Reason to smile

Good things come to those who wait as the Tigers volleyball team won five of seven games in their first week of play.

On Tuesday, the Tigers started their season against Atlantic, dominating throughout most of the contest, 25-14, 25-18 the first two games, before dropping the third 25-12.

Led by sophomore Gabi French with 13 kills and 13 digs in the match, the Tigers rebounded to win the match, outscoring Atlantic in the fourth game, 25-18.

Thursday, the Tigers hosted rival Shenandoah where they quickly jumped out in front two games to none, winning 25-20 and 25-14, but the Mustangs did not go down quietly.

Shenandoah would stretch the match to a fifth game winning the next two 25-22 and 25-20.

The Tigers rallied late in both games, but the Mustangs were too much.

In the fifth game the Tigers jumped out to a quick 5-1 lead and finished the match with a 15-13 victory.

“We have to find a way to finish,” Red Oak head coach Angie Montgomery said. “We did it Tuesday and again against Shenandoah. We let up in that third set and it ends up costing us.”

Saturday, the Tigers traveled to the Griswold tournament where they would face two of the top teams in the state.

After winning their first match 2-0 over Audubon, the Tigers continued pool play against 11th ranked IKM-Manning.

The Tigers dropped the first game 21-10 and found themselves in a 15-8 deficit in the second when Montgomery called a timeout.

“We just needed to be more aggressive out there,” Montgomery said. “We were sitting watching a lot instead of going after the ball.”

The Tigers mounted a big comeback to take the lead 19-18 led by six consecutive good serves by senior Kaely Piller, and would go on to win the second game 21-19.

Piller was 33 of 34 serving with nine aces in the tournament.

The third game was started with an official’s error in the initial lineup for the Wolves.

Discussions on how the ruling should be handled carried on for more than eight minutes and seemed to end any momentum the Tigers had gained from the previous game.

IKM-Manning came out firing, winning 15-3.

“Even getting one game from a team like IKM really gives you a boost and showed us that we can compete with these teams,” Montgomery said. “I felt really good about how our first week, we’re still working on some stuff, but we did really well.”

In the tournament, the Tigers defeated the Griswold Tigers in two games and Exira in two.

Exira came into the tournament ranked fifth in 1A winning their first three matches of the year.

The Tigers lost again to Treynor (ranked sixth in 1A) in the semi-final match to end their first week with a 5-2 record.

Coming up: The Tigers travel to hostile grounds, going to Kuemper Catholic in Carroll.

The Knights were 5-3 before this weekend with their biggest win against Lewis Central, Sept. 3.

Next Saturday, the Tigers will host a tournament including Treynor, Abraham Lincoln, and top Hawkeye 10 leader Harlan.

Pool play for the tournament will begin at Red Oak High School at 9 a.m.