Santa Ynez Trips Up Sea Kings

Fourth-seeded Corona del Mar, plagued by unforced errors and a shaky passing game, fell to second-seeded Santa Ynez, 15-9, 15-5, 15-8, in the Southern Section Division IV boys’ volleyball final Saturday at Cypress College.

“It’s a simple equation,” Sea King Coach Steve Conti said. “The team that makes the most mistakes is going to be on the losing side, and that was us.”

The teams battled back and forth in the first game, with Brian Gallagher’s kill tying the score at 7-7 for the Sea Kings. A hitting and passing error by Corona del Mar, a block by J.T. Gilmour and a kill by Jeff Urton gave Santa Ynez (20-4) an 11-7 lead.

The Sea Kings (15-6) pulled to within 11-9 but the Pirates scored the game’s final four points, three coming on Corona del Mar mistakes.

“Unforced errors have been our nemesis all year,” Conti said. “When we’re not passing well, it’s going to be a struggle for us.”

The trend got worse for Corona del Mar in the second game as Santa Ynez cashed in on six errors for an 8-0 advantage en route to a 15-5 win.

When the Sea Kings weren’t hurting themselves, the energetic play of Santa Ynez middle blocker Matt McKinney was doing the damage. McKinney had a match-high 24 kills.

“He’s just a huge offensive force,” Santa Ynez Coach Chip Fenenga said. “He blocks, he hits, he does it all. He’s a rare player.”

The Sea Kings played error-free volleyball in the early part of the third game and took a 3-1 lead, but that didn’t last long. Once again taking advantage of Sea King mistakes, the Pirates took a 9-3 lead with an 8-0 run.

“I thought we got into rotations where we were serving well and they had a little trouble getting the ball to who they wanted to,” Fenenga said. “But I told the guys that full effort is full victory, and they gave me that.”

Gallagher led Corona del Mar with 14 kills, Charlie Alshuler had 11 kills and 10 digs and Evan Burden had 35 assists.