Return to pool likely to help Warriors

The first home game of the 2015-16 season for Fallbrook High School's girls water polo team was a 12-4 victory January 21 against Valley Center which improved the Warriors' Valley League record to 2-0 and Fallbrook's overall record to 12-5.

"It was nice to be able to be in the pool," said Fallbrook coach Sean Redmond. "It was also good to be able to have a game at home."

The match against Valley Center and a February 10 non-league game against Del Norte are Fallbrook's only scheduled home games this season, but the Warriors had planned to have practices at Fallbrook High School's pool.

"The heater broke and we were out of the water for two weeks," Redmond said.

"We weren't able to do practices," Redmond said. "We did what we could, but unfortunately it was not enough in that time."

Fallbrook compiled an 8-2 record during December but lost four of six non-league games in January. "I thought we really had a chance against Westview and RBV, but the problem was we lost our pool on the fourth of January," Redmond said.

Westview, which defeated Fallbrook by an 11-5 score in the final of the Dec. 3-5 Bronco Tournament, prevailed by an 11-7 margin in the January 5 non-league game. The Dec. 5 match was at the Rancho Bernardo High School pool while the Jan. 5 contest was at Westview.

Fallbrook then traveled to Rancho Bernardo for a Jan. 8 game and defeated the Broncos by a 5-2 margin. The Warriors spent part of Jan. 12 at the Palomar College pool for a match against San Marcos which ended as an 18-4 Fallbrook victory.

A 10-4 loss Jan. 13 against Vista at The Wave was followed by the Warriors' league opener January 15 against Classical Academy at the Washington Park pool in Escondido. Fallbrook returned home with a 19-2 triumph.

"I was pleased with it, and it also gave us an opportunity of a lot of playing time for everybody," Redmond said of defeating the Caimans.

On January 19 Rancho Buena Vista earned a 7-5 home win against the Warriors. Redmond had been notified of the Fallbrook pool's return to availability on January 16, and the Warriors returned to practice January 18. "Now we're back in the water, so hopefully we're starting to see things turn around," Redmond said.

The availability of the Fallbrook pool allowed the Warriors to host Valley Center in the January 21 match. The Warriors and Jaguars opened their seasons against each other December 3 in the Bronco Tournament; Fallbrook made 23 steals in the Warriors' 15-0 victory. Redmond wasn't expecting the Jaguars to be so unsuccessful in the league match. "I knew coming into it that they were going to be a different team," he said. "They played, I thought, a pretty good game."

The Jaguars' improvement was not enough to stave off the Fallbrook triumph. Fallbrook's January 26 game at La Jolla was a 12-2 Vikings victory.

Fallbrook is in Division I for CIF playoff purposes. The top eight teams at the end of the regular season, which for the Warriors concludes February 12 at Ramona, will compete in the Open Division playoffs and the other teams will play in the Division I CIF tournament. As of the January 26 game Fallbrook was ranked tenth among the Division I teams. "We're just waiting to see where we are for CIF," Redmond said.