Tigerettes get first 7-3A victory

PARADISE – Walls are tough to get around. Sometimes you just need to go through them. With several new varsity players this year, Jacksboro has needed some time to fight through its mental blocks that can come with a young team.

After taking the first two sets over Paradise on Sept. 23, the Tigerettes encountered one of those mental walls. The hostesses fought back into the match by forcing a decisive fifth set. In that set, Jacksboro took a slight lead midway through and hung on for a 25-18, 25-21, 13-25, 16-25, 15-13 win at Panther Gym.

Jacksboro used long serving runs from Harlee Richardson and Morgyn Green to take a 19-10 lead in the opener. Paradise battled throughout the set, but the Tigerettes used frontcourt work from Baylee Thompson, who had seven kills in the opening set to keep the Lady Panthers from doing damage. McKenna McAnear’s kill put the finishing touch and gave the Tigerettes a 1-0 match lead.

With kills and blocks from Thompson and Alex Holman, Green staked the Tigerettes to a 5-0 lead in set two. Both Thompson and Holman served up points to keep the lead at five, 11-6. Jacksboro went ahead by as many as six, 23-17 on a Stefy Piedra point. Paradise fought back to get within three before Jacksboro came through with the final service point.

Paradise quickly took control of set three, until a kill by Holman broke the Paradise serve. Richardson scored the Tigerettes’ only serving point at 10-16. Paradise regained control to win the set.

For more on this story, see the Wednesday, October 2 edition of the Jacksboro Herald-Gazette.