Hughes chosen volleyball team MVP

Taylor Hughes was given the Fallbrook High School boys volleyball team’s Most Valuable Player award at the team banquet May 22.

The banquet also saw Kyle Chaisson take home the Most Improved award and Andrew Valencia receive the Most Inspirational award.

Hughes, a junior outside hitter, was a first-team selection for all-Avocado League honors and led the entire North County Conference, which includes the Palomar League and Valley League as well as the Avocado League, in kill percentage. “Very deserving of it,” Fallbrook coach Ton Saunders said of Hughes receiving the team MVP award. “He’s been like our go-to guy.”

Four Fallbrook players, including three starters, missed part of the 2007 season with injuries. That led to much “what if” speculation, and during the banquet the “what if” questions also pondered what would have happened to the team had Hughes been injured. “Had we not had him our season was ended very early,” Saunders said.

The Warriors placed third in the conference standings and reached the second round of the CIF Division I playoffs.

Saunders cited Hughes’ leadership as well as his athleticism. “He was quite composed,” Saunders said.

“He had to lead the way,” Saunders said. “He knew he had to come out every match, every game, and provide most of our offense.”

Chaisson, who is also a junior, transferred to Fallbrook High School from Northern California. “He was a good little player when he came out,” Saunders said.

Chaisson was slated to be the team’s libero for 2007, but when starting setter Erick Sampson was injured during a pre-season scrimmage Chaisson took over as the team’s setter. “He had some skills, but it never occurred to us that we were going to end up using him as setter,” Saunders said. “It wasn’t what he wanted to be doing.”

Chaisson adapted to his new role and gained increasing understanding of the position as the season progressed. Chaisson earned honorable mention all-league honors for 2007.

Valencia, a junior middle blocker, was on Fallbrook’s junior varsity in 2006. Although the Warriors returned both of their varsity middle blockers, Valencia saw significant playing time both as a backup and a starter, and when middle blocker Matt Siracusa was injured Valencia’s playing time increased even more.

“Andrew had to fill in quite a lot,” Saunders said.

At 6’0” Valencia wasn’t as big a middle blocker as the two starters, but Valencia showed his proficiency at the cutback shot. “Offensively he did something that the other two middles didn’t do,” Saunders said.

That cutback shot ended the match against Chula Vista which gave Fallbrook a win in the first round of the CIF playoffs. “Everybody had trouble with it,” Saunders said.

The banquet also included a recap of the 2007 season. “I thought we ended the season playing great,” Saunders said.