Lady Tigers battle Nampa but lose 1st volleyball match

The Mountain Home Lady Tigers opened their 2007 volleyball season Thursday night at Nampa against the Lady Bulldogs, dropping the SIC 4A match in five games.

In a match that had the intensity of a district tourney match rather than the opening match of the season, the Lady Tigers led most of the way in the first game, which had three ties, the last at 13-13. Mountain Home went on from there for a 25-17 win.

Mountain Home led briefly early in the second game, but fell behind by 10, 8-18. They had a brief rally to come within six, 12-18, but the Lady Bulldogs outscored them 7-2 the rest of the way to claim the second game, 25-14.

The Lady Tigers shot out to an 11-1 lead in the third game, and rolled to a 25-12 win.

It looked like Mountain Home might wrap up the match in game four, as they led by eight at 11-3, but the Lady Bulldogs fought back to tie the game at 12-12, and built up a four-point lead, 19-15. The Lady Tigers battled back to tie it at 19-19, 20-20, 21-21, and 23-23, and went up 24-23, but Nampa scored the final three points to win it, 26-24, and force a fifth and deciding game.

In game five, Mountain Home shot out to a 5-1 lead, and regained the lead, 12-11, after Nampa had tied it at 11-11, but the Lady Bulldogs scored the final four points of the game to win game five, 15-12, and the match, 3-2.

"You never know at the beginning of the season how your team is going to step out and compete, and these ladies came out tonight and had the momentum in their favor," said Mountain Home Lady Tiger volleyball coach Sarah Devore after the match.

"A few things turned against them, and with experience down the road, that will change. It's that intensity level and that fight level that they came out with tonight. It's disappointing to go five (and lose) in your season opener, but we'll get there.

"I can't say enough about tonight. It definitely was a team effort, everyone got a chance to feel what it was like to be a part of an intense match like that, so we'll continue to work on some of those kinks we need to work out, but mainly it will come with experience."

For the first match of the season, the Lady Tigers did well on serves, hitting 91 percent (90/99), while Nampa hit 85 percent (81/95).

Emily Moranda led Mountain Home with 10 kills, and was 16 for 16 on serves, with eight service points. Brandie Riggs led the Lady Tigers in assists with six, and connected on 27 of 31 serves, with 22 service points and nine aces. Hannah Zamora was 19 for 21 serving, with 13 service points, and Nickayla Skinner was 17 for 17 in serves, with 12 service points.

The Lady Tigers competed at the Kuna Classic last Friday and Saturday. Friday was pool play in games to 25, and they opened against Parma and lost, 12-25. They then played Weiser and came up short, 19-25. Next they played Kuna and lost, 7-25, before closing out the night's pool play with a 25-15 win over Glenns Ferry.

Saturday was best-of-three games tournament play, and they opened with a 2-0 win over Garden Valley, before losing to Nampa Christian, 0-2.

Although she did not see as many wins as she would have liked, Coach DeVore was pleased with the opportunities and experience the tournament gave her squad.

"It definitely was a positive experience in terms of fine-tuning some individual skills, working with different lineups and really give the girls a chance to develop some leadership skills, as well as to know what it takes to fire up the team and come out and compete with other teams, so there were a lot of positives in that regard."

The Lady Tigers play their first home matches of the season this week. They hosted Emmett last night and take on Bishop Kelly at home tomorrow night.

"If the girls are well prepared mentally and have a great practice on Monday, I am very confident in their ability to compete with both Emmett and B.K. These are great matches early on in the season to help us know where we're at in terms of the conference as well as our team."

Sophomore action starts the evening off at 4:30 p.m., with the JV and varsity action to follow.