Warrior netters earn co-championship, CIF second seed

Fallbrook High School’s girls’ tennis team closed out the 2009 regular season with a 17-1 win October 27 at Escondido High School, giving the Warriors a 9-1 Avocado League record and the league co-championship.

The Warriors, who had an overall record of 18-3 in regular-season matches, were seeded second in the CIF Division I playoffs to give Fallbrook a first-round bye Tuesday, a home match yesterday, and a contingent home match today.

The CIF team finals will take place tomorrow at the Barnes Tennis Center in San Diego.

“I’m happy,” Fallbrook coach Dave Ramirez said of the second seed.

The top-seeded team was Torrey Pines, with whom the Warriors split two league matches.

On September 24 the Warriors defeated the Falcons at the Fallbrook Tennis Club, ending Torrey Pines’ streak of 215 consecutive league match victories.

High school tennis matches consist of 18 sets, and if each team wins nine sets the total amount of games won is used to determine the match winner.

Fallbrook and Torrey Pines each won nine sets in that September 24 match; Warrior players won 76 games while the Falcons won 73.

Torrey Pines hosted the match in the second round of league play October 19 and earned an 11-7 win over the Warriors.

The two teams shared the league championship, which was the 20th consecutive league title for the Falcons.

“We’re looking forward to hopefully seeing them in the finals of CIF,” Ramirez said. “Our girls have been working hard after that loss.”

The league championship wasn’t Fallbrook’s first, but Ramirez considered this one more significant due to the most recent North County Conference realignment which put Fallbrook in the same league with Torrey Pines and La Costa Canyon.

“Those teams are always pretty tough,” Ramirez said.

The North County Conference will have another realignment for 2010-11 which will accommodate varsity programs at Del Norte High School and Mission Vista High School.

The conference will be split into four leagues with Fallbrook being joined by Escondido, Mission Hills, San Marcos, San Pasqual, and Vista.

Ramirez accepted Fallbrook being seeded behind Torrey Pines in the CIF seedings. “That’s fair,” he said.

Poway was given the third seed in the CIF Division II playoffs, and Ramirez warned that the Warriors shouldn’t view today’s match as a given win during their quest for a spot in the CIF finals against Torrey Pines.

“We have a good chance of beating Torrey Pines,” Ramirez said. “We’re pretty deep. We work hard. And the girls who play just high school tennis have come through for us.”