Warriors win first two tennis matches

Fallbrook High School's girls' tennis season began Aug. 22, with a match at Orange Glen High School, and the Warriors won that match as well as Fallbrook's season home opener, Aug. 27, against El Camino High School.

Fallbrook defeated Orange Glen by an 18-0 score and took a 12-6 victory over El Camino.

"I'm always happy to win," Fallbrook coach Bill Lenaway said.

Lenaway is also always happy when his team improves, he said.

"We're progressing," he said. "The teams we're getting ready to play are going to start getting a little tougher."

Fallbrook's final match before Valley League play, contingent upon favorable weather, will take place Sept. 10, at Westview High School. Valley League play begins Sept. 12 when Ramona High School hosts the Warriors on the Riviera Oaks Resort and Raquet club courts.

Fallbrook has 10 varsity players, and Nicole Dulin and Gabby Bulli are the only seniors. Dulin is the Warriors' No. 2 singles player while No. 1 singles netter Alexa Guadarrama and No. 3 singles representative Carly Hawkins are sophomores. Bulli and junior Vronnie Serrano comprise Fallbrook's No. 1 doubles team. The No. 2 doubles tandem is junior Luci Bolduc and sophomore Elizabeth Eastom. Two freshmen, Reid Biland and Sam Hanlon, team for the No. 3 doubles position. The substitute is freshman Ryan Geffeney.

Guadarrama, Dulin and Hawkins swept their singles sets at Orange Glen. Bolduc and Eastom won all three of their doubles sets as did Biland and Hanlon. Bulli and Serrano won two doubles sets before Lenaway rested Bulli, and Serrano and Geffeney won their set.

Orange Glen was in the Valley League before the Patriots were transferred to the Coastal Conference in 2016. Britney Chau was an Orange Glen freshman in 2015 when she lost to Fallbrook junior Alyssa Karavitch in the Valley League singles final. Chau graduated in May, so the current Orange Glen team played Fallbrook without a premier player.

A higher level of competition rather than a decline in Fallbrook's performance was thus responsible for the closer score against El Camino, and the Warriors showed improvement in their match against the Wildcats.

"The next match they played they got a little bit better," Lenaway said.

All six positions were 2-1 against their El Camino counterparts with Geffeney joining the No. 2 doubles slot for one set.

"We're learning," Lenaway said. "We have things to learn, how to go through matches efficiently and correctly. There's lots to learn. It's not all just hitting the ball."