Lady Tigers travel to BK for volleyball season opener

The Mountain Home Lady Tigers tip off their 2010 volleyball season on the road at Bishop Kelly Thursday night.

Mountain Home Lady Tiger varsity volleyball coach Rachele Asbury was pleased with the turnout for volleyball this year.

"We had 38 girls at try-outs, and ended up keeping 10 girls for each of the teams, sophomore, JV and varsity. Unfortunately, we can't keep everybody, but it was a good turnout and we were able to make some decisions to change teams and move some girls up and there's some younger girls playing on some of the higher level teams."

Coach Asbury said her varsity squad is taller this year.

"We have two seniors on our team, two freshmen, and then a mixture of some sophomores and juniors to fill the rest of the team. We're definitely going to be taller than we were last year, so we're hoping to have a good blocking game this year."

Coach Asbury sees the competition in the SIC 4A conference race to once again be tough.

"The tough teams, as always, are going to be Kuna, Columbia, Middleton, and Skyview, but I don't look past anybody in our league. They're all tough, and we just have to prepare for all of them."

The third-year coach was not quite sure what to expect in tomorrow night's opener against the Lady Knights at Bishop Kelly.

"I know they lost some seniors last year, but I know that they had at least half the team returning, so they're going to have some experience there. They're a good defensive team and we're going to have to be on our ball."

The Lady Tigers then go to Kuna Friday and Saturday for a tournament. Asbury hopes to get her girls lots of experience in the tournament.

"Tournaments are always a good chance for us to put girls in difference spots and just get time playing together. This group is a mixture of girls and about half of them have played together because they were on the JV team last year, but with some freshmen that we've pulled up and the girls that were on varsity last year, it's going to be a chance for us to have the girls play together and get used to playing next to different people."