Lady Tigers split as they get ready for district play

The Mountain Home Lady Tigers picked up their second conference volleyball win of the season last week, beating Columbia in five games. They closed out their regular season schedule with a loss at home against Skyview.

Lady Tigers 3

Columbia 2

Mountain Home led early in game one before dropping behind.

There were five ties in the game, the last at 10-10. From there the Lady Wildcats gradually pulled away for a 25-17 win.

The Lady Tigers went on a 6-0 run in game two to go up, 11-7, and built up a 22-12 lead, winning the game, 25-19.

The third game saw Mountain Home start slow, trailing early, 2-7. They managed to tie the game at 11, 12, 15, 20, 21, and 22 before going on to a 25-23 win to go up 2-1 in the match.

Game four saw the Lady Tigers battle back from a 2-8 deficit to tie the game at 11. They fell behind again, and battled back to tie it at 17, but Columbia went on an 8-1 run to win, 25-18, to tie the match at 2-2.

Game five, which goes to 15, saw the Lady Tigers trail 0-7 before they went on an 8-0 run to take the lead, 8-7. They then fell behind, 8-10, but came back to tie it at 10, before Columbia again regained the lead. Mountain Home battled back from a 14-15 deficit to score three straight points to win the game, 17-15, and the match, 3-2.

"This is the most proud of the girls that I've been all season long," said a happy Lady Tiger volleyball coach Sarah DeVore after the match.

"We've been waiting for that fight to come out, and better late than never as we're heading into district next week. Brandie Riggs had a heck of a game. She brought us back in when we were running low, and Hannah Zamora on defense -- everyone really came together well -- I could name them all, as they played so well, and I'm really proud!"

Brandie Riggs had 17 assists and 10 kills, and was 24/25 serving, with 14 service points and three aces. Chantell Crane had four aces and nine kills. Hannah Zamora was 14/14 serving, with five service points and an ace, 12 digs and six kills, Katie Price was 16/17 on serves, with eight service points and an ace, and Emily Moranda had five kills and four blocks.

Skyview 3

Mountain Home 0

The Lady Tigers dropped their final match of the regular season, 3-0, to Skyview during Senior Night in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium.

Honoring nine seniors, Coach DeVore played all nine of them during the first two games, which were won by Skyview, 25-10, 25-7.

"I really do think Skyview showed why they're undefeated tonight, and tonight our goal was to recognize these seniors and recognize their accomplishments," said Coach DeVore. "I wish we could have shown more with our seniors, and not started off so poorly, but it was a good time to recognize these nine seniors tonight and all their hard work this season, and I hope their hard work pays off in district."

Coach DeVore went to her regular starting lineup in the third game, and it showed, as they grabbed an early lead, and led by four on several occasions, the last at 10-6. Skyview then went on a 7-0 lead to take the lead, and managed to hold off the Lady Tigers, 25-17, to win the match, 3-0.

The Lady Tigers finished their conference schedule 2-12, and opened district tournament play Monday at Emmett against the Lady Huskies. Coach DeVore hopes they can put together a good district tournament and qualify for state. "This group is really starting to work well together, and we've got a lot of support all the way around on this team, and a lot of work to do, but we're improving and little by little we're getting there. With district coming up, and with the improvements that we've working on all season, it will be nice to see what we can do at tournament time."