There was, for awhile, a brief hint of the closure problems that plagued the St. Regis Lady Tigers’ volleyball team throughout last year: failure to hold a lead and close out a win.

The 2021 version kicked off the new season with a 3-1 win over Lincoln in a victory they hope will erase that bug-a-boo and propel the veteran team to a winning season.

In preseason prognostication, head coach Jennifer Pruitt had pointed to closing out a lead as a major hurdle the team needed to overcome.

Against the Lincoln Lady Lynx, the Tigers roared to an impressive 25-10 first set win behind their scrappy, energetic style of diving for loose balls and digging seemingly unsavable Lincoln shots.

Problem solved?

Not if the second set was an indicator of things to come, which it turned out not to be.

In that set, Lincoln took advantage of St. Regis service errors and other turnovers to fall behind early. However, this time the Lady Tigers would claw their way back into a 16-16 tie.

But accurate serving and stellar digging of shots by the Lynx helped them hold off the St. Regis charge and secure a 25-16 second set victory and a 1-1 match tie.

The third set would prove to be more than just a tie-breaker as the teams battled back and forth through several ties and momentum altering lead changes until the Lady Tigers managed to pull away from a 22-22 tie and capture the last three points of the set en route to a 25-22 win and a tenuous 2-1 match advantage.

St. Regis then grabbed an early lead and made it last throughout set number four, a set that feature several long rallies and saves that brought out the ooohhhs and awwwws from the large crowd in the Tigers’ gym.

The Lady Tigers pulled away late and held on for a 25-19 set win, which gave them a 3-1 advantage and a victory in their opening game of the 2021 Montana volleyball season.

Next up for St. Regis is a Thursday night game against football co-op partner Mullan, Idaho in the St. Regis gym. They then host conference foe Charlo at home Saturday.