Lady Tigers pick up conference win

The Mountain Home Lady Tiger volleyball team picked up its first conference win of the season last Tuesday night when they beat Nampa, before falling to Kuna in a tri-match in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium in Mountain Home.

Mountain Home 3, Nampa 0

The Lady Tigers showed some spark in beating Nampa in three straight, 27-25, 25-12 and 25-23. The win was the first conference win for the Lady Tigers since 2008.

Mountain Home led most of the way in the first game before Nampa rallied to go up 23-17. The Lady Bulldogs were a point away from winning at 24-20, but Mountain Home fought back to win 27-25.

The momentum of the comeback win in the first game gave the Lady Tigers a boost in the second as they broke away from a 4-4 tie to roll to a 25-12 victory.

The third game went back and forth and had 10 ties, the last at 23-23. Mountain Home scored the final two points to win the game 25-23, and the match 3-0.

"We had some strong serving, hitting our locations with our serves, and good passing, hitting and blocking all around," said Lady Tiger volleyball coach Rachele Asbury. "We let them come pretty close to us, but we were able to fight back when we were down by six."

Dylan Dean was 10/14 on serves, with three aces, four kills and 22 assists. Brittany Ryan was 16/18 serving with four aces and 10 digs. Stephanie Jewell was 20/20 on serves with four aces.

Dakota Dean was 12/13 serving with an ace and four kills. Jacci Cristobal had five kills, Jessica Liercke had four kills and two blocks, Hailey Belt had four kills, Emilee Schetzle, two kills and Krissy Elliott was 6/7 serving.

Kuna 3, Mountain Home 1

Mountain Home faced Kuna in the nightcap of the tri-match, facing the Lady Kavemen after Nampa had forced Kuna into five games before Kuna won. The Lady Tigers won the first game, but Kuna then won the next three to take the match.

In the first game, Mountain Home broke away from a 16-16 tie to take the game 25-18. The second game had seven ties, the last one at 15-15, but the Lady Tigers were unable to get any type of a rally to regain the lead and lost 25-20.

Mountain Home fell behind early in the third game and managed to tie the game at 9-9 and 10-10, but nothing much went right for the Lady Tigers after that, as they lost the game 25-13.

Mountain Home grabbed an early 2-0 lead in the fourth game, but fell behind by 10 and could get no closer than seven after that, the final score 25-15, Kuna.

The first game went well, "and then we had a few mistakes in that second game, and it just kind of started to snow ball," Coach Asbury said. The team needs "to stop point rallies and be able to fight back and not let our heads play so much of a fault in our games."

Dylan Dean was 12/14 serving and had two aces, two kills, a block and 17 assists. Dakota Dean was 15/15 serving, had four aces and three kills. Brittany Ryan was 12/13 serving with two aces, Stephanie Jewell, 14/15 on serves with one ace. Emilee Schetzle was 6/8 serving and had four kills and three blocks. Jessica Liercke had five kills and five blocks, Jacci Cristobal had five kills, Hailey Belt had a block and Krissy Elliott was 5/8 on serves.

The Lady Tigers had a week off until they returned to action Tuesday at home against Columbia. Coach Asbury planned to use the time to correct some mistakes that kept them from beating Kuna.

The Mountain Home squad remains at home Thursday night against Skyview.