Sea Kings sweep past Mustangs to advance

CORONA DEL MAR — Even though Walnut High trotted into the Corona del Mar gym with a modest 14-11 record the Sea Kings girls’ volleyball team was going to treat it as a competitive equal.

With almost a week to chew on a four-game loss to Back Bay rival Newport Harbor in the regular-season finale, the Sailors were intent on making a change for the playoffs. The frayed nerves would be replaced with a focused intensity on each opponent lined up in front of them.

Walnut was the first in line and the Mustangs were dispensed with a 25-17, 25-16, 25-12 CdM win in the first round of the CIF Southern Section Division II-AA playoffs Thursday. The Sea Kings will now face the winner of Bishop Montgomery and Estancia in a quarterfinal at a site to be determined.

After the match, 6-foot-2 senior outside hitter Juliane Piggott, who has committed to UCLA, had her knee wrapped with ice. Piggott missed three weeks with a knee injury before coming back for the second-to-last match of the season.

Piggott said she is only at 80%, her jumping ability being limited the most, but led the team with 19 kills and seven digs without making a hitting error.

“I’m doing a lot better,” Piggott said. “There is some pain but I’ll deal with it. We came out really confident. We just wanted to prove we could come back from the Harbor match.”

Piggott said that she should be able to work herself back to 100% through the playoffs.

With a first round bye creating six days between matches, the Sea Kings took a little time to round back into form.

“By the second and third game we got going,” said senior outside hitter and setter Kelly Christian, who had 14 assists and eight kills. “We worked on coming back and getting focused. We worked really hard in practice this week. Every practice is the same though, you want it to be hard.”

The Sea Kings were rarely threatened throughout the match. The latest lead Walnut held in the match was 3-2 in the second game, but then four kills from Piggott helped the Sea Kings to a 6-1 run.

Four Sea Kings seniors, Piggott, Christian, outside hitter Shannon Johnson and middle blocker Kasey Kipp, were a part of the last Corona del Mar team that participated in the playoffs. That 2004 team won a Division III section title, but the following year missed the playoffs.

Kipp, who had two blocks, said the Sea Kings learned from that lost season that every team needs in order to be taken seriously.

“We can’t think that they’re lower than us,” Kipp said. “We wanted to finish it in three. We can play better. We can make it all the way. We always have to be fired up and ready to play.”

Johnson had seven digs for the Sea Kings while 6-4 sophomore middle blocker Conley Kipp had three blocks.

Walnut came its closest in the first game when the Mustangs cut the score to 15-12. But Kasey Kipp responded with a kill off a quick set and then teamed up with Piggott for a block and the Sea Kings lead was padded and never to be tested again.

The Mustangs cut the Sea Kings’ lead in the second game to 9-7. But Kasey Kipp smashed a kill into the ground and then blocked a spike with Christian.