Volleyball team celebrates with win against Caldwell

The Mountain Home Lady Tigers volleyball team returned to the win column last week, celebrating Senior Night Oct. 13 with a conference win over Caldwell.

Mountain Home 3, Caldwell 2

It looked for a while like Mountain Home was going to cruise to a three-set conference win over Caldwell that night, but the Lady Cougars came back to force a fifth game before Mountain Home got some great serves to win the fifth game and the match.

Mountain Home trailed early in the first set but grabbed the lead at 5-4 and went on to a 25-16 win.

The Lady Tigers trailed 0-5 early in the second set, but battled back, taking the lead for good, 20-19, on their way to a 25-22 win.

Mountain Home shot out to a 4-0 lead early in the third set and led by as many as seven points, the last at 13-6, before Caldwell fought back to tie the game at 19-19 and then outscore the Lady Tigers 6-2 down the stretch for a 25-21 win.

Caldwell led all the way in the fourth set, and enjoyed its biggest lead at set-point 24-13 before the Lady Tigers battled back to within four, before losing 20-25.

That set up the fifth and final game, which only goes to 15. Mountain Home trailed early, but got some great serving from senior Mattie Bennett, with five aces to win the set, 15-9, and the match, three games to two.

"There were a lot of distractions tonight, with it being Senior Night and Pink Out Night, the girls were lucky that Caldwell was asleep the first set," said Mountain Home Lady Tiger volleyball coach Jill Peterson. "They woke up the second and third, and we weren't prepared for that. We talked a lot about trying to get our focus back, and it wasn't until we were got beat pretty badly before we got our focus back."

Coach Peterson was pleased with the comeback effort in the fifth set, commending the serving effort of Mattie Bennett.

Jessica Ruffing had 14 kills and two service aces. Demery Dean had 12 kills and six aces. Mattie Bennett had nine kills and nine aces, including five in the last set. Sable Lohmeier had six kills, two blocks and an ace and Ksyenya Peterson had 41 assists and four aces.

Middleton 3, Mountain Home 1

The Lady Tigers started strong, but fell in four sets to Middleton last Wednesday night to close out their regular season schedule at Middleton.

Mountain Home came out ready to play in the first set, serving and spiking the way to a 25-13 win.

The Lady Tigers seemed to lose focus in the next two sets, and lost the second set, 9-25, and the third, 8-25.

They came back in the fourth set but came up short, 19-25, to lose the match 3-1.

"Tonight was a match of ups and downs," Coach Peterson said. "We started the first set stronger than we've ever been. We set the pace and executed so well. "It was fun to watch them play so technically sound and with such energy. Our serving really kept them out of sync."

Mattie Bennett had five kills for Mountain Home at Middleton. Demery Dean had four kills and six service aces, and Willow Freer had four kills and two blocks.

The Lady Tigers finished conference play with a 2-8 record, seeded fifth, and opened at Middleton again against the 4th-seeded Lady Vikings.

Middleton 3, Mountain Home 1

Mountain Home had to go back to Middleton Saturday night and play the Lady Vikings three nights after ending the regular season there. It was another tough match, with the Lady Tigers managing to take one set in a 3-1 loss.

Mountain Home played the Lady Vikings tough in the first set, but came up short, 23-25. They lost the second set 18-25 but came back to win the third set 25-20.

Not much went right for Mountain Home in the fourth set, as they lost 10-25 to lose the match 3-1.

"With the exception of the fourth set, we played solid, good volleyball tonight," Coach Peterson said. "I was very pleased that my team just kept plugging away at Middleton and we hung with them the first three sets, even beating them 25-20 in the third set.

"Our defense was great and we had quite a few long rallies," she added. "Unfortunately, we struggled with serve receive in that fourth set and we created a deficit that was not possible to come back from."

Demery Dean had 11 kills and one service ace. Jessica Ruffing had nine kills and an ace, Mattie Bennett had six kills and an ace and Ksyenya Peterson had 28 assists and four aces.

The Lady Tigers faced Caldwell Monday night in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium in a loser-out match.