Also serving the communities of De Luz, Rainbow, Camp Pendleton, Pala and Pauma

Warrior spikers second in Silver Division of Varsity Classic

Joe Naiman

Village News Reporter

The coronavirus shutdown delayed the start of all CIF sports for the 2020-21 season, so girls volleyball didn't begin until March 2021 and there were no tournaments. The 2021-22 season includes tournaments, and Fallbrook High School reached the Silver Division finals of the Aug. 20-21 Varsity Classic tournament hosted by Westview High School.

Fallbrook's 3-4 record in the tournament gave the Warriors a 4-4 season record. Fallbrook's season began Aug. 19 with a road win against The O'Farrell Charter School.

"We need to clean up the obvious errors in our serving accuracy, but overall very happy with the first match," said Fallbrook coach Jason Dale.

The first game was a 25-22 O'Farrell win. "It was probably just first match jitters," Dale said.

Fallbrook then captured 25-10, 28-26, and 25-19 victories to defeat the Falcons in the match.

"We missed a lot of serves that entire match, not just the first set," Dale said.

During the four sets, the Warriors committed 25 serving errors. Eight different players missed serves.

Twelve kills apiece were recorded by junior Annie Riley and sophomore Claire Nordeen. Riley had 23 assists and eight serving aces while Nordeen contributed 20 assists and five aces. Riley had two solo and three assisted blocks for a total of five while junior Hailey Benitez provided one solo and three assisted blocks for a total of four. Two seniors led Fallbrook in digs: Michelle Pineda had 16 and Ashlynn Craven recorded 10.

"It was a good start to our season," Dale said.

The 2020-21 Warriors had two seniors on the 10-girl varsity roster which had a 2-4 record including a 1-3 mark in Valley League competition. An additional 11 girls were on the junior varsity team. The Warriors did not have a 2020-21 novice squad. Dale began the 2021-22 season with 12 varsity players including four seniors, 12 junior varsity girls, and 16 members of the novice team.

The Aug. 20 Varsity Classic matches were pool play competitions, and Fallbrook faced pool play opponents at Canyon Crest High School. "We got put in a really tough pool," Dale said.

Fallbrook is in Division III for playoff purposes. The other two teams in the pool, Sage Creek and Santa Fe Christian, are in Division I.

The first game against Santa Fe Christian was a 26-24 Eagles victory. "We played kind of competitively with Santa Fe Christian," Dale said.

That was for the first game only. "After that they kind of took us pretty easily," Dale said.

The pool play matches had a best-of-five format. Sage Creek needed four games to defeat Fallbrook. "We won the second one, which was awesome," Dale said.

Finishing third in their pool placed the Warriors in the Silver Division for the Aug. 21 best-of-three matches. Fallbrook played those at Westview. The Warriors began with wins over Escondido and Westview to advance to the division semifinals against Vista.

Vista sent the Warriors to the losers' bracket of the Silver Division. Fallbrook stayed alive in the double-elimination play by defeating Steele Canyon. That pitted Fallbrook and Vista against each other in the Silver Division final, and the Panthers were once again victorious.

"We were right there. It was very, very close, and second place in Silver is very, very good," Dale said.

Vista is in Division II. "Our only losses were all to teams that were higher than us," Dale said.

All of Fallbrook's opponents are in higher divisions. Escondido and Westview are in Division I and Steele Canyon is in Division II.

 

Reader Comments(0)