CdM vs. Beckman, Round 3

One person who called Corona del Mar High the boys’ volleyball team to beat in the postseason was Beckman Coach Darin McBain. He said he believed that on May 6, the day the CIF Southern Section Division 1 playoff pairings came out.

The reason why McBain said he felt the way he did was because on that same day he went to watch the Sea Kings play at rival Newport Harbor in a regular-season finale. What he saw was CdM dominate and sweep the team that earned the No. 3 seed in the postseason earlier that afternoon.

“I told somebody that [CdM was winning it all] … and they thought I was crazy,” said McBain, who attended the Battle of the Bay because his Patriots could possibly face Newport Harbor in the second round, and they did, stunning the Sailors in five sets on May 12. “I was like, ‘The last two matches I’ve seen [the Sea Kings] play I don’t see anybody beating them. I don’t.’”

McBain’s prediction almost came true. The Sea Kings advanced to the finals for the second straight year, going the distance again, before suffering a heartbreaking five-set loss to Los Angeles Loyola at Cerritos College last Saturday.

McBain’s Beckman team has faced both CdM and Loyola this year, losing to the Sea Kings twice in Pacific Coast League play and the Cubs in the semifinals. For a chance at revenge at the Cubs, the Patriots must get through CdM first.

The Sea Kings (28-6) get to play Beckman (33-6) at home for a second time this year. There is a lot more riding on Thursday’s match at 6 p.m., the winner earns a trip to the CIF Southern California Regional Division I finals.

Whoever comes out on top hopes to see top-seeded Loyola on Saturday at Edison High. The Cubs (29-2), who play host to No. 5 Manhattan Beach Mira Costa (26-6) in the other semifinal, have made the finals in each of their previous six appearances in the Division I tournament.

The Sea Kings have enjoyed success this late in the season as well. They have won three SoCal Regional Division II titles since 2011, including the last two years.

For No. 3 CdM and No. 7 Beckman, this is their first time competing in the SoCal Regional Division I playoffs, and they both want one last crack at the Cubs.

“It was a tough loss,” CdM middle blocker Will Hunter said of the setback to Loyola, which has won six of the past seven meetings with the Sea Kings. “We were pretty eager to come back, and hopefully we will see them again Saturday.”

Even though CdM has owned the Pacific Coast League, winning 96 consecutive matches in league since 2006, Coach Steve Conti said his Sea Kings aren’t overlooking Beckman.

“I think some people think the Pacific Coast League is not the strongest volleyball league,” Conti said. “Obviously Beckman is good this year. [The Patriots are] the real deal. I’ve known that. I saw what they had last year and I knew what they had coming back. They pretty much had every single starter coming back this year. I knew they were going to be a real tough team, and I think our players kind of respected them that way because we played very hard against them both times that we played them.”

Both times CdM swept Beckman. The first was a 25-23, 25-23, 25-15 win at home on March 31, and then a 25-17, 25-16, 26-24 win on the road on April 22. McBain hasn’t forgotten about losing to the Sea Kings, who are led by UCLA-bound outside hitter Sam Kobrine and Harvard-bound setter Matt Ctvrtlik.

“After that first one, at their place, we really felt like we gave away the first two games,” said McBain, whose standout player is Spencer Olivier, a junior outside hitter committed to Long Beach State. “We had late leads in both of those games. We walked out of there disappointed, but we were confident. Now the second time we played CdM, [the Sea Kings] didn’t make any errors. They were a different team. If they would’ve played at the same level that they had played the first time around, we would’ve been in that match, but they played a great match.”