Sea Kings swept away by Wildcats

CYPRESS — A two-game deficit didn’t seem so much like an incredible challenge to overcome for the Corona del Mar High girls’ volleyball team just this past Tuesday.

But this was Saturday at Cypress College against top-seeded Redlands East Valley. This time the hole proved too deep to climb out of, as the Wildcats captured its second straight CIF Southern Section Division II-AA title with a 25-16, 25-20, 25-14 victory.

The Sea Kings (21-8) appeared as if they could make a match of it, late in the second game. They trailed, 18-17, before the Wildcats (24-1) scored five straight points to regain control. Redlands East Valley jumped out to a 7-2 lead in third game, showing that the match and the CIF championship plaque belonged at its school.

“I knew they were going to be good,” CdM first-year coach Darryl Gan said of the Wildcats. “They’re filled with a bunch of club players that play hard. Offensively they were really, really good. They passed well, served us tough and put us in positions where we had to struggle a bit on our serve-receive. Against a team like that you need to block well. If you don’t block well against a team like that you’re going to get in trouble.”

Krista Vansant, a 6-foot-2 sophomore, and 6-4 senior Victoria Brummett certainly made the match tough for the Sea Kings. Vansant recorded a match-high 11 kills and Brummett added nine kills and five blocks.

“We could’ve done maybe a couple things better, but that is a good team on that side,” Gan said. “I don’t think there is really one thing that we could’ve done that would’ve changed the whole match.”

During moments of the match, Redlands East Valley dominated CdM at the net. That’s a reason why the Wildcats built big leads when it appeared a game was tight.

“At times we dominated,” said Redlands East Valley Coach Trish Vansant, Krista’s mother. “But I don’t think we felt we were ever in complete control.”

Coach Vansant said her team entered the match confident about its play, but not because of its opponent.

“We weren’t confident because of [CdM’s] history and tradition,” she said.