Lady Tigers divide series against Middleton, Caldwell

The Mountain Home Lady Tigers came away with a split of their conference volleyball matches last week, losing in five at home to Middleton and winning in five at Caldwell.

Middleton 21, 25, 18, 25, 19

Mountain Home 25, 20, 25, 20, 17

It was a volleyball match that the fans got their money's worth last Tuesday night as the Lady Tigers and Middleton battled back and forth before the Lady Vikings finally won it, three games to two.

The first game was tied five times early, the last time at 6-6, before Mountain Home took the lead for good, winning 25-21.

Mountain Home fell behind early in the second game and were down 22-14 when they battled back, but fell short, 20-25. The team led from start to finish the third game with a 25-18 win.

The Lady Tigers jumped out to a 6-0 lead in game four, and led up until Middleton tied the game at 19-19. Mountain Home tied it at 20-20 but the Lady Vikings scored the final five points to win 25-20 and force a fifth game.

In the fifth game, the Lady Tigers jumped out to a 9-3 lead, but Middleton fought back to tie it at 14-14. Mountain Home tied the game at 15-15, 16-16, and 17-17, but the Lady Vikings then scored the next two points to win the game 19-17, and the match, three games to two.

"It was a back-and-forth fight down to the end," said Mountain Home volleyball coach Rachele Asbury. "I always tell the girls it's never the last point. I know it's hard to always be in the last point, but there's some things that we could have done earlier on in some of the other games."

Emilee Schetzle was 23/24 serving, with five aces and four kills. Dylan Dean was 21/24 serving, with five aces and nine kills. Dakota Dean was 18/19 on serves, with two aces and a kill. Stephanie Jewell was 15/17 serving, with one assist. Krissy Elliott was 11/12 serving, with an ace and five digs. Brittany Ryan was 10/12 serving, with two aces and 10 digs. Selena Foster had 12 kills and an assist. Hailey Belt had 15 assists and one kill and Emma Wenger had one block.

Mountain Home 23, 25, 18, 25, 15

Caldwell 25, 11, 25, 22, 8

The Mountain Home Lady Tigers held off elimination in the fourth game, forcing a fifth game, and beat the Lady Cougars three games to two Thursday at Caldwell.

The Lady Tigers battled in the first game with Caldwell, but came up short, 23-25. Mountain Home took control of the second game and rolled to a 25-11 win.

Caldwell took the third game, 25-18, and Mountain Home forced the fifth game with a 25-22 win in game four. The Lady Tigers then pulled away in the fifth game for a 15-8 win.

Dylan Dean was 19/25 serving, with one ace, 12 kills, a block and nine digs. Krissy Elliott was 11/13 serving, with one ace. Stephanie Jewell was 6/6 serving, with four assists. Brittany Ryan was 5/7 serving, with six digs. Emilee Schetzle was 4/5 serving, with one ace, three kills and an assist. Dakota Dean was 4/6 serving. Emma Wenger had six kills and an assist, Selena Foster had seven kills and an assist and Hailey Belt had six assists and five kills.

Mountain Home's Lady Tigers went to the Wood River Invitational Tournament and on Friday picked up wins over Kimberly and Payette and lost to Wood River, but took first in their pool. On Saturday, in bracket tourney play, they beat Kuna in two straight games, lost to Bishop Kelly in three games, beat Canyon Ridge and then lost to Boise to finish fourth.

The Lady Tigers took a 4-4 conference mark and 16-14 overall mark into Tuesday night's home match against Columbia. The team plays a tri-match against Nampa and Skyview on the road Thursday night.