Lady Tigers get ready for district

It's time to let bygones be bygones, and look to the future. The case in point for the Mountain Home Lady Tigers is the District III 4A Volleyball Tournament.

The Lady Tigers closed out their regular season schedule last week with losses to Vallivue and Nampa.

Vallivue 25, 25, 26

Mountain Home 12, 16, 24

The Mountain Home Lady Tigers played their best game of the match in the third game, but still lost in three straight games to the Lady Falcons at Vallivue last Tuesday night.

Paula Barrientos had 19 assists, Jordana Price had 14 kills, Dani Dean, six kills, Erica Stanton, four kills and Amanda Bitterman, two.

"It was a real slow moving game," said Mountain Home Lady Tiger volleyball coach Heather Cherry. "We just never got into it."

Nampa 25, 25, 23, 25

Mountain Home 19, 15, 25, 22

Seven Mountain Home seniors played volleyball before the hometown fans for the last time last Thursday night in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium. The Lady Tigers lost in four, but played fairly well all night.

The first game had nine ties, the last one at 17-17, before Nampa built up the lead and won, 25-19.

Serving woes continued for Mountain Home. They made only 14 of 20 serves in the six-point game one loss.

Mountain Home took an early 3-1 lead in game two, but then fell behind by 12, 10-22. They tried to battle back, but lost, 15-25.

The Lady Tigers kept close in game three, and managed to break away form a 23-23 tie -- the eighth of the game -- to take the final two points and win, 25-23.

Mountain Home fell behind early in game four, but stayed within five before forcing a 20-20 tie. Nampa then went up, 23-20, and the two teams traded side-outs the rest of the way, Nampa winning, 25-22.

Coach Cherry was happy with the play of her Lady Tigers against Nampa.

"What a night! What a great way to end for the seniors! Every single one of them played well. They were hustling, they were talking, they were playing the game, and they were having fun. Taking Nampa to four games was great, and we were with them the whole time. We really didn't let them get far ahead of us. It''s definitely what we want to see heading into district!"

Paula Barrientos had 37 assists, two kills and a block. Paula Doerr had 10 service points and three aces on 14 of 16 serves. Jordana Price had 12 kills and three blocks and four service aces.

Dani Dean had 11 kills, two blocks and five service points. Ali Hillman had eight kills and two blocks. Lindsey Engelhardt was a perfect 10 for 10 serving, and had five service points.

It was a bad night serving for Mountain Home, who connected on only 66 of 84 for 79 percent. Nampa, who hit their first 70 serves on the night, finished 93 of 95 for 98 percent.

The Lady Tigers finished tied with Caldwell for seventh place, both having 1-11 records, the two teams splitting against each other, Caldwell winning in five at Mountain Home, and the Lady Tigers winning in four at Caldwell.

A coin-flip was used to break the tie with Caldwell, with the Lady Cougars winning the toss to get the number seven seed. Mountain Home went into Monday's District Tournament as the number eight seed, and faced Skyview, the number one seed at 6 p.m. at Nampa High.

Other first round action had number four seed Bishop Kelly opening against fifth seed Kuna, number three seed Vallivue playing sixth seed Nampa, and number two seed Emmett facing seventh seed Caldwell.

First round losers played at 6 p.m. Tuesday, with first round winners playing at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, with action continuing through Thursday.

The top two teams advance to the 4A State Tournament at Bonneville in Idaho Falls, with the third place team going to a playoff game Saturday at Highland of Craigmont against a north Idaho team for a berth at next week's state competition.