Corona del Mar boys volleyball fends off challenge from Mater Dei to win in four sets

• March 15, 2025

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.

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.

RELATED: San Clemente defeats Beckman in their first South Coast League showdown

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.

After tough loss, Los Alamitos boys volleyball bounces back with win over Fountain Valley

Sunny Hills boys volleyball sweeps El Dorado to stay unbeaten in Crestview League

​ Orange County Register 

Ducks edge Predators to gain ground in wild-card chase

• March 15, 2025

ANAHEIM — It might not have been a work of art, but two vital points went into the standings rather than any museum, as the Ducks defeated the Nashville Predators, 2-1, on Friday night at Honda Center.

They moved to within six points of a wild-card playoff berth with the victory, while the Predators, now playing primarily for pride, were unable to extend their four-game winning streak.

Alex Killorn and Troy Terry scored for the Ducks. Lukáš Dostál held the hosts in a battle that saw them out-shot nearly two to one, with that proportion being even more lopsided at points in the third period, by halting 28 pucks.

Jakub Vrana scored Nashville’s only goal, and Juuse Saros had 13 saves.

“It’s a huge win because the boys really pulled together,” Dostál said. “Nashville had a push there. They’re an experienced team. They have veteran guys, but I think we held our ground. It’s important for the win and for the growth [of the team].”

A stalemate persisted for much of the evening, with transparent turning points late in the second period and in the middle of the third.

With 8:40 to play, Killorn’s 15th goal of the season came after Trevor Zegras threw an area pass into the slot, where Killorn criss-crossed with Drew Helleson, swooping on the puck and skating across the crease for the game-deciding goal, and a bit of redemption.

Leo Carlsson added a secondary assist on the goal, bringing his and Zegras’ scoring streaks to four games apiece.

“I thought Leo and Z got better in the third period, and they got rewarded with (Killorn’s) goal there,” Ducks coach Greg Cronin said.

The Ducks had been in a tie game after Killorn’s interference penalty gave Nashville a power play. Early on, Dostál made a resplendent save, once again managing to reach out and knock down a puck that was labeled to one post as he slid toward the other.

“I can’t not mention Dostál, he was unbelievable,” Terry said.

On that same power play, however, Nashville regrouped to knot up the contest at the 4:25 mark behind Vrana’s hard one-timer from inside the blue line, which hit Dostál but squibbled through him.

The Ducks spent another 2:50 shorthanded, including 1:10 with a two-man disadvantage, escaping unscathed and propelling them to Killorn’s late, tie-breaking goal.

“The five-on-three that we had to kill was either going to make or break us,” Cronin said. “It was a trigger to get us to play a little bit more on our toes. There was more energy on the bench and in the building after that.”

For almost 36 minutes of the match, there was no score and few events to speak of, but a short spurt late in the middle frame enlivened the action and left the Ducks up 1-0 at the second intermission.

Terry had been dangerous for much of the night, weaving to the net for chances of his own and creating for others, before he scored at the 15:52 mark of the second period. A minute later, all hell broke loose in the Ducks’ crease as they scrambled frantically to prevent a tying goal.

Mason McTavish and Terry applied forecheck pressure, with Vatrano recovering the puck and sliding it across to Terry at the left faceoff dot, where he launched a missile that found its target under the bar to the far side. It was Terry’s 18th goal of the season and second since Jan. 29, but it reminded the world how he was able to score 37 times in 2021-22.

“It felt good. I haven’t been short on chances,” Terry said. “When Frank got it, I knew their (defenseman) had broken his stick, so I just tried to get over to that weak side. I knew (Ryan Strome) was going to the back post, and once I saw the D slide, I tried to get it off before (the shot was blocked).”

The Predators nearly clawed that goal right back, but Jackson LaCombe was on his toes and Radko Gudas was on his back, his belly and whatever else had to touch the ice to keep the puck from reaching Dostál, who also made a save during the sequence and then nearly slid the puck into his own net.

“It was a lot of fuss, but I think the guys blocked every single one of them, so they helped me out pretty much there,” Dostál said.

Twenty minutes came and went without a goal, with the Ducks failing to capitalize on a pair of power-play opportunities. LaCombe showed off his skating on a breakout that saw him elude three Predators by himself, as well as his deception when he looked off a penalty killer to set up a one-timer for McTavish in the right circle. Dostál helped keep the period scoreles with a cat-like glove save on Michael Bunting.

“It was a strange game. There was not a lot of energy. There wasn’t a lot of ice. It was kind of a tight-checking game,” Cronin said. “They were throwing pucks out and we were trying to gap up, and it seemed to be a little of a tennis match in the first period. There was just no rhythm to it.”

The Ducks will take to the skies for a three-game journey that will open against Cam Fowler and the St. Louis Blues, before heading to Dallas and concluding against these same Predators.

​ Orange County Register 

James Harden, Kawhi Leonard help Clippers pull away from Hawks

• March 15, 2025

ATLANTA — The Clippers got head coach Tyronn Lue back and his stars rewarded him with a relatively stress-free fourth quarter.

James Harden and Kawhi Leonard each scored 25 points, with Harden scoring 13 during a dominant third quarter in the Clippers’ 121-98 victory over the Atlanta Hawks on Friday night, their fifth win in six games.

Lue, who joked “I’m playing 48 tonight” when asked if he was on a minutes restriction in his return after missing three games with lower back soreness, had to like the way his team took control in the second half.

After trailing 61-53 at halftime, the Clippers outscored the Hawks 35-8 in a lopsided third quarter. They scored the first 11 points of the second half for a 64-61 lead on a Leonard 3-pointer. Following the last tie at 67-all, they scored 19 consecutive points to open an 86-67 cushion.

Harden shot 8 for 14 from the field (4 for 8 from 3-point range) to go with eight rebounds and seven assists. Leonard, who sat out the Clippers’ Wednesday win in Miami due to load management, shot 11 for 21 to go with six rebounds and a season-high five steals.

Ivica Zubac added 18 points and six rebounds but saw his streak of consecutive double-doubles end at 10 games. Derrick Jones Jr. (14), Bogdan Bogdanovic (12) and Amir Coffey (12) also scored in double figures.

Bogdanovic, making his return to Atlanta, received an ovation and video tribute during a first-quarter timeout. The Clippers acquired Bogdanovic and three second-round draft picks from the Hawks in exchange for Terance Mann and Bones Hyland on Feb. 6. The Hawks waived Hyland.

Onyeka Okongwu, a former USC and Chino Hills High standout, had 18 points and 10 rebounds to lead Atlanta, which saw its four-game winning streak end. Trae Young, who made all 21 free throws in a 123-110 victory over Charlotte on Wednesday night, scored 17 points while shooting 3 for 4 from the foul line with seven assists and seven turnovers. Rookie Zaccharrie Risacher had 15 points and seven rebounds.

NOTES

Clippers swingman Ben Simmons (left knee) scored two points with four assists in 18 minutes as a backup in his return after missing seven games. … The Clippers were without Norman Powell (right hamstring strain) and Jordan Miller (left hip soreness). … Hawks center Clint Capela missed his second straight game for family reasons.

UP NEXT

The Clippers host Charlotte on Sunday at 4 p.m.

​ Orange County Register 

Santa Anita horse racing consensus picks for Saturday, March 15, 2025

• March 15, 2025

The consensus box of Santa Anita horse racing picks comes from handicappers Bob Mieszerski, Eddie Wilson, Kevin Modesti and Mark Ratzky. Here are the picks for thoroughbred races on Saturday, March 15, 2025.

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​ Orange County Register 

Orange County scores and player stats for Friday, March 14

• March 15, 2025

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Scores and stats from Orange County games on Friday, March 14

Click here for details about sending your team’s scores and stats to the Register.

The deadline for submitting information is 10:45 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 p.m. Saturday.

FRIDAY’S SCORES

SOFTBALL

NONLEAGUE

Sunny Hills 11, Norwalk 1

BOYS VOLLEYBALL

SUNSET LEAGUE

Los Alamitos def. Fountain Valley, 3-0

​ Orange County Register 

San Gabriel Academy boys basketball hangs on to win first CIF State championship

• March 15, 2025

SACRAMENTO – The San Gabriel Academy boys basketball team had a 13-point lead midway through the fourth quarter.

At the end of the game, its lead was down to one point.

That was enough for the Eagles to survive a chaotic ending, as they held on — barely — to beat King’s Academy 52-51 in the CIF State Division III championship game Friday at Golden 1 Center.

Although they were outscored 16-2 during a stretch late in the final quarter, the Eagles won their first CIF State boys basketball championship and finished the season 21-13.

King’s Academy, a private school in Sunnyvale, finished 27-5.

San Gabriel Academy 6-11 sophomore Mahamadou Diop scored 20 points, grabbed 13 rebounds and blocked seven shots. He was 10 of 16 from the floor including a few entertaining dunks.

Diop, who has offers from Texas Tech and UC Riverside, was the only Eagles player to score in double figures. Senior guard Coco Britt scored eight points. Sophomore guard Xavier Wang scored seven points including two free throws with 11 seconds left to give the Eagles a three-point lead, 52-49.

The Eagles defense was good for most of the game, holding King’s Academy to 31 percent shooting.

RELATED: Memorable run for Diamond Ranch boys basketball ends with loss in CIF state final

Back-to-back baskets by Diop gave San Gabriel Academy a 48-36 lead. That’s when the unraveling began for the Eagles. The King’s Academy press began creating turnovers that led to baskets for the Knights, and San Gabriel Academy committed several costly fouls.

King’s Academy junior guard Claxton Ladine made a 3-pointer with 20 seconds to go to cut the San Gabriel Academy lead to 50-49.

Wang made his two free throws to make it 52-49 and the Knights’ Karan Kolappa put in a layup at the buzzer for the final one-point margin.

“Lost some years off my life there,” said San Gabriel Academy coach Daniel Piepoli.

Piepolio regretted calling the team’s final timeout late in the contest when Wang dove on a loose ball. The officials signaled the timeout just before a jump ball would have been called.

“I went to the scorer’s table and said I hope that doesn’t come back to bite me,” he said. “And it definitely did. We didn’t have a timeout to stop them, try to draw something up.”

The game appeared to be headed for a one-sided result early when San Gabriel Academy built a 17-point lead in the second quarter. King’s Academy got hot in the third quarter and reduced the lead to four points in the quarter.

King’s Academy pulled with four points again in the fourth quarter before San Gabriel Academy did a better job of taking care of the basketball and resumed using its height advantage to regain control.

The teams traded the lead for most of the first quarter. San Gabriel Academy took the lead for good, 12-10, on one of Diop’s many dunks, the final points of the opening quarter.

Diop’s two-handed slam started a 14-1 run for the Eagles that moved them to a 24-11 lead midway through the second quarter.

The Eagles’ lead reached 17 points, 31-14, at one point and was 31-18 at halftime.

The teams combined for 46 turnovers, 25 by San Gabriel Academy.

The Eagles qualified for the CIF state playoffs by reaching the CIF-SS semifinals, in which they lost to Sage Hill. San Gabriel Academy defeated Maranatha in the CIF SoCal Regional Division III championship game Tuesday to get to the state championship game.

San Gabriel Academy is young, talented and playing for its first state basketball championship

Strong finish lifts San Gabriel Academy boys basketball past Maranatha in Division III regional final

​ Orange County Register 

3 excellent books ‘Lion’ author Sonya Walger recommends

• March 15, 2025

Sonya Walger talked to Erik Pedersen about her decision to write her autobiographical first book, “Lion,” as a novel rather than a memoir. As well, the actor known for her roles on “Lost,” “For All Mankind” and “The Mind of the Married Man” shared what it’s been like after losing her home in the Palisades fire. A lifelong reader, she also took the Book Pages Q&A and shared some of her favorites.

Q. Is there a book or books you always recommend to other readers?

Several I have found myself urging on people over the years are “Light Years” by James Salter, “Her First American” by Lore Segal and “The Fortnight in September” by R.C. Sherriff. All exquisite in their different ways, nuanced and unerringly observed.

SEE ALSO: Like books? Get our free Book Pages newsletter about bestsellers, authors and more

Q. What are you reading now? 

“The Last Samurai” by Helen DeWitt. No, the movie is not based on it. It’s sprawling, undefinable, it contains multitudes. I’m glad I didn’t read it before I started writing because had I known a debut could look like this I might never have picked up a pen.

Q. How do you decide what to read next? 

I have always a stack to choose from. I will hover over what calls me, what I am in the mood for, or what research dictates I should be reading next. I often have one book by the bed and at least two others dotted around the house – a kitchen read for while I wait for pasta to boil, a desk read for when I can’t face the blank page.

Q. Do you remember the first book that made an impact on you? 

“David Copperfield” by Charles Dickens. I was riveted. As stunning a depiction of childhood and loneliness as anything I’ve ever read before or since.

Q. Is there a book you’re nervous to read? 

“Moby Dick.” I will, I must, but I haven’t yet.

Q. What’s something – a fact, a bit of dialogue or something else – that has stayed with you from a recent reading?

A fragment that echoes in me at the moment are the lines from Mary Oliver’s “Wild Geese”:

Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine. 

Meanwhile the world goes on.

I think of it often as those of us who have lost everything in the fire gather and weep and share our stories and clutch each other’s arms and hold each other’s grief, and meanwhile the children must go to school and the bills must be paid and dinner somehow arrive on the table.

Q. Do you have any favorite book covers? 

MINE!

Q. Do you listen to audiobooks? If so, are there any titles or narrators you’d recommend? 

Love them. Always have one on the go. A favorite is “The End of The Affair” by Graham Greene, narrated by Colin Firth. It might be his best work. “Middlemarch” by George Eliot, narrated by Juliet Stevenson. In fact, anything narrated by Juliet Stevenson. “To the Lighthouse” by Virginia Woolf narrated by Nicole Kidman. And, niche, but just as brilliant, “The Weirdies” by Michael Buckley narrated by Kate Winslet – just incredible kids’ book that we all adore.

Q. Is there a genre or type of book you read the most – and what would you like to read more of? 

I read fiction, and I love forgotten fiction. I love books that have been overlooked. I love English female writers from the ’50s and ’60s, Margaret Drabble, A.S. Byatt, Penelope Mortimer, Doris Lessing. I love books about intimacy, about the tiny moments in a family, a friendship, a marriage that carry so much weight.

I’d like to read more poetry, and more international fiction. I get locked in my own interests. My podcast, Bookish, made me a much wider reader (I interviewed interesting people about the five books that had shaped their lives) but for now I don’t have time to do it and write my own books. But I loved how far it flung my net.

Q. Do you have a favorite book or books? 

No. Like picking your favorite child!

Q. Which books are you planning to read next? 

“Audition” by Katie Kitamura – I just got an advance copy and cannot, cannot wait. “This is Happiness” by Niall Williams.

Q. Do you have a favorite character or quote from a book?

Isabel Archer from “The Portrait of a Lady.”

Q. Are you a re-reader of books? If so, what are some that you return to?

Yes, but sparingly. I re-read the classics. “Anna Karenina,” “Madame Bovary,” “Middlemarch,” “War and Peace.” I re-read those within the last five years and it’s really a re-reading of the self that happens. It’s so confronting to realize that what you thought the book was about in your 20s or 30s (unrequited love, despair, passion) now in your 50s is about steadiness, devotion, faith.

Q. Do you have a favorite bookstore or bookstore experience?

I have favorite stores in every city. In London, I love Daunt and John Sandoe, in NYC The Strand and Three Lives, and in L.A. Book Soup was the first place I felt at home in the city.

Q. What’s something about your book that no one knows?

It was born from journals, every one of which I lost in the fire.

Q. If you could ask your readers something, what would it be?

Keep journals. Hold them lightly. Hold everything lightly.

​ Orange County Register 

The VW bus is 75 years old, here’s a look at its history

• March 15, 2025

The buzz about the bus

75 years ago this month the VW bus began production.

On March 8, 1950, Volkswagen, maker of the Beetle automobile, began producing its second vehicle, the microbus, known officially as the Volkswagen Type 2 (the Beetle was the Type 1) or the Transporter.

The VW bus was reportedly the brainchild of Dutch businessman Ben Pon, an importer of Beetles to the Netherlands, who saw a market for a small bus and in 1947 sketched out his concept. Volkswagen engineers further developed the idea. The bus eventually collected a number of nicknames, including the Combi (for combined-use vehicle), the Splittie (for its split windshield) and in Germany it was known as the Bulli.

According to “Bug” by Phil Patton, when Grateful Dead musician Jerry Garcia died in 1995, Volkswagen ran an ad featuring a drawing of the front of a bus with a tear streaming down it. The bus was a favorite of the hippie counterculture in the 1960s and surfers still today.

In the 1950s, the Volkswagen arrived in the U.S., and the initial reception was not very good but after a successful advertising campaign from the ad agency Doyle Dane Bernbach sales increased dramatically. VW became the top-selling auto import in the U.S. In 1972, the VW Beetle passed the iconic Ford Model T as the world’s best-selling car, with over 15 million vehicles produced.

Although the bus saw much success for over 40 years, its sales declined in the ’90s with so many minivans on the market. While the newer-model buses continued to struggle with sales, the classic VW Bus was finding huge sales at auction.

At the 2013 Palm Beach Barrett-Jackson classic car auction, a 1963 23-Window Safari Samba Microbus sold for $126,500. In Scottsdale the following year, a bidder bought a 1961 Deluxe 23-Window Microbus for $148,500 and every year since then, the sales of classic VW buses continually grows. Last year at a Barrett-Jackson auction in Palm Beach, Florida, a 1961 23-Window sold for $291,500.

Sources: Volkswagen, Ratwell.com, Car and Driver, History.com, motor1.com, invaluble.com, The Associated Press

​ Orange County Register