DAYVILLE – The Monument/Dayville volleyball team experienced déja vu at the end of the 2008 season.

The Tigers once again found themselves in fourth place in the High Desert League after the district tournament. They beat Spray 3-2 in the first game of the tournament in both of the last two seasons. They then lost to Adrian last year and Crane this year to end up in the third-place game for the final HDL playoff spot.

Two years ago Crane took it from them 3-0, and this year Jordan Valley did the same in three games.

The Tigers finished 2008 with a 8-7 overall record and a HDL record of 6-5. They were slightly behind their 2007 numbers of 10-8 and 7-3.

Monument/Dayville nearly didn’t make it to the 2008 HDL district tournament.

The Tigers beat Prairie City 3-2 Oct. 21 in Monument, but the Panthers took the match all the way to the final possible game. Prairie City bounced back and won 3-0 against Long Creek the same night.

The Oct. 21 matches gave Prairie City and Monument/ Dayville 6-5 league records and tied them both with Burnt River in HDL play. The top six teams in the HDL advanced to the district tournament. Due to the three-way tie for the fifth and sixth seeds, a coin flip was used to determine the fifth seed and the remaining teams had to play a tie breaker.

Monument/Dayville won the coin toss and was seeded fifth. Prairie City beat Burnt River 3-2 for the tie-breaker at the Grant Union gymnasium Wednesday, Oct. 22.

However, the Tigers still made a major statement through their repeat performance. The team lost eight seniors from the 2007 team and were still able to fight for a playoff spot.

“We lost eight seniors and five starters this season, so I feel that our three seniors came out and played well this year,” Tiger coach JoAnne Flower said. “Shyanne Winters was great at the net, and she grew all year. She’s only a sophomore and we expect her to continue to grow next year.”

The TIgers will return eight girls that from their team this season including three starters. The team will also be adding a number of girls from Monument’s and Dayville’s middle school programs to the team next year.

Flower said she expects the team to do better in the coming years.

“I think we have quite a future ahead of us,” Flower said. “I think we have a lot of potential in the next few years.”