The Lady Tigers have officially made their grand return for the winter season. The team has many rivals, the main ones being Benton, Carterville, and Marion. However, on November 17th the Tigers went up against Anna-Jonesboro for their first game of the season. The crowd was excited to watch the game, cheer for the players, and support the team. Going into their opening game the girls on the team were feeling a lot of emotions. Even though the seniors were preparing for their last first-game and the freshmen were preparing for their very first, they were all very nervous as well as excited. Gracie Craft stated that her biggest hope heading toward this season was making sure she would “achieve all of [her] goals that [she] set for [herself],” and to have “a winning record.” 

Going into this season they all have high hopes and many fears. Sydney Allen stated that her biggest hope was to have her “best season yet” and to progress far after the conference season. Some of them have a fear of getting injured and not getting much playing time, while others are afraid of losing games and not working together as a team. Loreal Tucker says her biggest fear is “not working as a team to be able to win games,” but she still has faith that they can win Regionals. Julia Alexander voiced that she wanted a good amount of playing time to give herself a chance to do well. 

During the game, the Lady Tigers did amazing playing as a team. Lexi Pickles stated that they “all played really good,” and that they had “positive attitudes throughout the whole game.” Pickles was happy with the points they put on the board, the opportunities they took to score, and the way they ran the floor. By the time the game was over, Herrin bested Anna-Jonesboro with a final score of 67-26!