Lady Tigers fall to Bishop Kelly

Blas Lord sets the ball for the Lady Tigers during the team's season opener at Bishop Kelly. Despite an early first-match advantage, Bishop Kelly roared past the Lady Tigers to sweep the three-match game.

The Mountain Home Lady Tigers dropped their season opening volleyball match to Bishop Kelly last Thursday night, 3-0.

Mountain Home led most of the way in the first game, leading by as much as four points on six different occasions, the last at 16-12. The Lady Knights battled back to tie the game at 17-17 and 18-18. After going up 19-18, the Lady Tigers would not score again, as Bishop Kelly scored seven straight points to win 25-19.

Mountain Home never led in the second game, but stayed close, tying the game 10 times, the last at 19-19, before the Lady Knights scored the final six points to win 25-19.

Mountain Home led briefly, 3-2, in the third game before falling behind to the Lady Knights, who prevailed, 25-16, in the third game.

For Mountain Home Lady Tiger volleyball coach Rachele Asbury, finishing games, which plagued Mountain Home last year, was ever present Thursday night.

"Definitely finishing, and a lot of passing errors on serves received, balls in the net, hitting into the net, serving into the net, things that we need to minimize if we want to play with teams and pull ahead for a win. I think the girls had some first-game jitters. We need to clean that up and play mentally tough."

Shelby Roberts went 12/12 serving, with six service points.

Blas Lord was 9/9 on serves, and had four kills. Nickayla Skinner led Mountain Home with six assists, and Arlene Futch had 12 digs.

The Lady Tigers were at a two-day tournament at Kuna over the weekend. They were back at Kuna Tuesday night for a conference tri-match with Kuna and Nampa. They return to action next Tuesday at Columbia for a conference match.