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Warriors tennis team places second in league, reaches CIF team semifinals

Fallbrook High School’s boys tennis team placed second in the Valley League standings, and the Warriors reached the CIF Division III semifinals.

Two playoff wins and the semifinal loss finalized Fallbrook’s overall record at 12-7. San Pasqual High School was undefeated in eight Valley League matches, and the Warriors’ 6-2 figure reflects two losses to the Golden Eagles with two victories apiece over the league’s other three teams.

“I don’t know if I’m happy with it,” Fallbrook coach Bill Lenaway said of finishing second in Valley League competition.

San Pasqual lost 33 sets during the Golden Eagles’ eight league matches and 15 of those were to Fallbrook. San Pasqual hosted Fallbrook March 17 and won an 11-7 match while the April 4 match at Fallbrook had a 10-8 score in the Golden Eagles’ favor.

“It wasn’t like it wasn’t close,” Lenaway said of the margin of Fallbrook’s two league losses.

Ramona won six sets April 2 at San Pasqual for the next-best league result against the Golden Eagles. San Pasqual lost for sets in Ramona which was the Golden Eagles’ second-worst league road performance. San Pasqual’s only non-league home loss was against El Camino; each team won nine sets and the Wildcats received the victory on the tiebreaking criteria of games won.

“I think San Pasqual was a little better than us,” Lenaway said.

San Pasqual was coached by Ron Peet, who is retiring after coaching the Golden Eagle’s boys team for 40 years and San Pasqual’s girls team for 39 years.

“If we had to lose to somebody, at least it was him,” Lenaway said. “I’m also glad that he got to go out with a league championship. I don’t feel bad about him winning the league championship the last year he was out here.”

Fallbrook was given the fifth seed in the CIF Division III playoffs. The seed was based on power rankings which involve strength of schedule as well as win-loss record.

“The power rankings are what they are,” Lenaway said of the fifth seed.

All of Fallbrook’s regular-season matches were against other North County teams, and many city of San Diego, East County, South County and Imperial County teams played few if any matches against teams from other regions, so there are few means to compare teams against those from other regions.

“I think we were probably No. 3,” Lenaway said. “But you don’t know that until you start the tournament.”

The Warriors opened the CIF team tournament with an April 30 home match against 12th-seeded Otay Ranch High School and took a 15-3 victory over the Mustangs.

“We played a solid match,” Lenaway said.

Fallbrook won all nine singles sets with senior Noah Potraz, senior Richard Herrera and sophomore Ethan Lenaway each winning thrice. Potraz only lost one game while Herrera and Lenaway both had one 6-0 victory, one 6-1 triumph and one 6-2 win. The doubles team of sophomores Cole Traut and Nash Youngren won all three of their sets.

“We were deeper than they were,” Bill Lenaway said. “We did what we should have done.”

Madison High School received the fourth seed, so the Warriors’ first-round win in conjunction with the Warhawks’ 17-1 victory April 30 against High Tech High San Diego sent the Warriors to Madison’s courts, May 1.

“Madison had an interesting lineup. They had arguably what were their best three players playing doubles,” Lenaway said.

According to Madison coach Jeff Ray, those three players had been participating in doubles matches throughout the season.

The Warhawks won eight of the nine doubles sets, but Fallbrook swept the nine singles sets for a 10-8 victory.

“It was a close match, but we just dominated them in singles,” Lenaway said.

Herrera, Potraz and Ethan Lenaway each won three sets.

“They couldn’t hang with us in singles,” Bill Lenaway said.

Monte Vista High School was seeded eighth, and Mission Bay High School had the ninth seed.

The first-round match on the Monarchs’ courts was supposed to be played April 30, but rain in Spring Valley postponed that competition to May 1. Monte Vista’s 14-4 win gave the Monarchs a quarterfinal match at top-seeded Serra High School. That match was played May 2, giving Fallbrook a day off from competition, and the Monarchs advanced to the semifinals with a 10-8 triumph over the Conquistadors.

Because Fallbrook was seeded higher than Monte Vista, the May 3 match was played at the Fallbrook Tennis Club. Several factors led to Monte Vista’s 10-8 victory.

Lenaway doesn’t attribute the loss to the day off.

“I don’t think it hurt,” he said.

The first round of doubles play included an injury to sophomore Chase Che, who was partnered with junior Anthony Vazquez. Che and Vazquez lost the first set. Che also played in the second set, which was won by Monte Vista.

Che was unable to play in the third set, so Lenaway paired Vazquez with freshman James Smith. “James got out there and held his own,” Lenaway said.

Smith and Vazquez had a 3-2 lead, but Vazquez rolled his ankle and the set was defaulted to Monte Vista.

Monte Vista won six of the nine doubles sets while Fallbrook took five of the nine singles sets. “Going into the match I would have thought it would be the other way around,” Lenaway said.

Lenaway had moved Herrera to the doubles competition, pairing him with freshman Daniel Winton. That duo won one of their three sets. Traut and Youngren won two doubles sets.

“I just thought we would be stronger in doubles,” Lenaway said. “I thought we would play better.”

Monte Vista freshmen Abel Martinez won all three of his singles sets.

“Just having those three automatic points in a Division III match leaves us scrambling,” Lenaway said.

The rain delayed the Division III final to May 6. Monte Vista won the CIF championship by defeating 15th-seeded West Hills High School.

“Obviously the power rankings don’t work,” Lenaway said.

Author Bio

Joe Naiman, Writer

Joe Naiman has been writing for the Village News since 2001

 

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