CdM alive after five

GOLETA — Outside hitter Jeff Carlson has played almost every position on Corona del Mar’s volleyball team and Wednesday night, against Dos Pueblos, the dividends for the Sea Kings’ version of Everyman were big.

Carlson had 15 kills and added six digs in CdM’s thrilling 26-24, 21-25, 24-26, 25-23, 15-11 over Dos Pueblos in the CIF Southern Section Division II semifinals.

The top-seeded Sea Kings will face No. 2-seeded Santa Barbara for the championship Saturday at 5 p.m. at Cerritos College. Santa Barbara defeated visiting Valencia, 22-25, 25-17, 25-23, 25-16, on Wednesday night.

“Jeff’s a fantastic volleyball player, and sometimes I think I have more confidence in him than he has in himself,” said CdM Coach Steve Conti, whose team earned its third straight trip to the CIF title match. “As an all-around volleyball player, even as a sophomore, he was as skilled as anybody.”

Last season, Carlson played outside hitter, opposite, libero, and setter.

On Wednesday, Carlson kept his cool, still adding points as the Sea Kings fell behind, 1-2 in games, and struggled to find a rhythm.

It’s a situation the Sea Kings (32-2) aren’t used to. The last time a match they played a match that went to five games was in April against Harvard-Westlake in the Santa Barbara tournament.

The Sea Kings were uncharacteristically slowed by unforced errors and sideouts, but finally settled in the fourth game when they regained their confidence.

“I thought we got a little rattled,” Conti said. “The excitement about high school sports, fans screaming for their friends, may have rattled us a little bit. Not much, but a little bit to kind of throw us out of sync at times.”

Middle blocker Gus Ellis, the team’s tallest player, got off to a slow start, and the frustration lined his face in the early games when his block attempts weren’t falling. Ellis finished with 17 kills, and just two blocks, and he finally grinned when he put down a forceful kill in Game 4 to give the Sea Kings a 14-11 lead.

“I think we came in here, and we just looked into the crowd, and we were thinking, ‘wow this is pretty big. Wow, this is massive,’ ” Ellis said. “The people just did not stop coming into the gym. The crowd just got bigger and bigger. I think we were a little shaken, because even in our own gym, we don’t have that many fans coming in. We were a little intimidated, and felt like no one was on our side.”

The Chargers remained fairly even with the Sea Kings in Game 1, and Corona del Mar pulled away when Carlson shot down a kill to make it 25-24, and Phil Bannan had an easy lob for the game-winning point. Dos Pueblos pulled ahead in Game 2, going on an 8-3 run to seal the win, and rode the momentum to a win in Game 3.

By the fourth game, however, something changed, and the Sea Kings stopped looking like they were playing in a desperation match. Blaine Nielsen finished with 13 kills and nine digs.

“We really settled down in Game 4, and we were able to control the ball a lot better,” Conti said. “We were more consistent with our offense. I think, maybe in the beginning we were too fired up, and we were just going too hard. Hopefully, by Game 4, some of that adrenaline wore off.”

But after the match Conti was happy about two things: CdM will play for the CIF title on a neutral court, and they won’t have to see Dos Pueblos libero Derek Martinez any more. Conti pulled Martinez aside after the match to compliment him.

“That kid was all over the court,” he said. “A match like this really prepares us for the finals,” Conti said. “We hadn’t really been pushed in the playoffs until this match.”

SORAYA NADIA McDONALD may be reached at (714) 966-4613 or [email protected].