Warrior spikers 3-2 at San Diego Fall Classic, win pool

Fallbrook High School’s girls volleyball team won its pool at the San Diego Fall Classic played September 12-13 and won three of its five matches during the tournament.

“We did fairly well,” said Fallbrook coach Peter Peng. “We’re making progress.”

The San Diego Fall Classic occurred after Fallbrook opened its season September 9 at home and was swept in three games by La Jolla Country Day, which reached the semifinals of the San Diego Fall Classic.

“They came and showed why they were semifinalists at the Fall Classic,” Peng said.

The loss to La Jolla Country Day was Peng’s debut as Fallbrook’s volleyball coach.

Peng, who replaced Galen Tomlinson as the Warriors’ coach, has been the head coach for both the boys and girls programs at Mission Hills High School and San Pasqual High School.

Both of those schools have been moved into the Avocado League for the 2008 girls volleyball season – as has Escondido, whose girls assistant coach is Fallbrook boys head coach Tom Saunders.

The San Diego Fall Classic is played at the Epic Volleyball Center in Poway. Pool play matches are best-of-three, and Fallbrook defeated Horizon, University City, and Granite Hills in two games apiece, although the second University City game required a 30-28 overscore following a 25-16 Fallbrook win in the first contest. The three September 12 pool play matches were followed by a seeding match September 13 in which the Warriors lost to Cathedral Catholic. The Dons won the first game by a 25-23 score. “That was just a great game,” Peng said.

The Dons prevailed 25-13 in the second game. Fallbrook, which had been placed in the Gold Division due to its pool play championship, then faced Carlsbad in an elimination match.

Fallbrook won the first game, but the Lancers took the second game to set up a third and final contest. That game was to have been played to 15 points if one team was leading by two, and the Lancers required an 18-16 overscore to eliminate Fallbrook and advance to the semifinals, where they defeated La Jolla Country Day.

“We were close. We had our opportunities,” Peng said.

Both teams had match point opportunities in the third game. Carlsbad led 14-13 before the Warriors scored the next two points. “We swung for the win and we got blocked,” Peng said.

“We’re not quite there yet in ball control, but physically we match up quite well with most everybody,” Peng said. “Once we get our ball control up there we feel like we have a shot to challenge.”

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