Lady Tigers score first wins with doublheader sweep

The Mountain Home Lady Tigers broke into the win column in a big way last week, sweeping a SIC 4A volleyball doubleheader from Caldwell last Tuesday in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium.

They tried making it three straight last Thursday, but came up short to Vallivue.

Mountain Home

26, 25, 25, 26

Caldwell

28, 17, 23, 24

Victory has finally come to the Mountain Home Lady Tigers, and it is indeed, sweet. The Lady Tigers bounced back from a first game loss to take the next three and the match in the first of two matches played with the Lady Cougars at Mountain Home on Oct. 4.

The Lady Tigers started slow, and despite numerous errors by Caldwell, trailed by as many as six points on several occasions in the first game. They did finally battle back to tie the game at 24-24, and took a 25-24 lead, but Caldwell tied it at 25-25. They again went up, 26-25, but Caldwell came back to score the next three points to win, 28-26.

Mountain Home's biggest lead of the second game was nine points, at 16-7, and the Lady Tigers never let the Lady Cougars get closer than four points the rest of the way, winning game two, 25-17, to even that match at a game apiece.

The third game had seven ties, the last one at 20-20, with Mountain Home riding the serves of Ali Hillman from there to win, 25-23, to go up two games to one.

Game four had 11 ties, the last one coming at 24-24, with Mountain Home scoring the last two points to win the game, 26-24, and the match, three games to one.

Dani Dean was 19 for 20 in serves, had 12 service points, two aces, seven kills, two blocks and two digs.

Ali Hillman was good on 17 of 18 serves, scored nine points with two service aces, four kills and two blocks. Sammy Dodge had nine service points, two aces and two kills.

Erica Stanton was 15 for 15 in serves, had six service points, three aces, and six kills, and Kaleena Bluemer had eight kills.

Mountain Home got in 92 of 101 serves for the match, for 91 percent. Caldwell hit on 81 of 90 for 90 percent.

Mountain Home

25, 25, 25

Caldwell

21, 23, 22

Mountain Home again started slow in the first game of the second match, and trailed 4-0 early, but took the lead, 5-4 on a couple of aces by Brandie Riggs.

There were seven ties, the last one at 12-12, with the Lady Tigers holding the lead from there on out, winning the game 25-21.

Mountain Home broke out of a 4-4 tie to take the lead in game two, with their biggest lead at 13-7.

Caldwell battled back to tie it at 22-22, and took a 23-22 lead, but after a side out, Lisa Kellerman served up an ace to give the Lady Tigers the lead, and Mountain Home scored the next point to win the game, 25-23.

In the third game, Mountain Home jumped out to a 7-0 lead, and enjoyed their biggest lead at 20-11, before the Lady Cougars fought back to tie it at 21-21.

The Lady Tigers showed a confidence lacking in previous matches and went on to win, 25-22, to win the match three games to none.

Brandie Riggs was perfect on 22 serves in the match, scoring 17 points and seven aces.

Ali Hillman had eight kills and Erica Stanton seven service points.

"Finally!" said Mountain Home Lady Tiger volleyball coach Sarah DeVore with her face beaming with smiles.

"We've been waiting (for a win) for a while, so it definitely feels good! These girls worked really hard and came together, and we're looking to do that at district, too.

"Our confidence had definitely been shaken this year, and they got some of it back. The way they fight has been our indicator all season long of things to come, so if we keep positive, keep aggressive, we'll beat some teams."

Vallivue

22, 25, 25, 25

Mountain Home

25, 12, 18, 23

The winning streak ended at two, although the Lady Tigers again battled hard in losing a close match to Vallivue last Thursday night in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium in Mountain Home.

For just the second time this season, the Lady Tigers, with all six seniors starting in honor of Senior Night, won the first game of the match, shooting out to an early lead, only to see Vallivue come back and take the lead.

Trailing 20-22, the Lady Tigers scored the final five points of the game to win, 25-22.

After ties at 1-1, 2-2, and 3-3, in game two, Vallivue took the lead and never looked back, beating the Lady Tigers, 25-12, to even the match at one game apiece.

In game three, the Lady Tigers fell behind by 12, but scored six straight points before Vallivue got the win, 25-18.

Game four saw the Lady Tigers fall behind by eight points before rallying to tie the game at 19-19, and again at 22-22 and 23-23. Vallivue scored the final two points to win the game, 25-23, and the match, 3-1.

"I was really impressed with the way our seniors came out and played tonight," said Coach DeVore after the match.

"The ups and downs of volleyball certainly got to us there. We started out on fire and then let up a little bit, maybe a little too satisfied with that first game, and I thought we should have finished it off, but it certainly was a close match."

Erica Stanton was 18 of 19 serving and scored 11 points. Ali Hillman was 15 for 17, with nine points and six kills. Kaleena Bluemer had eight kills, Dani Dean had five kills, Christen McLee had four kills and a block, and Bethany Law had three digs..

It was Senior Night, and six Mountain Home seniors were honored: Erica Stanton, Bethany Law, Ali Hillman, Lisa Kellerman, Kaleena Bluemer and Lisa Cantrell. Those six started the first game.

The Lady Tigers took a 2-10 conference mark to Bishop Kelly last (Tuesday) night to face the Lady Knights. Mountain Home closes out their regular season schedule tomorrow night at Nampa.