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Warriors reach CIF volleyball final

For the first time ever since the CIF San Diego Section began holding boys volleyball championship tournaments in 1988 Fallbrook High School reached the CIF final.

The Warriors followed a first-round bye in the CIF Division III playoffs with victories over San Marcos and Valhalla before taking top-seeded Classical Academy to five games in the May 18 final at St. Augustine High School.

"I'm very happy," said Fallbrook coach Chip Patterson. "The boys have never ever been to a championship game."

The Warriors had a 16-8 regular-season record including a 5-3 figure in Valley League play which shared second in the final standings. Sage Creek was undefeated in eight league matches, including April 11 and April 16 wins over Fallbrook. San Dieguito Academy defeated the Warriors in an April 25 match in Encinitas, but the May 4 contest in Fallbrook ended in the Warriors' favor.

Sage Creek reached the Open Division championship match, but Patterson believes the Bobcats weren't invincible during league play.

"We could have beat them multiple times," said Patterson, adding that he didn't believe the Warriors were physically outmatched. "We were inconsistent in the games we played against them. A lot of times we played with sheer emotion. We were up and down."

Patterson does believe that because the Warriors played Sage Creek in back-to-back matches, the ability to adapt was limited by the total of two practice days between the matches. "There was no real chance to make any change," Patterson said.

The learning from the mistakes against Sage Creek would instead be applied during the four ensuing league matches, all of which were Fallbrook victories, and in the CIF playoffs.

"I think that taught us a lot about ourselves," said Patterson of the Warriors' play against the Bobcats.

The May 5 CIF seeding and selection meeting gave Fallbrook the third seed in the CIF Division III playoffs. "I think that was the best seed for us," Patterson said.

Patterson and his players were hoping for a top four seed which included a first-round bye as well as a quarterfinal home match. The third seed also put the Warriors in a different bracket than the top seed. "We didn't have to face Classical right off the bat," Patterson said.

Sixth-seeded San Marcos defeated Del Lago Academy in the first round of the playoffs. The Knights traveled to Fallbrook for the May 11 quarterfinal.

Fallbrook had traveled to San Marcos for an April 30 non-league match which ended as a 25-23, 29-27, 25-23 Warriors victory. "They were all close games," Patterson said.

The Warriors won 25-22, 25-20, and 25-20 sets in the playoff match. "When they came to us for the playoffs it was a little easier," Patterson said. "We were at home. We had more confidence."

Miles Dewhirst led the Warriors with 20 kills and James Prahm added 18 kills. Eric Leon set for 35 assists.

The Warriors as a team had 24 blocks. "We dominated the middle," Patterson said.

Prahm had 12 solo blocks along with five assisted blocks. "When James Prahm was up front they couldn't stop him," Patterson said.

Dewhirst had 18 digs, which also led the team. "They couldn't stop him. He was all over the court," Patterson said.

James Brodak provided 16 digs, and Logan Sim contributed 15.

"They played phenomenal," Patterson said. "They had their eyes set on that championship."

Fallbrook's defense was also able to minimize the success of the Knights' leading offensive threat. "He's a phenomenal hitter, but they shut him down," Patterson said.

Coronado had the second seed and hosted seventh-seeded Valhalla in another May 11 quarterfinal, but both of Coronado's starting outside hitters were injured in that match and Valhalla won in four sets. That made Fallbrook the higher-seeded team in the semifinal. "That made it easier," Patterson said.

The match against the Norsemen was played in Fallbrook May 16. "The gym was packed," Patterson said. "It was noisy in there."

Fallbrook began the match with a 25-17 victory. "We jumped out early on them," Patterson said.

The Warriors prevailed by a 25-23 score in game two. The 2-0 advantage in games allowed Patterson to change the lineup for the third game, which was a 25-23 Valhalla triumph. "It still was a close game," he said.

A 25-17 Fallbrook win in the fourth game ended the match. "We made sure that we closed them out in the fourth set," Patterson said. "They got the job done."

Dewhirst had 19 kills against Valhalla and Prahm provided 18 kills. Prahm had seven solo and four assisted blocks while Sean Wenzel recorded five solo and three assisted blocks. Brodak contributed 25 digs, Sim had 14 and Cristian Cruz added 13.

Leon had 45 assists. "Eric was setting out of this world," Patterson said.

The CIF San Diego Section had scheduled the semifinals for May 15, but multiple Fallbrook players had a religious confirmation service that night so Valhalla agreed to the May 16 date. That gave the Warriors one day of practice between the semifinal and the championship match.

"That also gave Classical an opportunity to watch us play," Patterson said. "Their team showed up at our game."

The Caimans defeated Clairemont in the other Division III semifinal. The team coached by Jon Goodman entered the final with a 27-7 season record, including a 6-0 mark in Coastal League play.

"He's been doing great things with that program," Patterson said of Goodman.

Classical Academy began the championship match with 25-18 and 25-19 victories.

"I knew that they were going to go to their middle a lot," Paterson said. "The first two sets of the championship that's probably where they were beating us down the most."

Fallbrook then took a 25-19 victory.

"After going down two games they fought back and won the next two, and they were in the fifth game," Patterson said. "No doubt in my mind I was proud of them."

Patterson went to a one-on-one blocking format for the third game. "I think that was the difference maker," he said. "We kept their middle from performing."

When Prahm blocked three consecutive balls Goodman abandoned the emphasis on the middle and tried attacking from the outside. "We just took the angle approach," Patterson said.

Patterson had called up two players from Fallbrook's junior varsity for the playoffs, including junior Dominik Torrescano, who had a timely block against the Caimans.

"The guys in the back just played tremendous defense," Patterson said. "They stood in there. They fought."

Fallbrook's 25-21 win in the fourth game forced a fifth set to 15 points. A Classical Academy serving ace gave the Caimans a 4-1 lead. "It got us out of sync a little bit," said Patterson, noting that the deficit prevented the Warriors from making lineup changes.

The Warriors narrowed the gap to 10-9 before hitting a ball out of bounds to give Classical Academy an 11-9 lead. "We really didn't recover," said Patterson. "We still fought, but we didn't recover."

The score progressed to 13-9 before the Warriors obtained their final point. Had the Warriors obtained an additional sideout, Fallbrook would have had a favorable rotation as Prahm would have been in the front row and the Classical Academy middle blocker would have gone to the back row.

"If we had got that 11th point that would have beat them," Patterson said.

A Fallbrook error gave the Caimans match point. The final point occurred after a rally and Classical Academy's placement of the ball into the Warriors' side of the court.

"They just caught us totally out of position," Patterson said. "None of us could get to it to play it."

Not only had Fallbrook never previously played in the CIF championship match, but the Warriors hadn't advanced past the first round of the CIF playoffs since 2008. The 2017 team which lost in the first round of the post-season was the next Fallbrook squad to reach the playoffs.

Patterson's first year as the Warriors' coach was 2014, when Fallbrook lost all 18 matches. After Fallbrook lost its first five matches of the 2015 season, a victory over Mount Miguel broke a 71-match losing streak dating back to 2010. Fallbrook won five matches in 2015 and finished with a final season record of 5-20.

The Warriors won two non-league matches in 2010 and one non-league match in 2009. The Warriors had a 3-82 record from 2009 through 2014 and a 5-102 mark between 2009 and 2015.

Fallbrook won three league matches in 2016; the first of those was the Warriors' first league triumph since 2008 and broke a 73-match league losing streak. The Warriors' 11-15 record in 2016 included a 3-7 statistic in Valley League play.

The 17-11 record of the 2017 Warriors included the first-round loss in the CIF Division III playoffs as well as a 5-3 league mark which shared second place among Valley League teams.

This year's overall record, including the three playoff matches, was 18-9.

"I'm ecstatic about the season," Patterson said. "We are extremely proud of them."

Leilani Patterson, who works with the players on passing skills, was Chip Patterson's only assistant coach for the varsity team.

Patterson expects the 2019 Warriors to have five returning players from the 2018 regular season, including three returning starters. "I see us making a run at it again next year," he said.

Author Bio

Joe Naiman, Writer

Joe Naiman has been writing for the Village News since 2001

 

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