Nothing like starting the high school volleyball season off with a cliffhanger of a match.

That is what can be said of the match Friday in St. Regis between the Lady Tigers and the visiting Seeley Lady Blackhawks.

After the dust had settled, Seeley escaped with a very hard fought 3-2 victory over the home team in a crowd pleasing event at the St. Regis gym.

Perennially strong Seeley took the first set 25-18 as both team showed early season and mid-season form at times during the match.

St. Regis came back to win set two by a 26-24 count, squaring the match at one set each.

The Lady Tigers kept that momentum rolling in the pivotal third set, beating the Lady Blackhawks 25-12 to take a 2-1 match lead in what looked like a very promising path to victory.

However, Seeley bounced back to win set four 25-18, setting up a fifth set tie-breaker. St. Regis fought back and stayed in contention throughout the fifth set before Seeley managed to eke out a 16-14 match-clinching victory.

In addition to taking the match to five sets against the always strong Seeley team, St. Regis had some positive individual performances on the night, including Shelby Simkins’ eight aces to go with six assists.

The Lady Tigers also got four digs apiece from Kiersten Trayer and Lilly Sansom.

And they had some outstanding work at the net in the form of five kills by Amalya Jensen and five blocks by Sansom.

St. Regis begins conference play this Tuesday (Aug 29) when the travel to Hot Springs for a crucial early season match against the Lady Savage Heat. They also participated in this past weekend’s Drummond Invitational, but scores were not available from that event.