CdM sweeps Laguna

CORONA DEL MAR — Corona del Mar High boys’ volleyball coach Steve Conti said his 6-foot-5 senior outside hitter, Joey Booth, is still scratching the surface of his talent level.

But, during Tuesday night’s nonleague win over Laguna Beach, Booth was more interested in pounding the surface on the other side of the net.

He had all three of his blocks in the third game to help finish off the Breakers as the Sea Kings swept, 25-22, 25-16, 25-16, in their first home match of the season.

“As good as he played today, there’s still a really big upside,” Conti said of the USC-bound Booth, who also had seven kills and seven digs. “If we can get that out of him, that’s really going to help this team down the stretch.”

Of course, the season is still young, especially in the case of CdM (4-3).

Some teams have a dozen or so matches under their belts, but the Sea Kings just opened their season last weekend at the Best of the West Invitational in San Diego.

“I probably need to talk to the guy who did the scheduling, which would be me,” Conti joked.

CdM finished eighth, losing to eventual champion Punahou. It was a good learning experience for the young team, ranked No. 6 in the CIF Southern Section Division I coaches’ poll. CdM has just three seniors in Booth, UC Santa Barbara-bound outside hitter Weston Nielsen (a match-high 11 kills Tuesday) and middle blocker John Christian, who Conti said has only been playing volleyball for two years.

Christian had back-to-back service aces in Game 3, and also two blocks. Sophomore outside hitter Parker Brown finished with seven kills and junior middle blocker Spencer Haly had four blocks, including one to end the match.

“That was one of the things we worked on in the tournament, and yeah, it was a good game for blocking,” Booth said. “Spencer was huge in the middle.”

Junior libero Keegan Jakosky chipped in 11 digs and sophomore setter Joe Ctvrtlik had a team-high 15 assists.

Senior Travis Woloson had a match-high nine kills for Laguna Beach (8-3), ranked No. 3 in Division II. Both teams will be in the Orange County Championships this weekend.