Lady Tigers pick up needed win versus Middleton

The Mountain Home Lady Tigers picked up another conference win in volleyball last week and got some valuable experience at the Borah Invitational Tournament over the weekend.

Mountain Home 24, 25, 14, 25, 15

Middleton 26, 23, 25, 21, 12

The Lady Tigers forced a fifth and deciding set and won their third straight conference volleyball match Tuesday night when they beat Middleton at Middleton.

Mountain Home, which had lost in four close sets to Middleton earlier in the season at Mountain Home, battled tough in the first set but came up short, 26-28. The second set was another close one, but this time the Lady Tigers prevailed, 25-23.

Mountain Home struggled in the third set and lost 14-25, but battled back in the fourth set to win 25-21 and force the fifth and deciding set.

The Lady Tigers held off the home team in the fifth set, 15-12, to win the match.

"This was the first match that has gone to five sets for us," said Lady Tigers coach Jill Peterson, "so I'm pleased we stayed focused and won that short fifth set. The third set was ugly, and I'm proud of the girls for putting it behind them and going on to win the fourth and fifth sets."

Jacci Cristobal had 17 kills for the Lady Tigers. Selena Foster added eight kills, Janay Yulis had four kills and three blocks, Sable Lohmeier had two kills and two blocks, Ksyenya Peterson had 29 assists and Dakota Dean had 20 digs.

"We had our starting outside hitter, Selena Foster, back from an ankle injury that put her out of commission for three weeks, so we were adjusting to that difference," said Coach Peterson. "We'll be getting our groove back this weekend at the Borah tournament."

The Lady Tigers went to Borah High School for the Borah Invitational Tourney over the weekend.

In Friday's pool play, which consisted of games to 30, they lost to Borah 23-30 and beat Columbia 30-20. In Saturday pool play, they beat Nampa Christian 30-28, edged Wood River 30-29 and beat Melba, 30-22.

That put them in the bracket single elimination tournament, where they were seeded seventh out of 18 teams. They faced Wood River and lost 23-25, 25-16, 9-15, to be eliminated from bracket play.

The Lady Tigers are home the rest of the regular season. They hosted Kuna on Tuesday, host Emmett on Thursday and close out their regular season schedule Oct. 16 against Bishop Kelly.