Lady Tigers drop match against Middleton

The Lady Tiger volleyball team dropped a close match to Middleton this week and also competed at a tournament in Twin Falls.

Middleton 25, 25, 22, 25

Mtn. Home 21, 21, 25, 22

The Mountain Home Lady Tigers battled Middleton tough for four games but only came up with one win, losing the match 3-1 last week in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium in Mountain Home.

The Lady Vikings won the first two games by 25-21 scores. Mountain Home was able to hang onto the lead in the third game, pulling away for a 25-22 win to force a fourth game.

In the fourth game, which had seven ties and five lead changes, Mountain Home had two leads, their biggest at 16-12. Middleton battled back to go up 22-19. The Lady Tigers were able to cut the deficit to 22-21, but the Lady Vikings went on to win, 25-22, to take the match three games to one.

Mountain Home Lady Tiger volleyball coach Jill Peterson was pleased with their effort against Middleton.

"I felt really good about our passing and our aggressiveness on our hits. We're going to be definitely working on our defense, moving towards the ball instead of backing away from it. We struggled with serving in the second set, but rallied back, and I feel really good about our serving in the third and fourth sets."

Ksyenya Peterson had 24 assists, three aces and two blocks. Mattie Bennett had eight kills, Janay Yulis had seven kills and four blocks, Jacci Cristobal had seven kills, Whitney Sandberg had two blocks, an ace and an assist and Kaleen Hodgerson had two aces.

The Lady Tigers traveled to Twin Falls Saturday for the Twin Falls Invitational. Morning pool play of two sets to 21 saw them lose in two to Twin Falls, split with Declo and Buhl, and lose in two to Camas County.

The Lady Tigers then played in the Silver Bracket best of three sets, and bested Nampa in three, but lost to Camas County in three. They finished tied for third in the Silver Bracket.

"Most players saw a lot of playing time at this tournament," said Coach Peterson. "We recently moved a JV freshman up to the varsity part-time, so it was chance for her to play in non-counting varsity level games.

"We struggled with passing early in the morning, so our hitters weren't getting many kills. We cleaned that up for bracket play, though, and were able to run more middle hits, especially.

"Whitney Sandberg had a couple great games where her left-handed hit stumped the blockers and defenders, and we were able to run some points.

"Both Geli Main and Kaleen Hodgerson had a great serving day," Peterson added. "Libero Dakota Dean continued to be a team leader in passing and digging, as well as serving well at crucial times. Since these games don't count, the girls were trying new things like running a quicker offense and jump serving, so our won-loss record could have been better if we would have played it safe."

The Lady Tigers are on the road this week. They played at Caldwell Tuesday night and go to Skyview on Thursday.