Warriors third in final league tennis standings

Fallbrook High School's girls tennis team concluded the regular season with a 6-9 overall record including a 4-4 mark in Valley League play which was worth third place in the five-team standings.

"The majority of our top nine girls are freshmen or sophomores," said Fallbrook coach Bill Lenaway. "We don't have a lot of experience right now."

The Warriors have 15 players on their roster, although Lenaway only considers 14 of those to be match ready.

"I think next year we're going to finish a little better," Lenaway said.

This year Ramona and San Pasqual shared the league championship.

"They've been basically the two stronger teams in the girls over the past five to six years," Lenaway said.

Ramona won the Valley League girls tennis championship in 2012 and shared the 2013 championship with Del Norte, which was transferred to the Avocado East League in 2014 when Fallbrook joined the Valley League. San Pasqual was still in the Avocado East League in 2014, when the Warriors won all eight league matches that year for the Valley League championship and Ramona finished second with a 6-2 league record.

Fallbrook also had an 8-0 Valley League record in 2015, when Ramona and Valley Center split their matches against each other and shared second place with 5-3 league records.

The Valley League became the North County Conference's third league in 1998. San Pasqual remained in the league until 2008, when the Golden Eagles were moved to the Avocado League. When a fourth league was created in 2010 San Pasqual became a member of the Avocado East League and Ramona spent 2010 and 2011 in the Palomar League before returning to the Valley League in 2012.

The 2016 realignment returned San Pasqual to the Valley League. Fallbrook was winless in eight 2016 league matches; that year Ramona and Valley Center both had 5-3 league records to share second place.

Fallbrook and Escondido split their 2017 matches to share fourth – or last – place with 1-7 records while Ramona had a 6-2 record for second place. Ramona was also second in the 2018 standings with a 6-2 league record while Fallbrook's league record improved to 4-4 and the Warriors were the third-place team last year.

Lenaway believes the 2020 Warriors can pick up a league standings position at the expense of Ramona or San Pasqual. "They're going to lose more players than we do," he said. "I'm just hoping our players play in the offseason and can take advantage of that."

During a high school tennis match each of the school's three singles players has a set against each of the other school's three singles players and each of the three doubles tandems plays each opposing doubles team. One point is awarded to the winner of each set.

Fallbrook and Ramona opened league play against each other Sept. 12 at the Riviera Oaks courts in Ramona and the Bulldogs obtained a 10-8 victory. Fallbrook won eight of the nine singles sets, but Ramona took all nine doubles sets.

The second 2019 league match between Fallbrook and Ramona was played Oct. 1 at the Fallbrook Tennis Club. The Warriors won one doubles set, but the Bulldogs captured the other eight doubles sets and three singles sets for an 11-7 victory.

That made Ramona the only team to have a better score against Fallbrook in the second round of league play. San Pasqual took two 12-6 victories at the Warriors' expense, winning Sept. 19 at the Fallbrook Tennis Club and Oct. 8 at San Pasqual.

Escondido lost a 17-1 match Sept. 17 in Fallbrook, and the Warriors won by an 18-0 score Oct. 3 at Escondido. The Sept. 24 match at Adams Community Park in Valley Center ended as a 12-6 Fallbrook victory over Valley Center, and the Warriors concluded their regular season Oct. 10 with a 14-4 win over the Jaguars.

"A lot of those scores have to do with us subbing and them subbing," Lenaway said.

Fallbrook will return to San Pasqual High School for the league tournament Oct. 21-24. The CIF tournament begins Oct. 28, and since the power rankings which are the primary factor in playoff selection and seeding ranked Fallbrook ninth among Division III teams at the end of the Warriors' regular season Lenaway is expecting a berth in the CIF playoffs.