Warrior spikers play 16 matches in 12 days

Fallbrook High School’s girls volleyball team had an overall season record of 13-16 after Oct. 20, including an 7-9 record in matches played between Oct. 9 and Oct. 20.

Tournaments on two consecutive weekends along with four Avocado West League matches accounted for the Warriors playing 16 matches in 12 days. “The girls have been playing pretty much the entire month of Oct.,” said Fallbrook coach Robin Reese. “That’s a huge load for them.”

Because of the Tuesday league games, the team couldn’t spare the Mondays following the tournaments off from practice and did not have a rest from practice until Friday, Oct. 26, when they engaged in a non-court team activity. The Warriors were 3-1 in league play during the 12-day stretch, 2-5 in the Oct. 12-13 ASICS Challenge tournament hosted by Torrey Pines High School and contested at Alliant University, and 2-3 at the Oct. 19 to 20 Southern California Invitational tournament.

After league wins Oct. 9 at home against Carlsbad and Oct. 11 at Vista, the Warriors spent Oct. 12 in pool play at the ASICS Challenge. Fallbrook lost all three pool play matches in two games. “We just didn’t do anything right that night,” Reese said. “It was a tough night for us.”

Alliant University is in the Scripps Ranch area of San Diego. The Warriors’ first Saturday match was at 8 a.m. against Francis Parker. “The girls hardly had any sleep,” Reese said.

That didn’t prevent the Warriors from winning that bronze bracket seeding match in two games. Fallbrook’s first elimination match was a three-game win over Murrieta Valley, and in the semifinal the Warriors lost to San Clemente High School in two games.

Due to fatigue for both teams, Reese and La Jolla Country Day coach Peter Ogle agreed that the third-place match would consist of one game to 25 points. The Torreys won that game.

Fallbrook closed out the first round of league play Oct. 16 with a three-game sweep over El Camino, but Rancho Buena Vista’s three-game win Oct. 18 left the Warriors with a 3-3 league record. The Longhorns had also defeated Fallbrook in the first round of league play.

The Warriors played their Oct. 19 Southern California Invitational matches at Grossmont Community College. A 26-24, 25-21 victory over Grossmont High School was followed by a 25-19, 25-18 triumph over San Pasqual. The pool championship thus came down to the match between Fallbrook and Saddleback Valley Christian High School of San Juan Capistrano, whose nickname is also the Warriors. Saddleback Valley Christian won the first match by a 25-19 score while Fallbrook prevailed by an identical margin in the second game. Saddleback Valley captured the match with a 15-13 win in the third game while Fallbrook settled for second place in the pool.

“We played really well Friday night,” Reese said. “The game we lost was really tight.”

Reese noted that the Fallbrook team played well in the Warriors’ two victories. “We did the same thing with Saddleback Valley, but they just came out on top,” she said.

Fallbrook’s Saturday matches were at the Coast Volleyball Club building in the Sorrento Valley area of San Diego. The seeding match was against Mission Vista, and the Timberwolves were on the favorable end of 25-23 and 25-21 games.

Fallbrook and Saddleback Valley Christian faced off once again in an elimination match, and Saddleback Valley advanced with a 25-18, 25-19 victory. “I think we just ran out of gas,” Reese said.