Lady Tigers split wins during conference volleyball action

The Mountain Home Lady Tigers came away with a split of their home-opening conference volleyball matches with Skyview and Nampa last Thursday, losing to Skyview in three games and beating Nampa in four.

Skyview 25, 25, 25

Mountain Home 5, 20, 23

First game jitters definitely got to Mountain Home in the opening game against Skyview Thursday night, as Skyview scored 15 consecutive points to win the first game 25-5.

Mountain Home started strong in the second game, jumping out to an 8-1 lead. They lost the lead at 11-10, but stayed close, losing 25-20.

In the third game, Mountain Home again took the early lead. Skyview tied them at 14-14, 15-15, and 16-16, before taking the lead and holding off the Lady Tigers 25-23 to win the match, three games to none.

"Definitely first game jitters," said Mountain Home volleyball coach Rachele Asbury. "We were asleep, not ready to play, but we decided to come out the second and third game and actually decided to play. It's hard coming back from a game where you were down by that much and lose by that much, but they were able to do it and show that they could actually play."

Dylan Dean led the Lady Tigers against Skyview, hitting 15 of 15 serves, with four aces, five kills, three assists and a block.

Dakota Dean was 9/10 serving, with three kills. Emilee Schetzle was 5/6 serving, with three kills. Krissy Elliott was 5/6 on serves, with two digs. Brittany Ryan was 4/5 on serves, with two aces and five digs. Stephanie Jewell was 3/3 serving. Hailey Belt was 2/2 on serves, with four kills, an assist and a block. Emma Wenger was 1/1 serving and had a block. Selena Foster had three kills and Tessa Pachner had one block.

Mountain Home 25, 22, 25, 29

Nampa 21, 25, 23, 27

The Lady Tigers set out a match while Skyview beat Nampa in three, 25-13, 25-8, 25-18, then came back to face the Lady Bulldogs, and in a close match, Mountain Home prevailed, three games to one.

Mountain Home jumped out to a 7-0 lead before Nampa battled back to within one, 10-9. A five-point rn by Mountain Home made it 15-9 with the Lady Tigers leading all the way during their 25-21 win.

Mountain Home led most of the way in the second game before Nampa went on a 4-0 run to go up 22-18. The Lady Tigers battled back within one, 22-21, but could get no closer, and lost game two,25-22.

The third game had seven lead changes and 11 ties, the last one at 23-23, before Mountain Home scored the final two points to win,25-23. Mountain Home then battled from an early deficit to go up 21-11 in game four, but the Lady Bulldogs stormed back to take a 24-23 lead.

The Lady Tigers tied it at 24-23, fell behind 25-24, tied it at 26-26, went up 27-2, before a bad serve tied it at 27-27. A bad serve by Nampa put the Lady Tigers up 28-27 and they scored the next point to win game four 29-27, and the match, three games to one.

"It's tough playing a tri-match anyway, and then to have to go four games for a win, but I'm proud of the girls for their effort," said Coach Asbury.

Dylan Dean was 20/23 serving against Nampa, with four aces, 13 kills, two blocks and three digs. Krissy Elliott was 15/16 on serves, with four aces, a kill and two digs. Brittany Ryan was 14/16 on serves, with five aces, a kill and 11 digs. Emilee Schetzle was 13/17 serving, with eight kills. Hailey Belt was 10/11 serving, with an ace, nine kills and a block. Dakota Dean was 10/13 on serves, with four kills and a dig. Selena Foster had six kills and a dig. Emma Wenger had a kill and two blocks, Tessa Pachner had one kill, and Stephanie Jewell was 2/2 serving.

The Lady Tigers were at the Kuna Klassic Friday and Saturday. In pool play on Friday, they beat Cascade 30-20, lost to Capital,30-22, lost to Caldwell 30-21, and beat Melba 30-21. In Saturday pool play, they beat Kuna 30-27, lost to Vallivue 30-27, and beat Parma 30-27, to go 4-3 in pool play.

Their 4-3 pool play record seeded them 12th out of 25 teams and in the single elimination Silver Bracket Tournament, they opened against Centennial and beat them 25-14, 25-12. They then faced Vallivue, and lost to them, 15-25, 21-25.

The Lady Tigers were at Columbia on Tuesday night and host Kuna on Thursday.