LEMOORE - Lemoore's chance at a West Yosemite League volleyball title live on.

Those hopes were on life support Tuesday against Golden West.

The host Tigers dropped the first two sets, survived match point twice in the fourth set then rallied back in the fifth before Carly Sousa ended it with back-to-back aces as Lemoore won a thriller 24-26, 23-25, 25-23, 28-26, 15-10.

The Tigers improve to 24-6 overall, 10-1 in the WYL and can clinch at least a share of the league title in their regular season finale Thursday against Hanford.

After the second set loss against the Blazers, Lemoore left the gymnasium during the intermission.

The Tigers played like a completely different team when they returned, as if they gave their jerseys to another team and had them play the remainder of the match.

"Our coach really motivated us to play the way we could," Sousa said. "We picked up our heads, trusted each other and started to play together."

Kathleen Anderson led the way for Tigers, totaling 31 kills and 5 blocks with ones coming in pivotal times in the later sets.

In the third set, Lemoore led 19-17 when Anderson reeled off the next four points, and scored the last six points of the set for Lemoore.

In the fourth, the Tigers trailed 8-1 before Anderson scored eight of the next 10 points to give Lemoore a 10-9 lead.

With Golden West serving for match, the Blazers hit the ball out to tie it at 26-26.

Anderson scored the next two points on kills to force the fifth set.

In the final set, Lemoore needed to climb out of one last hole.

Golden West scored the first five points.

After a Lemoore timeout, it was all Tigers from there.

Lemoore scored four straight points to turn a 8-6 deficit into a 10-8 lead.

The Tigers scored five of the last six points after serving out of bounds to make it 10-9.

Lemoore rallied in this match after losing its first match in WYL play Thursday to El Diamante in straight sets. That pulled the Miners into a tie for first place with the Tigers.

"It's hard to come back from a loss like that," said Lemoore head coach Kim Rix. "I'm really proud that they came back like that. More so than if they would have killed Golden West.

"Golden West played great. I couldn't give them more credit. It took us awhile to get momentum."

For the Tigers, Tiffany Webb had 41 assists and 11 digs. Jessica Sullivan had 9 kills. Bridget Billingsley added 8 kills and 7 digs while Lindsay DaFonte had 5 kills.

Beighly Ramirez and Caitlan Brassart also had 18 and 8 digs respectively.

After surviving Golden West, Lemoore's WYL title hopes rest on this Thursday's results.

If Lemoore and El Diamante both win or lose to Hanford and Golden West respectively, the teams will share the WYL title.

If one team wins and the other loses, that team will be the sole WYL champion.

(Nov. 4, 2009)