Lady Warriors begin league play with pair of wins

Fallbrook High School's girls water polo team played 13 games between Nov. 28 and Dec. 16 before taking nearly four weeks off from competition. The Warriors' four games between Jan. 10 and Jan. 17 included three victories, two of which were obtained in Fallbrook's first two Valley League matches of the season.

The Warriors had an overall season record of 8-9 after the team's first 17 games of the 2017-18 season despite the 2-0 league record, although Fallbrook head coach Sean Redmond wasn't disappointed with the sub-.500 non-league performance.

"It's kind of a combination of a young team and scheduling the tougher games to hopefully get us ready to come down the homestretch," said Redmond.

The Jan. 10 match was a non-league competition against San Marcos at the Palomar College pool.

"We had a long stretch of almost four weeks with no games, so it was nice to finally get in and play some games," Redmond said.

Fallbrook defeated San Marcos by a 16-4 margin. The Warriors traveled to Washington Park Pool in Escondido for a Jan. 12 match against Classical Academy to open Valley League play and returned home with a 16-3 victory over the Caimans.

"Defense really did well," Redmond said. "The scoring was really spread out."

The Warriors' halftime lead was 9-0, and substitutes were in the pool when Classical Academy put positive numbers on the scoreboard. Fallbrook goalkeeper Naomi Wood played all four quarters and made 10 saves.

Wood is a sophomore who is in her first season playing water polo.

"There's been a big learning curve with her, and she's been doing very well," said Redmond of Wood.

Anna Draves and Sophia Wallace each scored four goals while Ella Hearn and Kendra Donoghue had three goals apiece. Natalie Travers and Paris Dowden each placed one shot into the net.

"We were trying to not just steal and do counters but try to set up our offense," Redmond said.

The Warriors had a team total of 36 steals against Classical Academy, with Draves obtaining nine of those to lead the squad. Kaitlyn Callagher led the team with five assists.

The first Fallbrook home game of the 2017-18 season was against Westview Jan. 16, but the Wolverines mitigated the excitement for the Fallbrook fans with a 6-2 triumph at the Warriors' expense. The Warriors missed 18 shots in that game.

"We were getting shots off," said Redmond. "At least half of them were either hitting the bar or going over the cage."

Redmond noted that illness had kept some of his girls from practice the day before the game against Westview. "It made things a little bit more difficult," he said.

All 12 girls on the varsity roster were available to play Jan. 17 when the Warriors hosted San Pasqual in a Valley League contest, and all 12 participated in the Warriors' 18-5 win.

Fallbrook only missed 13 shots in the game against San Pasqual. Dowden and Wallace each scored four times, Draves and Gabby Vazzana contributed three goals apiece, Hearn had two successful shots, and a goal apiece was scored by Natalie Wood and Eva Richardson. Redmond noted that the team's objective was to set up the Warriors' offense and to move the ball around. "We did that with some success," he said.

Naomi Wood made 10 saves against the Golden Eagles. The 34 team steals included seven by Vazzana, who also led the Warriors with four assists.