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SANTA ANA — Whether they’re taking on a league opponent or a nonleague opponent, the Corona del Mar boys volleyball team plays one of the toughest schedules in the county.
This week, the Sea Kings showed they are up for the challenge.
Led by the hitting of Ben Brown, Hunter Hannemann and Brady Gant, along with some excellent serving as a team, the Sea Kings came away with a victory over a tough Mater Dei squad, 25-19, 26-28, 25-18, 25-22, in a nonleague match Friday at Mater Dei High School.
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Jake Newman (1) of Mater Dei pops the ball over the net against Hunter Hannemann (10) of Corona Del Mar during a boys volleyball match at Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana on Friday, March 14, 2025. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)
The victory for the Sea Kings (9-4), who are ranked No. 6 in Orange County, comes after a sweep of top-ranked Newport Harbor in a key Sunset League match Wednesday.
“Our schedule is loaded with talent,” Sea Kings coach Katey Thompson said. “We don’t have any easy matches. We came out fired up Wednesday. We didn’t quite have that same fire tonight. We had to kind of grind it out. It was an ugly win, but we can learn a lot from an ugly win and that shows a lot about our character.”
All but one set was close and there were multiple ties and lead changes.
The match also came within a few close plays from going to a fifth set when several kills landed just inside the line for the Sea Kings in the fourth set.
“They’re tough,” Mater Dei coach Jake Nuneviller said of his team. “They’re fighters. There’s a couple plays where we tried to score on sets that you could not score on, and it resulted in errors. However, on the flip side of that, our floor defense was better than what it normally is.”
Brown led the Sea Kings with 15 kills and Hannemann and Gant had 11 and 10 kills, respectively.
Jeramiah Potasi and Ben Smith had 22 and 20 kills, respectively, for the Monarchs (8-8), who were playing their first home match of the season.
Mater Dei, ranked No. 8 in Orange County, had defeated No. 3 Beckman in four sets Wednesday.
A middle kill from Dylan Gallagher gave the Monarchs a 7-4 lead in the first set.
From there, the Sea Kings went on a 12-5 run, which included an ace from Brown and from Hannemann and a block from Daniel Booker.
A kill from Booker later in the set gave Corona del Mar a 24-16 lead when the Monarchs scored on three consecutive kills before hitting the ball out of bounds to give the Sea Kings the winning point.
The second set featured 14 ties and was the most competitive set of the match.
Potasi scored the final three points to win the set in overtime and tie the match.
The Sea Kings never trailed in the third set and went on a 6-1 run late in the set to take 15-6 lead, which was too wide of a margin for the Monarchs to overcome.
The fourth set was also close.
The score was tied at 19-19, 20-20 and 21-21. Potasi’s strong-side kill gave the Monarchs a 22-21 lead.
But Corona del Mar scored the next four points, including a final kill from Hannemann, to give the Sea Kings the set and the match.
