Warriors reach girls water polo quarterfinals

Fallbrook High School's girls water polo team reached the quarterfinals of the CIF Division I playoffs.

The Warriors began the CIF tournament Feb. 15 with a 9-6 victory over University City, which gave the eighth-seeded Fallbrook squad a Feb. 18 match against top-seeded Vista. The Panthers won that quarterfinal by an 11-4 margin.

"I'm very proud and excited about what they accomplished throughout the season," Fallbrook coach Sean Redmond said of his players.

The playoff results finalized the Warriors' season record at 16-13. Fallbrook had a regular-season record of 15-12 including a 5-0 Valley League record which provided the Warriors with their third consecutive league championship.

An eighth-seeded team receives a first-round home game contingent upon a pool which meets CIF playoff standards. Fallbrook's pool is not suitable for CIF post-season play, but University City plays its regular-season home matches at the University of California, San Diego's Canyonview Pool and Redmond was supportive of the trip to UCSD.

"UC was generous enough to host us there," Redmond said.

The Warriors had leads of 3-2 after one quarter and 4-3 at halftime.

"We started pushing it up in the third period," Redmond said.

Fallbrook had an 8-5 lead entering the final quarter.

"We pulled it out in the third period," Redmond said. "The thing that helped us was our speed. We definitely swam better than they did."

Each team scored once in the fourth quarter, and by the middle of that period Redmond was more focused on defense and clock control than on expanding the Warriors' lead. The Centurions' focus was on overcoming the three-goal deficit.

"They were starting to get really aggressive on attacks, so we started spreading it out and controlling the ball," Redmond said.

Ella Hearn scored three goals for Fallbrook. Sarah Draves scored two goals and had four assists, including on all three of Hearn's goals, and Draves also recorded six steals. Caitlyn Batty led the team with seven steals while also providing two goals and an assist. Amelia Thomas and Anna Draves each placed one shot into the net. Gabby Vazzana was Fallbrook's goalkeeper for the entire game and made six saves while also obtaining two steals.

The Feb. 18 quarterfinals were played at La Jolla High School's Coggan Pool. The game between Fallbrook and Vista began at 8:30 a.m.

"First period really hurt us. They jumped out very quickly to a four-nothing lead," Redmond said.

Each team scored three times in the second quarter. The Warriors and Panthers had a goal apiece in the third period.

"We stayed even with them," Redmond said.

Vista had all three goals in the final quarter.

"We played much better against them than we did a couple of weeks ago," Redmond said.

A non-league game Feb. 7 at The Wave in Vista ended with the Panthers on the preferred end of the 11-3 score. Redmond noted that Vista's leading scorer in that game was held scoreless in the playoff quarterfinal.

"The other girls on the team ended up stepping it up. That's the sign of a good team," Redmond said.

Redmond noted that his own team had the similar ability to rely on other players if one teammate was shut down.

"We didn't have one really standout player," he said. "They played very well as a team and worked together."