Lady Tigers fall to Kuna, Emmett

The Mountain Home Lady Tigers lost two hard-fought volleyball matches last week, dropping their home opener to Kuna and losing on the road at Emmett.

Kuna 25, 25, 25

Mountain Home 8, 20, 16

The Lady Tigers fell in three straight games to Kuna last Tuesday night in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium in Mountain Home.

The first game certainly showed first-game jitters for Mountain Home, as they fell behind early and never were able to get their game going, losing 8-25.

The second game saw Mountain Home fall behind early, but stay close. Kuna's biggest lead was six points, but the closest the Lady Tigers could get was within three points, at 12-15. Both teams had their problems serving that game -- Mountain Home was 14 for 20 and Kuna 19 of 25 -- and that meant Mountain Home was never able to take the lead, and Kuna was never able to really pull away, although they won the game 25-20.

Mountain Home took an early 2-0 lead in game three, only to see Kuna shoot out to a 23-12 lead. The Lady Tigers rallied to within seven, 16-23, but Kuna scored the final two points to win the game and the match.

Despite losing in three, Mountain Home volleyball coach Heather Cherry saw plenty of positives come out of the night's efforts.

"There were definitely some things that we know now to work on. It's always good to get into competition with another team. When you're just playing with girls that are learning the same kinds of things you are, you can only learn so much, so it's always good to get out here and compete against a team, especially a really good team like Kuna.

"You can tell they've been playing together a long time. They can hit the ball very well, they place the ball very well, they block very well, so they're a really good team for us to look at and say, 'okay, here's some things that we need to work on, that we can get better at,' so that's always a very positive thing.

"I'm not ashamed at all at how the girls played tonight. They came back and showed some really promising things, so I'm very pleased with them and with what I see as potential."

For the match, the Lady Tigers connected on 33 of 47 serves, for 70 percent, while Kuna was good on 64 of 73 serves for 88 percent.

Erica Stanton was 11 of 12 servicing, with seven service points.

Ali Hillman led the Lady Tigers in kills with six, and Paula Barrientos had four assists.

Emmett 25, 25, 25

Mountain Home 10, 17, 10

The Emmett Lady Huskies have been a perennial power in 4A volleyball, and this year appears to be no exception, as Mountain Home lost in three to the Lady Huskies last Thursday night at Emmett.

Still, although the scores (10-25, 17-25, 10-25) may not have indicated it, Coach Cherry came away from Emmett feeling good about her Lady Tiger volleyball team.

"We played much better than we did Tuesday night. We played a much different match at Emmett. They've got some hitters that really can hit the ball, straight down, but we played really well. We passed just exceptionally well.

"Erica Stanton, Amanda Bitterman and Stephanie Spagnolo, they were just amazing. Every ball that came to them, they passed it up right to the setter, and the balls were coming hard and I was very, very impressed with that.

"We set the ball up very well, but we had some trouble hitting. We were getting out of position and hitting the ball sideways and hitting it a little too deep, but we did have some really good hits."

Ali Hillman led the Lady Tigers with eight kills. Stephanie Spagnolo and Erica Stanton both had five. Paula Doerr and Dani Dean each had three kills, and Paula Barrientos had 15 assists.

"So there more really, really good things that we saw and the girls played with a lot more intensity, a lot more excitement," added Cherry.

"They were talking really well and moving really well. I was proud of them. They did a good job."

The Lady Tigers were home against Skyview last night and travel to Bishop Kelly tomorrow (Thursday) night. Both matches are conference matches. On Saturday Mountain Home heads to Twin Falls for the annual Twin Falls Invitational Volleyball Tournament.