Lady Tigers fall to top SIC teams

The win streak ended last week for the girls volleyball team, as Mountain Home played the top two teams in the conference.

Bishop Kelly 25, 25, 25

Mountain Home 22, 5, 18

The Lady Tigers came ready to play last Tuesday night at Bishop Kelly, hoping to make it two straight wins, but fell short in a close, 22-25, first game.

Bishop Kelly easily won game two, 25-5, and won game three handily, 25-8, and the match, 3-0.

"Our first game, we played awesome," said Mountain Home Lady Tiger volleyball coach Heather Cherry.

"We were hitting, we were covering, we were talking, and looking really good, and we got up 22-17, and then quit playing -- just quit -- and just could not get out of the gate in the second game, and in the third game, ended up playing kind of mediocre.

"All the air was out of them, which is very frustrating, because we had really made some improvements, and then we just didn't play like we had."

Shelby Wickmark had three kills, a block, an ace and three digs at Bishop Kelly. Kim Gulley had two kills, two blocks and a dig. Paula Doerr had two digs and a kill, Tiffany Robins had three kills, Christa Stanton, two blocks and a kill, Rachelle Garland had two digs, and Krista Gorman had one dig.

Emmett 25, 25, 25

Mountain Home 13, 10, 22

The Lady Tigers lost in three straight to Emmett at home last Thursday night in SIC 4A conference volleyball.

In the first game, Mountain Home managed to tie the game, 5-5, before the Lady Huskies took off on a 20-8 run to win, 25-13.

Emmett's Jessica Gurney came up big in game two, getting six blocks, as the Lady Huskies breezed to a 25-10 win.

Mountain Home came back strong the third game. After trailing, 16-9, the Lady Tigers fought back to within one, at 21-20, but could come no closer, losing game three, 22-25, and the match, 3-0.

"Emmett's a good team, and they can hit really well," said Coach Cherry. "They place the ball, and I tell you what, they don't ever quit, they go after every single ball, and kept putting it back on us.

"That third game, we really played them tough. We kept the corners covered, which is where they were hitting most of the balls, and making those adjustments takes a little bit of time for the girls to shuttle into that, but Kim (Gulley) had some digs off Gurney, and so did Paula Doeff, so I was happy to see that."

Shelby Wickmark had six service points, four service aces, three kills and three digs on the night. Rachelle Garland had seven service points and an ace.

Paula Doeff had five service points and three aces, Amanda Bitterman had four kills and three digs, Kim Gulley had six digs, two kills and a block.

The Lady Tigers connected on 42 of 47 serves, for 89 percent, while Emmett was 68 for 74, for 92 percent.

Last Saturday, Mountain Home went to Jerome for a tri-match with Jerome and Burley. Mountain Home lost to the host Lady Tigers, 12-25, 16-25, and lost to Burley, 23-25, 9-25.

Last (Tuesday) night was Senior Night, with seven seniors honored.

The Lady Tigers close out their regular season schedule tomorrow (Thursday) night at Kuna. Mountain Home will host the District III 4A Volleyball Tourney Oct. 20-22.