Lady Tigers post two wins to close out regular season

The Mountain Home Lady Tigers closed out their regular season volleyball schedule last week with conference wins over Middleton and Caldwell.

Mountain Home 25, 26, 24, 19, 15

Middleton 10, 24, 26, 25, 13

The Lady Tigers snapped a five-match losing skid last Tuesday night, holding off Middleton to win in five games over the Lady Vikings.

Mountain Home got off to a great start in game one, rolling to a 25-10 win. The Lady Tigers managed a 26-24 win in the second game.

Mountain Home nearly swept the Lady Vikings in three, but Middleton rallied to win the third game 26-24 and won game four 25-19 to force a fifth and final game.

Mountain Home, who let Middleton beat them in five at home last month, hung on to win game five 15-13 to win the match 3-2.

Dylan Dean was 24-for-26 on serving with four aces, seven assists, six digs and four kills. Emilee Schetzle was 16-for-16 on serving, with two aces, two kills and a block. Brittany Ryan was 15-for-16 on serving, with nine digs. Stephanie Jewell was 15-for-18 on serving with three aces and nine assists. Dakota Dean was 11-for-11 on serving with two aces and five digs. Krissy Elliott was 9-for-11 with an ace and six digs. Hailey Belt had five assists and a kill, Selena Foster had three kills and three digs, and Tessa Pachner had three blocks and a kill.

"We had lost to them earlier in the season in five games," said Mountain Home volleyball coach Rachele Asbury. "We should have won, but we had let down, so this time at their place, we were fighting -- fighting for the win."

Mountain Home 25, 25, 21, 25

Caldwell 15, 15, 25, 12

Mountain Home celebrated Senior Night with a 3-1 win over Caldwell last Thursday.

After falling behind, 0-3, early in the first game, the Lady Tigers came on strong, winning the game, 25-15, recording 10 serving aces in the game.

Game two was more of the same as Mountain Home took the lead early. After Caldwell had battled back to within four, 19-15, the Lady Tigers scored the final six points of the game to win 25-15.

In the third game, Mountain Home fell behind early and managed to tie the game at 12, 13 and 18, but could never get the lead as the team lost 21-25.

The fourth game was tied four times early, the last at 5, before Mountain Home shot out to a lead it never game up. When Caldwell got to within six, at 18-12, Mountain Home went on a 7-0 roll to win the game 25-12 and the match, three games to one.

Dakota Dean was 18-for-20 on serving, with five aces, a kill and seven digs. Emilee Schetzle was 17-for-19 on serving with three aces, four kills, four blocks and six digs. Dylan Dean was 16-for-17 on servin, with five aces, 14 kills, six assists, a block and 12 digs. Brittany Ryan was 14-for-15 on servin, with three aces and six digs. Stephanie Jewell was 14-for-15 on serving with two aces, 10 assists and five digs. Krissy Elliott was 7-for-9 on serving with two aces and eight digs.

Meanwhile, Hailey Belt had 10 assists, three kills and a block. Selena Foster had 10 kills and a block, Emma Wenger had five kills and three blocks while Tessa Pachner had four kills.

"It was a great night for the seniors and the rest of the team," Coach Asbury said. "We came out and we said that any team can beat us at any time, and we can beat any team at any time. So we needed to show ourselves and Caldwell that we meant business going into District, and we wanted that momentum for next week, so they did great."

The Lady Tigers finished the conference season 8-8 in conference play and 20-18 overall. They tied with Kuna for fourth place but won the tie-breaker, so they hosted the Lady Kavemen on Monday in first round action of the District III 4A Volleyball Tournament. Second round action Tuesday night had them playing either Skyview or Caldwell.

District action moves to Nampa High School for consolation round action today, Oct. 19, and third place and championship games follow Thursday, Oct. 20.