As 3A district champions, the Lady Dragon volleyball team competed in the final IHSAA 3A state tournament held in Moscow, Idaho October 31-November2.  Over the course of the three day tournament, the Malad team proudly competed with the best of the state.  After five long, intense matches the team earned 2nd place behind the three time state champion team of Melba.

To begin the tournament, Malad was once again pitted against the West Side Pirates.  They may have been the team the Lady Dragons had the most experience against but that didn’t mean that it wouldn’t be a challenge.  Like the previous games, West Side brought their very best efforts to the court.  Playing into the third set of the match, the Malad found themselves trailing 16-3 despite having won the previous two sets,  25-19 and 25-8.  

After the Lady Dragons earned the serve again, Izzy Haycock stepped up to the line to begin the play with a near impossible serve to pass.  Between her tough serves and the tightened up defense, Malad suddenly found themselves back on top to win the game, 25-20

Friday brought their second match of the tournament against third ranked Ambrose.  Going up against the nearly equally matched team was the toughest competition the MHS team had seen in more than 20.  In fact, many questioned how the team might handle the loss of even a single set as they went up against a more skilled team.  Their battle against Ambrose proved they weren’t there to give up when things got hard. They were in it for the long haul.

The Lady Dragons found themselves down 0-5 to begin their opening game against Ambrose.  Finally the ball began bouncing their way, but there was significant room on the scoreboard to make up.  Despite pulling ahead by one point, Malad was unable to maintain the lead and lost 22-25.

The loss of their first set in more than 60 did little to frustrate or deter the Lady Dragons from their goal- one more win.  Settling into the second game of the match, Malad once again found themselves trailing.  As the game began to close out and it seemed the Lady Dragons would drop another set, they began to battle back, putting up 9 points while only giving up 1. 

A series of stellar blocks, big digs and hard hits slowly began to shift things in Malad’s favor.  With momentum on their side, the team tied Ambrose at 22.  Liv Nelson, one point later, put up a play-ending block to get to game point with Brinley Clark strategically tipped past the double block to win the match 25-22.

Over the course of the four set match, Nelson would land 15 blocks in addition to 26 soft blocks to lead her team and deter the Ambrose attack with outside hitter Clark leading the team in hits against Ambrose with 24 kills to win the next two games 25-20 and 25-10.

Advancing to the next stage of the tournament, the Lady Dragons were set to face the reigning champion team, the Melba Mustangs.  Malad came out to win the first set of the match 25-19, but dropped the second set, 22-25, and then third, 18-22.  

With everything on the line in the fourth set, the Lady Dragons once again played with resilience and grit to keep in the game.  The back row defense continued to amaze as they popped up dig after dig.  Libero Riglee Peterson tallied 36 digs in the match followed closely by Haycock with 35 and Paityn Ward with 33.  Senior Brylee Oglesbee served a series of from the back court that the Mustangs found impossible to gain any ground on and played a significant role in their 25-22 win.  Down the final set of the match capped at 15, Melba took an early lead that Malad unfortunately couldn’t climb back from, losing 10-15. 

The Nampa Christian Trojans were next to take the court with the Lady Dragons. And despite already having played five intense sets just previously, Malad swept the match in three quick games, going 25-19, 25-16, and 25-20.

Defeating the Trojans set the Lady Dragons in the final championship game with Melba once again.  Unfortunately, having already played two consecutive games left little fuel for the final match of the day and the MHS team lost the match 0-3.  The loss was indeed a disappointment but it couldn’t overshadow the great accomplishment of earning the 2nd place title.

Head Coach Camie Tripp shared, “Our girls showed up big time!! I was so proud of how well they battled.  Those Melba outsides were big and they hid HARD.  We did an amazing job of adjusting and blocking and diffing.  Our girls are competitors and they showed their grit and heart time and time again!  They fought like Dragons and made me proud!”