Warrior netters win league title, seeded third for CIF playoffs

Fallbrook High School’s girls tennis team won its third consecutive Avocado League championship and earned the third seed in the CIF Division I playoffs.

“This is one of the best teams I’ve had in my coaching Fallbrook High School,” said Fallbrook coach Dave Ramirez. “Their hard work and all the groundwork that we did as far as physical conditioning and mental preparation has paid off again.”

The Warriors finished the regular season with a 20-4 overall record. The CIF San Diego Section cancelled all sports contests for the week of October 22-27 due to the fires in San Diego County, which ended the tennis regular season a week earlier than scheduled. Fallbrook had an 8-0 record in league competition.

“They handled the pressure,” Ramirez said. “It’s really neat to see.”

As one of the top four seeds in the playoffs, Fallbrook earned an October 31 first-round bye. The Warriors will start their post-season with a quarterfinals home match against the winner of the match between La Costa Canyon and Vista.

Fallbrook lost non-league matches to Torrey Pines and Rancho Bernardo, the two teams seeded ahead of the Warriors. “We expected to be right around the third seed,” Ramirez said.

The fourth seed went to Mount Carmel. Fallbrook defeated Mount Carmel and La Costa Canyon during the season.

Freshman Hailey Johnson was undefeated in her league matches. She lost one non-league match, to Lacy Smythe of San Marcos. Junior Roxanne Parker lost one league match, a 7-5 contest to Rachel Shinto of Carlsbad on a day Parker was ill.

The Fallbrook doubles team of senior Angela Maddock and freshman Jessica Willett also finished undefeated in league matches.