Warriors lose 11-7 match in team tennis playoff

Joe Naiman

Village News Reporter

Fallbrook High School’s girls tennis team participated in the CIF team playoffs but did not advance past the first round.

The Warriors had the 14th seed in the Division II playoffs, which gave them a first-round match Oct. 26 at third-seeded Mater Dei. An 11-7 Crusaders win ended Fallbrook’s team season.

“We have to be better to win doubles sets. We won seven out of nine singles sets,” said Fallbrook coach Bill Lenaway.

Mater Dei sophomore Isabella Arnaiz accounted for the Crusaders’ two singles points with a 6-0 win over senior Alexa Guadarrama and a 6-1 victory against sophomore Angie Palmerin. Fallbrook freshman Leyla Homuth defeated Arnaiz in a 6-3 set while taking 6-0 sets against the other two Mater Dei singles players. Guadarrama won 6-1 and 6-3 sets. Palmerin had 6-0 and 6-4 victories.

“They were definitely pretty good, consistent,” Guadarrama said of her opponents. “I feel like I did really good.”

Fallbrook’s doubles team of senior Carly Hawkins and junior Samantha Hanlon lost 3-6, 5-7, and 4-6 sets. “They had really close matches and they just couldn’t pull any of them out,” Lenaway said.

The other two Fallbrook doubles teams won one game apiece.

“We all did really good. We tried very hard,” Palmerin said. “We’re going to try again next year and hopefully go further.”

Prior to 2020-21 the CIF team tournaments used pre-set playoff divisions based on recent past performance. Basing relative strength on recent years doesn't take into account graduation losses, underclassmen who did not return, freshmen players, or season-ending injuries. The coronavirus shutdown delayed the start of 2020-21 sports, so boys and girls tennis were combined including formal mixed doubles for the first time in CIF San Diego Section history.

With no past years for mixed teams, the CIF utilized universal tennis rating data for each of a team's players and based the 2020-21 playoff divisions on the cumulative UTR. The teams with the eight highest UTR totals played in the Open Division playoffs, the next 16 teams were in Division I, the teams with the 24th to 40th UTR totals competed in the Division II postseason, and schools whose UTR ranked 41st through 56th along with any league champions who received automatic playoff berths were Division III participants.

Although girls tennis and boys tennis will have separate seasons for 2021-22, the divisions based on cumulative UTR were retained. “You’re seeing a lot closer matches in the first round,” Lenaway said. “The scores are just unbelievably close and you’re getting good quality matches.”

All of the losing teams in the first round of the Division II playoffs won at least six sets.

“We were going to hold our own in singles against almost any team in that draw,” Lenaway said.

The playoff loss gave Fallbrook a final 12-5 record in dual matches including an 8-2 Valley League mark which placed the Warriors second in the standings.