Warriors take fourth in Scripps Ranch Tournament

Fallbrook High School's girls volleyball team traveled to Scripps Ranch High School for the Sept. 29-30 Scripps Ranch Tournament, where the Warriors took fourth place.

"I was proud of the girls," said Fallbrook coach Chip Patterson.

The Warriors won two of their three matches during pool play Sept. 29. Mission Hills and Fallbrook began pool play with a 25-23, 25-16 Grizzlies victory. Fallbrook had a 20-10 lead in the first game.

"We just made too many errors," Patterson said.

Patterson believed that affected the team during the second set.

"We were kind of like mentally defeated," said Patterson. "We made way more mental mistakes."

The Warriors were able to obtain three-game victories in the other two pool play matches. Poway defeated Fallbrook in a 25-12 first game before the Warriors won 25-20 and 15-8 sets. Poway is in Division I for CIF playoff purposes and Fallbrook is in Division II.

Christian was Fallbrook's final pool play opponent. Game one ended as a 25-15 Warriors triumph. The Patriots prevailed in the 26-24 second set. The third game ended with Fallbrook on the preferred side of the 16-14 score.

Fallbrook's Sept. 30 re-seeding match was a 25-18, 25-21 victory over Mount Carmel. "We beat them easily," Patterson said.

Mission Hills and Fallbrook played once again in the quarterfinal match. This time the Warriors won 25-14 and 25-23 games. "We made sure to execute," Patterson said.

Scripps Ranch eventually won the tournament championship and reached the final with a 25-23, 25-17 victory over Fallbrook in the semifinal. "The games were tight," Patterson said.

Patterson felt that the Warriors were outmatched physically rather than that they defeated themselves mentally.

"They just dominated," Patterson said of Scripps Ranch. "They had a big middle and we could not get around her."

A one-game match for third place was played with San Marcos prevailing by a 25-23 score. At one time Fallbrook had a 21-18 lead. "We just started making mental mistakes," Patterson said.

For a match to count in a team's overall record a team must be required to win two games or three games, so the loss to San Marcos is not part of Fallbrook's overall record. The Warriors ended the tournament with an 11-8 season record including a 1-0 mark in Valley League play.

The Scripps Ranch Tournament included an all-tournament team, and one of those players was Fallbrook senior Emma Christopherson.

"She is probably the most dominant player that we have," Patterson said. "She just makes things happen. She's motivated and she's driven."

Christopherson is normally one of Fallbrook's starting outside hitters, but during the tournament Patterson moved middle blocker Sonsi Jarvis to the outside hitter and opposite hitter positions and Christopherson was a middle blocker for the Scripps Ranch Tournament.