Lady Tigers battle tough but fail to notch a victory

The Mountain Home Lady Tigers battled Emmett, Middleton and Kuna all tough last week, but have no victories to show for it.

Mountain Home 14, 25, 19, 25, 6

Emmett 25, 20, 25, 19, 15

Mountain Home once again forced Emmett to five games, but fell short in the fifth game to lose their conference volleyball match to the Lady Huskies, 3-2, last Tuesday night in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium in Mountain Home.

A slow start by Mountain Home led to a 25-14 first-game win by Emmett, as the Lady Huskies took off from a 2-2 tie to win easily.

Mountain Home took control of the second game, and trailed only once, 11-12, grabbed the lead for good at 15-14, and pushed it out to a 25-20 final.

In game three, Mountain Home again went up early and led 11-9, only to see Emmett score five straight points to take a 14-11 lead. The Lady Tigers battled back to tie the game at 18-18, but were outscored 7-1 the rest of the way to come up short, 19-25.

In the fourth game, Mountain home trailed early, 4-6, but came out of a time out on a 6-0 run to take a 10-6 lead. They never trailed the rest of the way, winning, 25-19, to force a fifth and deciding game.

In the fifth game, the Lady Tigers could not seem to keep the ball on the court, and the Lady Huskies from Emmett scored the last seven straight points, the Lady Tigers losing, 6-15.

Mountain Home Lady Tiger volleyball coach Sarah DeVore was disappointed in her Lady Tigers' efforts in the first and last games of the match.

"Right now we're picking and choosing when we're going out there with a fight, and obviously, when they do go out there, good things happen. That last game I think we reeled off about nine points of errors that we just handed over to Emmett, and when you do that, and play that kind of volleyball, it's not going to end up in our favor.

"Consistency is our goal throughout the season, and hopefully they've got more fight left in them, because this season's not over."

Brandie Riggs was good on 16 of 17 serves, had five service points and an ace, and dished out 24 assists. Dani Dean had 14 kills and three blocks, Sammy Dodge had nine kills and four digs, and Chantell Crane had eight kills.

Mountain Home only made 85 percent (76/89) of their serves for the match, while Emmett hit 89 percent (72/81).

Middleton 23, 25, 25, 25

Mtn. Home 25, 22, 16, 18

The Lady Tigers led in all four ball games against Middleton, but only managed one win in the four played as part of a tri-match with Kuna last Thursday night at Middleton.

"I thought we had a lot of control of the tempo from the beginning of the games, but just down the stretch in each of the games, had trouble finishing, even in the game that we ended up winning," said Coach DeVore.

"We're just having a little difficulty closing up the games."

Dani Dean had 26 kills and four blocks, and made 14 of her 15 serves. Chantell Crane had six kills and three blocks, and Brandie Riggs had 36 assists, was 16 for 17 in serves, and had three service aces.

Mountain Home made 86 percent (67/78) of their serves.

Kuna 28, 26, 27

Mountain Home 26, 24,25

Mountain Home forced Kuna to go extra in each game, but lost in three to the Lady Kavemen at Middleton last Thursday.

"Looking over the scores it's hard to realize we had opportunities to finish them off each game and just didn't get the job done," said Coach DeVore.

The Lady Tigers hit 90 percent (55/61) of their serves, and were led by Brandie Riggs, who was 12 for 12 serving and had 20 assists.

Dani Dean hit nine of 10 serves, had 11 kills and three blocks. Sammy Dodge hit six of eight serves, had five kills and six blocks, Sheena Nelsen wa perfect on five serves and had three blocks, and Hannah Zamora made nine of 11 serves.

The Lady Tigers dropped to 2-10 in conference play with the losses.

They hosted Bishop Kelly for Senior Night last (Tuesday) night, and travel to Borah for the Borah Invitational Volleyball Tournament Friday and Saturday. Mountain Hoe closes out their regular season schedule at Columbia on Oct. 12.