play of senior Brooke Cuthbertson and the offense of Christina Davenport, led for much of set three.
The score was tied at 23-23 when Daly called her first timeout. Then, she saw her team make plays to end it. First it was Kelley Small recording a kill off the block, then a long point ended on a CdM error.
Davenport had eight kils and Cuthbertson tallied four kills for CdM, which was led by Joanne Won with 12 digs while fellow senior libero Sophie Ganion added six. Senior tri-captain Alexa Bonanno had 16 assists for CdM, and Humphreys, the other tri-captain, added 15.
Astor said he was happy with his team’s progress, noting it had big shoes to fill after graduating a senior class with standouts like Jessie Harris, Natalia Bruening and Payton Carter. The future appears bright with players like Kipp and Humphreys returning next year. Kipp, who’s 6-foot-4, played outside hitter and middle blocker this season before finishing it at opposite hitter.
“They sent two blockers at Kendall all night, and she was still putting balls away at a pretty high clip,” Astor said. “And, in a position that she’s only been playing for [a couple of weeks]. She’s got a lot of potential, that’s for sure. It’s a pretty tough switch to go from the middle to the pin, and I thought she handled it really well as a person, first and foremost.”
Cuthbertson, a three-year varsity player, mostly sat on the bench for the first two of those seasons. She followed a path that was similar to her sister Carli, who graduated last year.
But, Brooke said she was happy with the way her senior year ended.
“We fought hard at the end, and SM is just really good,” Brooke Cuthbertson said. “There was only so much we could do, but I think we played really hard this season and I’m very proud of us. I’m happy we actually came back in the third game and it was so tight. I really wish we would have won that. We were so close.”
