Volleyball team ends regular season, heads to districts

The Mountain Home Lady Tigers closed out their regular season volleyball schedule last week with losses to Skyview and Middleton.

Skyview 3

Mtn. Home 0

The Lady Tigers lost in three straight games to Skyview last Tuesday at Skyview.

Mountain Home lost the first game 14-25, lost a close second game 18-25 and dropped the third game 8-25.

Nickayla Skinner led the Lady Tigers with 7/8 serving, six assists and one block. Sarah Cantrell was 5/7 serving, with an ace and four kills. Kelsie Hopkins was 5/8 serving with one ace. Charde Huntington was 2/3 serving with one block. Samantha Laughlin was 1/2 on serves, with an ace, a block and six kills. Jewell was 3/3 serving, Tanya McKenzie was 1/1 serving, Blas Lord was 1/3 serving with two assists and a kill, and Katrina Hodgerson had three assists.

Middleton 3

Mtn. Home 0

The Mountain Home Lady Tigers closed out their regular season volleyball schedule at home last Thursday night losing in three straight games to Middleton.

It was Senior Night for Mountain Home, with five seniors honored before the match started. With that loss of focus, the Lady Tigers watched Middleton score 10 unanswered points to end the first game 25-10.

Mountain Home played with more focus in the second game and led early.

The game saw eight ties, the last one at 17-17, with Middleton pulling out to a 25-21 win.

Mountain Home took an early 4-1 lead in the third game, which had four ties, the last one at 8-8. The Lady Tigers stayed close, aided mainly by poor Middleton serves, but could not get any momentum and lost the third game 18-25.

"We had hitting errors throughout, but minimized them in the second and third games and were able to play pretty well with them. We had some missed serves again, and we can't miss those serves against tough teams," said Lady Tigers volleyball coach Rachele Asbury.

Nickayla Skinner was 11/13 serving, had six service points, an ace, a kill, a block and nine assists. Blas Lord was 7/8 serving, had two service points, an ace, five kills and a block. Jenny Jewell was 7/7 serving, with two service points and a kill. Charde Huntington was 6/8 serving, had three service points and two kills. Kelsie Hopkins was 6/6 serving, with one service point. Sarah Cantrell was 5/6 serving, with two kills, Jasmyn Jewett had four kills, and Katrina Hodgerson had two digs.

Seniors Jennie Jewell, Katrina Hodgerson, Sarah Cantrell, Jasmyn Jewett and Kelsie Hopkins were honored before the match.

The Lady Tigers finished 2-12 in conference play, earning the number seven seed, and opened the District III 4A Volleyball Tournament at Kuna Monday against number two seed Bishop Kelly.

Going into the district tourney and putting the season won-loss record aside, Coach Asbury thought her Lady Tigers were capable of playing with anyone in the conference.

"We are. It just depends on which group of girls decide to show up and play. We could be that team that comes out there and proves it."

The District III 4A Volleyball Tournament runs through Oct. 23 with the top three teams advancing to state Oct. 31 to Nov. 1 at Skyline High School in Idaho Falls.

Update from Districts

The Mountain Home Lady Tigers opened the District III 4A Volleyball Tournament at Kuna with a close loss to Bishop Kelly Monday night. The Lady Tigers are scheduled to play Columbia in a loser-out match on Tuesday. See complete details of the Lady Tigers district tourney action in next week's paper.