Warriors defeat Cougars for first league win since 2015

The Sept. 14 girls tennis match at the Fallbrook Tennis Club ended as the first Valley League victory for Fallbrook High School since 2015 and thus the first league victory for Bill Lenaway as the Warriors' girls head coach.

Fallbrook and Escondido each won nine sets, triggering the tiebreaking criteria of games won. The Warriors won 70 games while the Cougars were victorious in 64, so Fallbrook improved its 2017 league record to 1-2.

"It took longer than we would have liked it to, but we got the job done and now we can try to go for the next one," Lenaway said of his first win as the Warriors' girls coach.

Lenaway, who has coached the boys varsity team since 2009, replaced Dave Ramirez as Fallbrook's girls coach for the 2016 season. Last year the Warriors had an overall dual match record of 2-14 with non-league victories over El Camino and Orange Glen and a Valley League record of 0-8.

The match preceding league play this year gave the Warriors their first victory of the season. Fallbrook players won seven singles sets and four doubles sets in the Warriors' 11-7 home triumph Sept. 6 over Orange Glen.

League play began Sept. 7 and the match at the Fallbrook Tennis Club between Fallbrook and San Pasqual was a 16-2 victory for the Golden Eagles.

"San Pasqual is just a deeper team than we are," said Lenaway.

A high school tennis match consists of each of a school's three singles players contesting a set against each of the other school's singles players and each of the school's three doubles teams competing against each of their counterparts. One point is awarded for each set won. Fallbrook's No. 1 singles player, junior Imogen Isaac, won two singles sets to account for the Warriors' points.

Valley Center High School plays its home matches at Adams Community Park. The Jaguars defeated Fallbrook by a 10-8 score Sept. 12.

"We could be two and one," Lenaway said. "We had a chance with Valley Center."

Isaac won all three of her singles sets against her Valley Center opponents, as did junior Makena Larson. The doubles team of senior Frankie Billmeier and junior Diana Martinez won one set and the tandem of senior Ashley Tanner and sophomore Nicole Dulin provided Fallbrook with a doubles point.

In one of the other doubles sets the Warriors had a 4-1 lead. If the Fallbrook duo won the set by a 6-3 margin or better, Fallbrook would have had the tiebreaking advantage of games won. The Jaguars players won the final five games for a 6-4 victory to stave off the 9-9 scenario.

"We were right in the Valley Center match," Lenaway said.

The loss to Valley Center was the Warriors' second 10-8 loss of the season; Oceanside won a non-league match by that score Sept. 5 on the Pirates' court.

Tanner played as Fallbrook's No. 3 singles player against Escondido and won two of her three sets, including one with a 6-0 score. Isaac had 6-0, 6-0, and 6-1 victories while one of Larson's three wins was a 6-0 set. Billmeier and Martinez had the Warriors' only doubles victory against the Cougars with the score being 6-1.

The four 6-0 victories and the two 6-1 triumphs allowed Fallbrook to win more games than Escondido.

"The sets we did win we won big," Lenaway said.

The league victory over the Cougars broke a 10-match Valley League losing streak for Fallbrook. On Oct. 20, 2015, Fallbrook concluded an 8-0 Valley League season with a 15-3 home victory over Ramona. That 2015 squad included six seniors, one junior who missed the 2016 season due to elbow surgery, and a junior who transferred to Murrieta Valley High School. Isaac was Fallbrook's only 2016 player who had spent the entirety of the 2015 season on the Warriors' varsity; Larson split time between the varsity and junior varsity teams in 2015.

The win over the Cougars gave Fallbrook a 2-6 overall record for 2017. The first round of league play concludes this afternoon (Sept. 21) with Fallbrook traveling to Ramona for a match against the Bulldogs at the Riviera Oaks Country Club.