Opening their season Monday night on the road in Osage County, the Jason Kampeter era of Vienna Lady Eagle basketball began with a hard-fought game by both teams.

Trailing by one after one quarter and at halftime, Vienna missed a shot in the closing seconds of the game that would have forced overtime before falling to Chamois’ Lady Pirates 39-37.

“We fought hard but came up a little short,” Kampeter said. “I’m very proud of our team defense and overall effort the girls put forth.”

During a tight first quarter that ended with Chamois leading 8-7, Vienna saw scoring from three different Lady Eagles led by Kamryn Hayes with three points.

Karissa Feeler and Jordyn Steffen each added two points for VHS in the rst eight minutes.

Playing the second quarter to an 8-8 tie, Vienna went into halftime trailing the Lady Pirates by the slimmest of margins, 16-15.

Hayes added four points giving her a team-high seven points in the first half. Marsie Messersmith nailed a 3-pointer while Kendra Iven added a free throw to round out the second quarter scoring for Vienna.

Katie Keilholz paced Chamois and all scorers in the first half with eight points.

Starting the second half, both teams nearly doubled their respective point totals in the third quarter.

Edged 13-11, Vienna went into the final eight minutes trailing the host Lady Pirates 29-26.

Steffen paced the Lady Eagles with seven third-quarter points fol- lowed by two each from Kadence George and Hayes.

In spite of Steffen and Hayes combining for all 11 fourth-quarter points, Vienna came up just shy in their season opener at Chamois.

Hayes paced the Lady Eagles with a team-high 15 points followed closely by Steffen scoring 12 of her 14 points in the second half.

Messersmith added three points along with two each from Feeler and George. Iven rounded out Vienna’s scoring with a second-quarter free throw for one point.

Coach Kampeter and his Lady Eagles will look for their first notch in the win column next week at the Tipton Tournament to close out the month of November.

Vienna’s Lady Eagles will open play at Tipton on Monday, Nov. 26 as the fth seed facing fourth- seeded Smithton at 6 p.m.

A win would move Vienna to the championship semi finals on Wednesday, Nov. 28 against ei- ther Tipton or LaMonte at 6 p.m., while a loss would place them in the consolation semi nals at 4:30 p.m., also next Wednesday.

Greg Koetting’s Vienna Eagles opened their season last night (Tuesday) at home against Cham- ois’ Pirates. Results from that con- test will be in next week’sAdvocate due to the early deadline with the Thanksgiving holiday.

A familiar opponent will await the Eagles in the opening round of the Tipton Tournament.

Seeded fourth, Vienna will take on Chamois for the second time in a week on Tuesday, Nov. 27 at 6 p.m. A win would see Vienna play at 6 p.m., on Thursday, Nov. 29 while a loss would have them play at 4:30 p.m., in the consolation semi finals.