Injuries cost Warrior spikers in SoCal Invite

By the end of the Southern California Invitational volleyball tournament, Fallbrook High School was missing two of its starters due to ankle sprains, which in part explains the Warriors’ 1-4 record in the tournament.

“I don’t like it, but we are what our record is,” said Fallbrook coach Peter Peng, whose record following an October 28 league loss at Mission Hills was 3-5 in Avocado East League competition and 9-20 overall. “We’re fighting. We’re competing.”

Fallbrook traveled to San Marcos for an October 20 league match and defeated the Knights in five games. Fallbrook hosted San Pasqual the following day, losing in four games and also losing senior outside hitter Suzi Mellano to an ankle sprain during the fourth game. Mellano missed the entire tournament, although she returned for league competition October 27 for a home match against Escondido and had ten kills in that four-game match and an additional ten kills in the three-game October 28 match.

The Warriors began Southern California Invitational play October 22 with pool play matches at Grossmont High School. Fallbrook opened pool play with a 25-17, 25-6 victory over Calexico but then lost a 26-24, 25-22 match to Coronado and a 25-23, 25-14 match against Grossmont.

Fallbrook’s third-place showing in pool play placed the Warriors in the tournament’s Silver Division for elimination play October 23, and Fallbrook was seeded second in that division.

“We thought we had a good shot,” Peng said.

Dover Bay of British Columbia was the Silver Division’s top seed, and Fallbrook opened Saturday play with a seeding match against Dover Bay, who took 25-19 and 27-25 victories over the Warriors.

“We honestly thought we’d see each other in the tournament division finals,” Peng said.

Fallbrook’s first elimination match was against Santana. The Warriors won the first game by a 25-16 score, but during that game senior right side hitter Haley Destefani sprained her ankle and missed the remainder of the match as well as the following week’s games.

Santana won the second game by a 25-22 margin to force a third game, which the Sultans took by a 15-13 score.

“We were playing like we were going to win, but Santana played consistently,” Peng said. “Santana played steady and we basically made more errors.”

The loss eliminated the Warriors from further tournament competition.

“I’m really proud of the girls,” Peng said. “Everybody’s really stepped up when they had to.”

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