Boys’ Volleyball: Sea Kings sweep Laguna
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Shortly after the Corona del Mar High boys’ volleyball team played for about an hour at Laguna Beach, a man from the home side approached Sea Kings Coach Steve Conti.
“Did you hear me?” the fan asked Conti. “It looks like you have an NBA team. You guys got a good team. I want to see the Newport Harbor game. That’s going to be a good one.”
“They’re good,” Conti responded about the Sailors. “That’s going to be a battle.”
The Battle of the Bay rivalry between the Sea Kings and Sailors is on April 1. That one should be a lot closer than CdM’s contest against another rival on Wednesday.
The Sea Kings’ size and talent overmatched Laguna Beach. They swept the nonleague match, 25-20, 25-17, 25-21.
With Clay Dickinson and Jake Meyer at 6-foot-7, Mitch Haly at 6-6, and Kevin Kobrine and Brandon Browning at 6-4, CdM is an imposing team. Only one team has beaten CdM (7-1), and the setback happened at the Best of the West Invitational in San Diego on Saturday.
The Sea Kings lost in the quarterfinals to eventual champion Punahou, from Honolulu, Hawaii. Fifth place is where the Sea Kings placed in the prestigious two-day tournament, going 5-1.
They’re headed to another major tournament this week, the Orange County Championships, which start Friday. Before the tournament, the Sea Kings, ranked No. 4 in the CIF Southern Section Division 1 poll, got a tuneup.
Kobrine, a junior outside hitter committed to UCLA, led the way with 11 kills and four block assists, and Browning, a junior outside hitter committed to USC, had nine kills, two solo blocks and one block assist.
Haly, a senior middle blocker bound for USC, added six kills and four block assists.
“I thought we were pretty efficient in serve-receive and we passed the ball pretty well today,” Conti said. “I thought we executed our serving game plan pretty well, and they made some adjustments in that third game and kind of changed some things.”
Game 3 was the closest one on the night. Early on, the Sea Kings had to rally back from a four-point deficit.
Patrick Paragas, a setter, helped CdM catch the Breakers (2-2). He finished with 33 assists, two block assists, eight digs, one service ace and two kills. One of those kills came during a 5-2 run, allowing the Sea Kings to even things up at 9-9.
There would be six more ties, until Meyer put CdM ahead for good at 20-19 with a kill. Then Meyer, a senior middle blocker, began blocking shots, part of a 4-0 spurt by the Sea Kings.
Meyer and Kobrine combined to turn away a shot by outside hitter Pete Obradovich (11 kills), and he had a solo block on Sam Burgi (seven kills). The next block on Burgi featured Meyer and sophomore opposite Nick Alacano.
Meyer added his third kill in the third set, putting CdM at match point. Haly finished things with a kill.
The result moved the Sea Kings closer to evening the all-time rivalry with Laguna Beach in best-of-five meetings. The Breakers lead the series, 30-28.
“I wish we’d give them a little more fight,” said Laguna Beach Coach Darren Utterback, whose team is heading to the Goleta Dos Pueblos Invitational at UC Santa Barbara on Saturday. “We seemed really fired up for the match and everything, and then we just made some uncharacteristic errors. That’s due to what’s across the net. They dig the ball well. They set the ball well. They just do a lot of things really well, and they’re deep.”
Twitter: @ByDCP
