Warrior netters begin season with two wins

Joe Naiman

Village News Reporter

Fallbrook High School's girls tennis team began play with two victories in their first two matches.

The Warriors traveled to El Camino High School for an Aug. 24 match and returned home with an 11-7 win. Fallbrook hosted Orange Glen in an Aug. 26 match which ended as a 16-2 Warriors' triumph.

"No coach is entirely happy, but we're making progress," said Fallbrook coach Bill Lenaway.

Girls tennis is normally a fall sport and boys tennis is a spring sport. The coronavirus shutdown compressed the 2020-21 CIF seasons, and boys and girls tennis were combined including mixed doubles sets for the first time in San Diego Section history. Eight girls were on the 2020-21 team including then-senior Vronnie Serrano.

In a normal season, three singles players from each school play sets against each of the other school's singles players while three doubles tandems from each team face each of their doubles counterparts. The 2020-21 format consisted of three boys singles sets, three girls singles sets, three boys doubles sets, three girls doubles sets, and five mixed doubles sets with each boy or girl limited to two sets in a match.

This season, the round-robin format has been reinstated, so girls (and boys in spring 2022) will be allowed to play three sets. "They get to play much more tennis," Lenaway said. "It's much better for the kids."

Practice began Aug. 9. Fallbrook has 18 girls this season, although a majority of them have no previous competitive tennis experience. Lenaway opted not to have junior varsity matches against El Camino and Orange Glen. "It takes a lot more than two weeks to be ready to play matches," he said.

Two freshmen, Grace Ahrend and Olivia Searle, complemented the seven returning players. Alexa Guadarrama and Carly Hawkins are now seniors. Cynthia Flor, Samantha Hanlon, Tracy Lopez, and Erin Rowan are 2021-22 juniors. Angie Palmerin is a current sophomore.

Guadarrama won the 2020-21 league girls singles championship while Palmerin, who lost to Guadarrama in the semifinals, settled for fourth place. Both swept all three of their singles sets Aug. 24. Hawkins and Hanlon swept their three doubles sets. Rowan and Flor won one doubles set against the Wildcats, as did Ahrend and Searle.

"It was about what I thought would happen," Lenaway said of the 11-7 score in Fallbrook's favor.

Rowan was Fallbrook's #3 singles player against Orange Glen. Guadarrama, Palmerin, and Rowan all swept their singles sets against the Patriots. Hawkins and Hanlon won all three doubles sets they played Aug. 26. Flor and Lopez were Fallbrook's #2 doubles team against Orange Glen and won two of three sets. Ahrend and Searle were also victorious in two sets.