Warriors win bronze division of September Classic volleyball tournament

Canyon Crest Academy hosted the Sept. 6-7, for the September Classic girls’ volleyball tournament, and Fallbrook High School won the Bronze Division championship.

“It was a great win for our team,” Fallbrook coach Jason Dale said. “It helped us build some momentum and get our team used to the feel of winning.”

The tournament was followed by three non-league matches the following week concluding with a Sept. 13 loss at Mission Hills High School which left Fallbrook with an 8-12 season record.

“Eight and 12’s not bad, but not where I want to be,” Dale said.

"We’re a young team. We’re developing,” Dale said. “The team's really starting to grow.”

Seven of the Warriors’ victories have been in tournaments with the Aug. 30-31, Sweetwater Prime Sports Tournament accounting for three of the triumphs and the September Classic providing four wins.

“We seem to do well when we’re playing continuously,” Dale said.

Fallbrook also defeated Mt. Carmel High School in a Sept. 11 home match. A tournament requires a team to win two games to prevail in a match while non-tournament matches require being victorious in three sets. Fallbrook dropped the 25-21 first game against Mt. Carmel but then won 25-18, 25-23 and 25-18 contests.

“That was a great highlight for our season,” Dale said. “It was a great home win.”

After the tiebreaker of sets won was applied, the Warriors were fourth in their pool at the September Classic. That placed Fallbrook in the Bronze Division, but the squad concluded the tournament with a 25-11, 28-26 victory over El Cajon Valley High School, a 25-17, 23-25, 15-7 triumph against Brawley High School and a 22-25, 25-22, 15-12 win in the championship game with Grossmont High School .

“We need to see more consistency in our level of play,” Dale said.

Fallbrook travels to Oceanside Sept. 19, for the Warriors’ final pre-league match and will begin league play with home matches Sept. 24 against Mission Vista High School and Sept. 25 against Escondido High School.

“It will be nice to play against some schools that are a little bit more our size,” Dale said.