Volleyball athletes honored with awards

Mountain Home High School volleyball coaches handed out awards for the season at Tuesday night's Awards Banquet.

Mountain Home Lady Tiger varsity volleyball coach Sarah DeVore handed out letters to her varsity squad. Earning the Tiger Spirit Award was Melinda Spagnolo. Brandie Riggs earned the Most Valuable Player award.

Coach DeVore also handed out academic awards. Earning awards for having a grade point average between 3.75 and 4.0 were Sara Baldridge, Nickayla Skinner and Emily Moranda. Honored for GPAs of 3.25 to 4.0 were Stephanie Bowen, Sarah Cantrell, Chantell Crane, Tawni Downen, Charde` Huntington, Holland Nichelson, Katie Price, Brandie Riggs and Melinda Spagnolo.

Lady Tiger JV coach Erin Markus handed out special awards to her JV Lady Tigers. Katrina Hodgerson earned the Leadership award, Kelsey Hopkins earned the In Your Face award, Casey Stevens received the Stepping Up award, Lindsey Kellerman and Kayla Woodin both earned the Spirit award, and Bre Sugden earned the Most Improved award.

Lady Tiger sophomore volleyball coach Andrea Cotton honored her sophomores for their outstanding season that saw them go 14-0 during conference play.

Team members included Chelsea Bacon, Amanda Osborn, Lindsey Sessions, Arlene Futch, Daniella Stratton, Rachel Kowalewski, Shelby Roberts, Blas Lord and Alex Schmidt.

"They did so good! I was very proud of them," said Coach Cotton. "They pressed when they needed to press and always came through when they needed to."

Mountain Home faced Columbia in the Sophomore District Tournament and lost a close match to them to be put out of the tourney.

"I knew they would be tough and that they would be one of the teams we'd have to play our best for," said Coach Cotton.

"Unfortunately they played a little bit better than we did that day,

but they ended up winning it (the district tourney), so at least we lost to a good team!"

There was speculation as the regular season came to a close whether Coach Cotton would make it through the season before giving birth to their daughter.

"I started having contractions earlier that week, but they kept telling me to hold her in," laughed Coach Cotton. "My water broke on Monday (Oct. 15 -- two days after the sophomore tournament) morning and I didn't have her until Tuesday morning... so it was a little long, but everything worked out fine, and she (Madison)'s a great baby."