Lady Tigers sweep Columbia; head to district

The Mountain Home Lady Tigers closed out their regular season volleyball schedule with a three-game sweep of Columbia at Columbia last Thursday.

The Lady Tigers won the first game, 25-20, battled to a 27-25 win in game two, and took game three, 25-18, to win the match, 3-0.

Dani Dean had 14 kills on the night. Brandie Riggs had 22 assists, and was 20 for 23 serving, with three aces. Sammy Dodge hit nine of 10 serves and had two aces, Maggie Peterson was seven for eight, with three kills, Ashley Kipp and Katie Price were both six for six serving, Kipp had an ace, and Chantell Crane had four kills.

"It was a slow-paced game (match)," said Mountain Home Lady Tiger volleyball coach Sarah DeVore. "The officials kind of struggled to get into a rhythm, and the girls struggled to get into a rhythm, but luckily, that was okay for us."

The Lady Tigers finished 4-10 in league play, which gave them the sixth seed. They opened District III 4A Volleyball Tournament play Monday night at Kuna against the Lady Kavemen, who ended up 10-4 in league play to capture the number three seed.

"We played them five games to start out with, and our scores on the last match were tight scores, so they're a team we can compete with," said Coach DeVore going into their match with Kuna.

"Hopefully we show up with the intensity and desire to win."

Other first round pairings Monday, and their conference records in parentheses were: number one seed Skyview (14-0) hosting number eight seed Columbia (0-14); number four seed Middleton (8-6) hosting number five seed Bishop Kelly (6-8), and number two seed Emmett (11-3) hosting seventh-seeded Nampa (3-11).

Tuesday's schedule had higher seeded losers hosting and higher seeded winners hosting. The tourney moves to Columbia High School in Nampa tonight (Wednesday) with loser bracket games at 5 and 7 p.m. Tomorrow (Thursday) is the third-place game at 5 p.m. and the championship game at 7 p.m. The top three teams advance on to state next week.