Top-Ranked Huntington Beach Storms Past Corona del Mar

It didn’t matter to Corona del Mar boys’ volleyball Coach Steve Conti that Huntington Beach is the top-ranked team in the county.

After Huntington Beach made short work of No. 4 Corona del Mar, 15-5, 15-6, 15-11, Tuesday at Huntington Beach, Conti had one word to summarize the Sea Kings’ performance:

“Heartless,” he said.

Corona del Mar made a good run in the Orange County tournament last weekend, advancing to the semifinals, where it lost to eventual champion Huntington Beach.

Tuesday night, however, Corona del Mar was startled by Huntington Beach hitters Dave McKienzie and Caleb Guimaraes and never recovered.

“We had an opportunity to go out and . . . try to earn a little bit of respect, but we didn’t go out and play with any pride,” Conti said.

Leading, 6-5, in the first game, Huntington Beach went on a 10-0 run to win the game and never looked back. McKienzie had eight kills in the first two games for the Oilers, 5-0 overall, before Coach Rocky Ciarelli substituted for his reserves midway through the second game.

Ciarelli got good performances from his bench players; Josh Hickman had seven kills and Scott Cincotta had six.

“I think every year what makes us better is we have a lot of good players--it’s not just the starters--so our practices are pretty competitive,” Ciarelli said.

Blair Hoppe led Corona del Mar (3-1) with 10 kills.