Four years ago, said Kevin Welch, his senior year. It sure has been a long time.
As Conti walked off the court, he felt bad after the defending league champions won after Beckman was called for an illegal alignment on match point.
“It’s kind of a shame to see a match end in that way,” Conti said. “Stuff like that happens.”
Rules are rules and Beckman Coach Darin McBain agrees. And that the Sea Kings rule league, the first-year coach doesn’t doubt it for a minute.
CdM (14-5), ranked No. 9 in the CIF Southern Section Division I coaches’ poll, looks robust, getting better as the season ages.
Conti said the past couple of practices, coming during the end of spring break, have turned out to be some of the best this season. The time off from real matches appears to have benefited the Sea Kings. They’re well rested, deep, more so than in any of Conti’s 14 years at CdM.
Seventeen players contribute. The Patriots, which came into the match undefeated in league, played almost three versions of CdM. Conti said the Sea Kings have featured about a dozen different lineups.
All can play at any time. You have your big hitters in Weston Nielsen (11 kills) and UC Santa Barbara-bound senior Dylan Davis (nine kills), the distributors in Connor Bannan and Michael Ensign, who contributed to many of those blasts by Nielsen and Davis.
In the first two games Tuesday, the Patriots (16-7, 1-1 in league) saw a variety of looks. They fell behind each time.
Somehow Beckman put up a fight in Game 3. At one point, they led by as many as six points. Beckman had game point, up 24-22, until its next three shots went into the net, wide, and out of play, in that order.
At the end, one player removed himself out from the court and it hurt Beckman.
