Warrior spikers overcome 2-0 deficit to win at Poway

Fallbrook High School’s girls volleyball team was down two games to none during a September 19 match at Poway High School, but the Warriors came back to win the match in five games.

The Titans won the first game, 25-18, and then took a 25-22 victory in the second game. “Not playing well. We still didn’t, even though we ended up winning,” said Fallbrook coach Galen Tomlinson. “We started playing better, but I still wasn’t very pleased.”

Tomlinson believes that his players were overconfident entering the game even though he warned them about thinking that the match would be an easy Warrior win. “You can’t ever take Poway lightly,” he said. “They’re always going to be ready to compete.”

Tomlinson felt that the players weren’t preparing properly for what they thought would be an overwhelming victory. “You could kind of see it in warm-up,” he said. “They didn’t have a big spark in them.”

During the first two games the two teams traded leads before Poway took victories in both. “Both the first ones were kind of touch and go,” Tomlinson said. “The third one was actually pretty close as well.”

Fallbrook captured a 25-21 victory in the third game, but the Warriors sustained themselves in the final two games. Fallbrook evened the match with a 25-10 win in Game Four and won the deciding game, 15-9.

The come-from-behind win was an even bigger achievement since it took place on the road. “The stands were pretty full. Poway had a big support system there, so we had a lot to overcome, but we made a couple of system changes,” Tomlinson said.

Tomlinson said that those position changes would likely be one-time occurrences. “I think it was just an anomaly that night,” he said.

He felt that the ability to switch positions helped the team. “We’ve got a good squad, so we’re able to make adjustments like that on the fly,” he said.

He also believes that the come-from-behind win will convince the players that they can overcome future situations. “I think that they can look on this in tight matches in the future,” he said. “I would hope they would take that away from this.”