Lady Tigers score first win

Wednesday, October 8, 2003

It may have taken an extra night in coming, but the Mountain Home Lady Tigers cracked the volleyball win column last Wednesday night at Caldwell.

The streak reached 27 straight volleyball matches with last Tuesday's loss to Kuna, but the Lady Tigers stepped up big to win in five at Caldwell.

Kuna 25, 25, 25

Mountain Home 21, 19, 12

It looked like the local fans would see the Lady Tigers break into the win column last Tuesday night against Kuna. Game one had seven ties, and Mountain Home grabbed a 17-16 lead on a 5-0 run, but a 7-0 run by Kuna put them in command, 23-17. Kuna ended up taking game one, 25-21.

After leading 2-0 in game two, the Lady Tigers lost the lead, and hung close, but just could not seem to get a rally going to take the lead back, losing, 19-25

In the third game, Mountain Home shot out to a 6-1 lead early, but points came few and far between after that, as they dropped the third game 12-25, and the match, 0-3.

"It's kind of the story of this team," said Mountain Home volleyball coach Heather Cherry after the match.

"We get going, we get going, we get going, and then it's like we just lose that edge, that fire, and that fight, but they played really well.

"I was really proud of how well they covered the block. We had some trouble with our serving, and we tend to give up quite a few points with our serving, and that's just something we have total control over. That's an error we need to take care of.

"Kuna's a good team. Amanda Boschma is an incredible hitter, and the girls got up and blocked her a few times. The girls in the back row, especially Krista Gorman, got several digs, and I was just really proud of the girls. Shelby Wickmark hit really well. The setters did a great job, and the team is really coming together, they're looking really, really good."

Shelby Wickmark had four digs, four kills, a block and seven service points. Kim Gulley had one kill and five blocks, Paula Doerr had kill and two blocks.

The Lady Tigers made just 81 percent of their serves, while Kuna put across 91 percent of theirs.

Mountain Home 19, 14, 25, 25, 15

Caldwell 25, 25, 21, 21, 12

Finally, it came. Mountain Home's first volleyball win of the season, and the first one since 2001. The irony of it all, is the Lady Tigers dropped game one 19-25, and game two 14-25, to fall down two games to none in the best of five match.

Then came two 25-21 wins for the Lady Tigers, to tie the match at 2-2, and then they prevailed 15-12 in game five to win the match.

"It wasn't our best volleyball," said Coach Cherry of the Caldwell match, "but it's really exciting to see how they fought back and won it. The girls are really excited, and I'm really happy for them. The big key was our serving -- we were 94 percent on our serves -- that was great."

Shelby Wickmark had seven digs and eight kills at Caldwell. Kim Gulley had five digs, two kills and three blocks. Paula Doeff had two digs, five kills and three blocks. Christa Stanton had one dig, four kills and two blocks. Krista Gorman had six digs, Tiffany Robins had three kills, Paula Barrientos had two digs and nine assists, and Rachelle Garland had nine assists.

The Lady Tigers, 1-5 in conference and 1-9 overall, went after their second straight win last (Tuesday) night at Bishop Kelly. They are home against Emmett tomorrow (Thursday) night, and go to Jerome on Saturday to face Jerome and Burley.

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