Boys volleyball defeats Matadors

Fallbrook High School's boys volleyball team traveled to Spring Valley for an April 7 match against Mount Miguel High School, and the Warriors returned with their first victory since Chip Patterson became Fallbrook's head coach last year.

"They did an outstanding job," Patterson said.

The Warriors prevailed in a four-game match to break a 71-match losing streak which began in March 2010. "It was fabulous," Patterson said.

The first game was a 25-12 Warriors triumph. "We just pulled away from them," Patterson said.

Fallbrook built up a 20-7 lead against the Matadors. "They didn't know how to finish it," Patterson said.

Mount Miguel and Fallbrook split the next 10 points. "We pulled it out," Patterson said.

The second game was a 25-17 Fallbrook victory. "In the second game, we were pretty much devastating them and then we allowed them to creep back into the game," Patterson said.

Mount Miguel prevailed by a 25-23 score in the third game. The Matadors took a 5-0 lead, but the Warriors tied the game at 12 points apiece. "We came back and we closed it," Patterson said.

The score was tied at 20-20 before the Matadors took a lead they wouldn't relinquish. "We just kept going back and forth," Patterson said.

Mount Miguel took a 23-20 lead before the teams exchanged sideouts. The Warriors weren't able to stave off game point but forced the Matadors to conclude their victory with a long rally. "They wound up winning the rally," Patterson said.

Fallbrook secured the match with a 26-24 victory in game four. The Warriors had a 24-23 lead but made a serving error on game point. Fallbrook obtained the sideout for match point and then concluded the competition with the winning point.

The Warriors improved to 1-5 for the year, 1-23 since Patterson took over as the boys coach, and 1-71 since March 30, 2010. Fallbrook was 0-18 in 2014, 0-14 in 2013, 0-11 in 2012, 0-14 in 2011, and 2-12 in 2010. Both of Fallbrook's 2010 wins were against Temecula Preparatory School; the three-game March 2 match in Winchester opened the Warriors' season and the four-game March 26 victory in Fallbrook gave the Warriors a 2-3 record before a March 30 loss at La Costa Canyon began the program's losing streak.

Prior to the win over Mount Miguel, the Warriors hadn't even won a game during 2015. They lost 3-0 matches March 24 at home against El Camino and March 25 at San Marcos prior to their spring break. The Warriors were also swept March 11 at La Costa Canyon, March 17 at home against Del Norte, and March 19 at home against Mission Hills.

The match against Mount Miguel was the 2015 debut of 6'7" middle blocker Matt Araiza, who injured his ankle with the Warrior basketball team. Araiza's return gave Fallbrook two returning players from the 2014 squad; the other is middle hitter Isaac Maxwell. "We don't normally use Isaac for passing, but this game he was passing and he was hitting," Patterson said. "His performance was superb."

Patterson made other changes for the match against the Matadors. "We changed our setters. We had two new setters," he said.

Those two setters are Jake Klingsberg and Henry Prouty, both of whom began the season as outside hitters. "They stepped up. They did a good job," Patterson said.