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Warrior netters split first two league matches

Fallbrook High School’s boys tennis team entered Spring Break with a 1-6 record, including a 1-1 mark in Valley League competition.

The Warriors’ final two matches prior to the break were also the team’s first two league competitions. The Warriors defeated Orange Glen at the Fallbrook Tennis Club on March 23 and lost to Valley Center on the Jaguars’ court March 24.

“We’re just really, really inexperienced,” said Fallbrook coach Bill Lenaway.

“I’m not really disappointed,” Lenaway said of the team’s record. “I can’t complain about the way they’re playing. They’re all working really hard.”

Only four of Fallbrook players were on last year’s team. The Warriors’ #1 singles player, Riley Lenaway, is a sophomore who played for last year’s Fallbrook squad. Lenaway is also the only member of the team who plays tournaments on a year-round basis.

Declan Harrison, who is also a sophomore and was on the 2014 team, is Fallbrook’s #2 singles player. Harrison is also on Fallbrook’s swim team. “We happen to be lucky this year there’s not a whole lot of conflicts,” Bill Lenaway said.

John David Lopez, the Warriors’ #3 singles player, is a junior who played doubles for Fallbrook in 2014. Riley Lenaway and Harrison played singles last year.

Fallbrook’s #1 doubles team consists of sophomores Max Alperstein and Casey Eich, both of whom are new to tennis. The #2 doubles team includes sophomore Erik Garcia, who played doubles in 2014; he partners with freshman Brett Johnson. Two freshmen, Drew Mings and Stephen Shedd, comprise the Warriors’ #3 doubles team. The Warrior varsity consists of only nine players.

“It’s just unrealistic to ask them to come in and start racking up victories,” Bill Lenaway said.

“We’re young and we’re learning,” Lenaway said. “We just look at it as a time for growth.”

Fallbrook’s 0-5 record prior to the start of league play consisted of a 12-6 defeat March 3 at Mission Hills, a 13-5 home loss March 5 against El Camino, a 16-2 defeat March 10 at home against Vista, and 15-3 losses March 12 at Westview and March 17 in Fallbrook against Canyon Crest.

“We also played some really good teams that were very solid,” Lenaway said.

In a high school tennis match, each singles player contests a set against each of the other school’s singles player while each doubles team plays against each of the three opposing doubles teams. If the match is tied at nine sets apiece, the tiebreaker of games won determines the match winner. Fallbrook and Orange Glen each won nine sets, but the Warriors’ 76-72 advantage in games gave Fallbrook its first victory of the season.

Lopez overcame a 5-2 deficit in one of his sets against Valley Center to tie the contest at six games apiece. That triggered a tiebreaking game to be won by the first player to have at least seven points with at least a two-point lead. Lopez lost that 12-10 tiebreaker, giving Valley Center a 10-8 victory. Had Lopez won that set, the match would have been tied at 9-9 and Fallbrook would have been given the victory on the basis of more games won. “We had a chance to win that match,” Lenaway said.

 

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