Lady Tigers take second in district tournament

* Lady tigers pummell Mustangs but fall to East Newton to take second place in tournament.

The Nevada Lady Tigers took a second place finish in the Class 3 District 12 tournament Tuesday night.

In the first match of the night, the Lady Tigers squared off against the McDonald County Lady Mustangs for the third time this season. The opening set got off to an even start, as the two teams stayed together and traded the first couple of points before McDonald County was able to make a 4-0 run to take a 5-1 lead.

Nevada was quickly able to answer as they went on a 4-0 run of their own to tie the score at 6-6. That remained the story of the opening set as the two teams traded the leadthrough the midpoint before Nevada was able to go on a 4-0 run to open their lead to 15-11.

Nevada never looked back and was able to put together a 5-0 run to take the lead 24-14 before eventually taking the set by a final score of 25-16.

The second set got off to a strong start for Nevada as they went on a 4-0 run to take the early lead. The Lady Mustangs were able to cut the lead in half at 5-3, but Nevada was able to open the game back up with a 7-0 lead to take a dominant, 12-4 lead.

McDonald County tried to get back into the match, but were only able to manage a 3-0 run before Nevada was able to regain control, leading 15-7. A 4-0 run gave the Lady Tigers an 11-point lead that the Lady Mustangs were never able to overcome and Nevada took the set 25-10 to move on to the district championship match against the Lady Patriots of East Newton, who came into the night with a season record of 26-3-1.

"We were real happy with the Mac County game," head coach Becky Lowery said.

The championship match got off to a slow start for Nevada as the Lady Patriots were able to take the first two points of the opening set.

East Newton was able to open up their lead with a 5-0 run to take a 10-4 lead and the Lady Tigers were never able to recover.

East Newton continued to extend their lead and eventually went on a 7-0 run to take the lead 18-7. The Lady Tigers tried to get back into the game with a late 5-0 run, but fell short as East Newton took the set 25-15.

Set two got off to a much better start for Nevada as they were able to stay with the Lady Patriots this time, but were never able to separate.

The two teams traded points for the majority of the set and Nevada was able to stay within striking distance through the midpoint.

Nevada was able to stay close as the two teams traded points, but the Lady Tigers were unable to get any offense going as they continually added to their own problems by not being able to stay out of the net. Lady Tiger players were called for being in the net on 10 different occasions in the match, costing Nevada valuable points that proved to be the difference in the second set.

The Lady Patriots stayed strong through the end of the set and were able to eventually put Nevada down by a final score of 25-19, after stifling a late attempt at an offensive charge by the Lady Tigers.

After the game, Lowery said, "We got an unlucky draw, having to come down here and play East Newton. They played hard, they couldn't have played any hard tonight."

Lowery said that although the season has now come to an end, she is very pleased with the overall performance of her team on the night and throughout the season. "We dug all we could and we started to get a hand on them, but it was just not enough," she said.

With the loss, the Lady Tigers finish out the season with a record of 21-6-1.