Warrior netters clinch league title

Fallbrook High School’s girls’ tennis team clinched the Avocado East League championship Oct. 18 with a 12-6 win over San Marcos at the Fallbrook Tennis Club.

The victory gave the Warriors a league record of 8-0 with two matches remaining. Two of those wins, including an Oct. 13 home match, were against Vista, whose 6-2 record following the Panthers’ Oct. 18 victory placed second in the league standings. San Pasqual, whose 5-3 record as of Oct. 19 included two losses to Vista and one to Fallbrook, was third in the league standings.

“Vista was definitely the closest of all of them,” said Fallbrook coach Dave Ramirez.

The Oct. 13 match against the Panthers had an 11-7 score in Fallbrook’s favor to give the Warriors the two-match lead in the standings.

“Our girls came through. It was pretty cool,” Ramirez said.

The Panthers opted to utilize their top singles player as part of a doubles team which won all three of its sets, but the Warriors won four of the remaining six doubles sets and seven of the nine singles sets.

“It was pretty intense. Both teams wanted to win very bad,” Ramirez said. “I think basically our girls matched their intensity.”

Fallbrook juniors Monica Robinson and Andrea Rybarova each won all three of their singles sets. Fallbrook’s #3 singles player against the Panthers was junior Ainsley Taylor, who had started the season on the Warriors’ junior varsity. Taylor won one of her three sets in the match with Vista.

Fallbrook’s #1 doubles team of sophomores Skyler Schaar and Nataliya Yankova won two of the three matches against the Panthers, as did the Warriors’ #2 doubles team of sophomore Hailey Tucker and junior Joellen Banks.

The win over San Marcos gave Fallbrook a 9-4 overall season record and a nine-match winning streak. “We had a tough start,” Ramirez said.

The Warriors began the season with four losses to teams which reached last year’s CIF playoffs before defeating El Camino in Fallbrook’s final non-league match. “It was very disappointing losing,” Ramirez said.

Although Ramirez felt that the Warriors might have won some of their first four matches, he sought to prepare his team for league and CIF playoff competition with a tough pre-league schedule. Rybarova is an exchange student from Slovakia and was held out of the early matches until her eligibility clearance was confirmed. Ramirez also experimented with different doubles teams during the early part of the season.

“Our doubles teams are much better now, I think,” he said.

The CIF playoffs begin Nov. 1.

“We’re excited about CIF. I think we’re going to be in a good position to upset some good teams,” Ramirez said.

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