Water polo girls enter 2013 with 4-5 record

Fallbrook High School’s girls water polo team will take a 4-5 record into Calendar Year 2013.

“Doing pretty good. Starting to work together and working as a team,” said Fallbrook coach Sean Redmond.

“We’re just like a step away from putting it all together,” Redmond said. “Hopefully over this break we’ll be able to do that.”

The Warriors had a winning record before closing 2012 with two defeats on consecutive days. “We had two really tough losses,” Redmond said.

Fallbrook began its season December 4 with a 12-3 defeat at Great Oak before winning three of five matches at the December 6-8 Rancho Bernardo Tournament. The Warriors’ December 6 games produced a 10-4 victory over Canyon Crest and an 8-2 loss against Westview. Fallbrook’s only December 7 contest was a come-from-behind 8-6 victory over Rancho Buena Vista. The Warriors began December 8 with a 6-5 loss to Steele Canyon but closed the tournament with a 10-6 triumph over Hilltop.

The Warriors’ first home match of the 2012-13 season was played December 12. Fallbrook took a 17-6 victory over Canyon Crest. Four girls had three goals apiece. “We were pretty well evenly spread out on scoring,” Redmond said.

The players who put three balls into the net were Chelsea Sommer, Mackenzie Kuran, Delaney Schuneman, and Morgan Brown. Brown is Fallbrook’s starting goalkeeper and spent the first half of the game in the nets before Redmond placed Amanda Williams in goal and moved Brown to the field. Brown had six first-half saves in addition to her three second-half goals. “She kind of worked both ends, offense and defense, for us,” Redmond said.

Williams made one save during the second half.

Fallbrook’s December 19 loss at Rancho Bernardo had a 7-6 final score, although the Broncos had a 6-4 lead earlier in the fourth quarter. “We started coming back but didn’t just have quite enough at the end,” Redmond said.

Alex Jones led Fallbrook with three goals against Rancho Bernardo.

The Warriors closed out 2012 with a 10-8 loss December 20 at Mount Carmel. The Sundevils led 7-4 at halftime and 8-5 after three periods. “We were coming back,” Redmond said. “We were trying to put pressure on whoever had the ball.”

Fallbrook closed the deficit to 9-8 before Mount Carmel scored the game’s final goal with 17 seconds remaining. “They just happened to get that lucky shot off,” Redmond said.

“That fourth period things were starting to come together,” Redmond said. “If we had another minute or so it could have been a different outcome.”

Fallbrook’s next game will take place January 4 at Del Norte High School. The Warriors open Avocado West League play January 8 at Rancho Buena Vista and will have their first league home game January 15 against La Costa Canyon.

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