Warriors win Firebird Classic

Fallbrook High School lost all three pool play matches in the Sept. 14-15 Firebird Classic girls volleyball tournament hosted by Pacific Ridge High School, but the Warriors then won all four bracket matches to take the tournament championship.

Four Fallbrook players were selected to the all-tournament team, including most valuable player Skyler Traut.

"I was extremely happy that we came back, we turned it around," said Fallbrook head coach Chip Patterson.

Pool play took place Sept. 14 and Fallbrook opened with a 25-19, 25-21 loss to Mount Carmel.

Fallbrook and Mount Carmel are both in Division II for CIF playoff purposes, so the loss will adversely impact the Warriors' ranking at the playoff selection and seeding meeting. Another loss in that match impacted the Warriors for the rest of the day; middle blocker Sonsi Jarvis was having dizzy spells and did not play in Fallbrook's other two Sept. 14 matches.

Patterson turned to freshman Sophia Badillo, who is normally an outside hitter, to take over as a middle blocker.

"She really stepped up, and she stopped a lot of teams," said Patterson of Badillo.

That would not be the case with Fallbrook's final two Sept. 14 opponents. "They finally figured out that she never really played middle," Patterson said.

Jarvis is 6'0" and Badillo is 5'7", so the loss of height also put Badillo at a disadvantage.

El Camino defeated Fallbrook in 25-21 and 25-22 sets. The two teams had played each other Sept. 4 in Fallbrook with the Warriors garnering a 25-11, 25-22, 24-26, 25-16 victory.

Fallbrook had also defeated Oceanside prior to the Firebird Classic, but the Pirates won 27-25 and 25-23 games Sept. 14 to finalize the Warriors' winless pool play.

"We weren't playing as a team," Patterson said.

The Sept. 13 game in Fallbrook saw the Warriors defeat the Pirates by a 25-15, 25-16, 25-9 score.

El Camino is in Division III for playoff purposes and Oceanside is in Division IV.

"It was a costly thing to take those three losses," Patterson said. "That will hurt you when it comes to power rankings."

Fallbrook had a 5-3 season record prior to pool play and a 5-6 record after pool play. The wins on the second day gave the Warriors a 9-6 record entering league play.

"We should be 12-3," Patterson said.

Badillo's inexperience alone didn't cause the losses to El Camino and Oceanside. "Even the veteran players, they made a lot of mistakes," Patterson said.

Mistakes are avoidable, unlike height disadvantages, so that worked in the Warriors' favor the following day. "They changed it," Patterson said.

Badillo remained in the middle blocker position for the Sept. 15 matches. Jarvis returned to the court as an outside hitter, and normal outside hitter Maddie Nachsteim was used as the right side hitter.

"That helped us with the block," Patterson said.

The Firebird Classic consisted of 10 teams, who were all seeded for the Sept. 15 bracket matches. Fallbrook, which was seeded first in its pool, was seeded ninth. The two top seeded teams had byes while Fallbrook had a rematch against Oceanside. This time the Warriors won 25-13 and 25-17 games to advance to the quarterfinals.

"We beat them easily," Patterson said.

El Camino also advanced to the quarterfinals, where the Wildcats played Fallbrook. A 25-20, 25-22 victory sent the Warriors to the semifinals.

San Pasqual is in Division III for playoff purposes, and the Golden Eagles are in the Valley League as is Fallbrook. The two teams will play matches which count in the league standings Oct. 2 in Fallbrook and Oct. 16 in Escondido. The Firebird Classic semifinal match which does not count in league records was a three-game Fallbrook victory.

"We should have beat them in two," Patterson said.

Fallbrook won the 25-11 first game and had a 23-20 lead in the second set, but the Warriors could not hold that lead and San Pasqual won by a 30-28 score. That forced a third game to 15 points, and Fallbrook prevailed by a 15-7 margin.

The final allowed the Warriors to avenge all three pool play losses.

"It wound up being a rematch between us and Mount Carmel," Patterson said.

The other semifinal match was also taken to three games and Mount Carmel defeated top-seeded Pacific Ridge, so the Warriors and Sundevils played for the tournament championship. Game one was a 25-22 Fallbrook victory, and Mount Carmel won the second game by a 25-8 margin.

"Our players didn't make it easy," Patterson said.

A team must win a game by at least two points, and the third game ended as a 19-17 Fallbrook victory.

"We jumped all over them at first, and then they came back," Patterson said.

On three occasions the Sundevils had match point, and all three times one of the Mount Carmel players hit the ball out of bounds.

The play of Traut, a senior middle blocker, earned her the tournament most valuable player award.

"She did extremely well," said Patterson of Traut.

Nachsteim, outside hitter Madison McCarty, and setter Vanessa Dalton were also chosen for the all-tournament team.

"It took all four of them to step up," said Patterson.