Mavs' season ends in Sidney

The 2017 season ended abruptly for the North Country Mavericks as the team suffered back to back losses in the Eastern C Divisional Tournament held in Sidney on Thursday, November 2 through Saturday, November 4.

Scobey was the only team from 3C to punch a ticket to the 2017 State C Volleyball tournament in Bozeman this week, taking second place at the tournament losing a five set match to Wibaux from the 2C district.

North Country entered the Eastern C Tourney as the 3C District's runner up after losing the District Championship to Scobey on Saturday, October 28 in Scobey.

Their placing pitted them against 2C runner-up Fairview in the opening round. North Country was defeated 3-0; the scores were 25-19, 25-20 and 25-18.

"We struggled a lot last weekend with passing through most of the sets," Mavericks Head Coach Barry Malone said. "However when we got down, we were able to come back from large deficits to make a run and keep some of the sets close."

Senior Mickayla Johnson led the Mavs with eight kills. The team had 27 kills. Johnson and fellow Senior Jada Sudbrack each had three blocks. Sudbrack had three digs. Senior Sydney Zeller had six of the team's 12 aces. Casity Boucher had six of the team's nine assists.

The Mavs went on to face Froid-Lake of the 1C district in the first round of the elimination bracket on Friday, November 3. North Country was defeated in three sets. The scores were 25-10, 25-13 and 25-22.

Johnson and Zeller both had three kills. Sudbrack had all three team blocks. The team had 10 kills, nine digs, seven assists, six aces and three blocks.

Though the season ended on a rough note, Coach Malone was encouraged by the growth of his team.

"We ended up 13-8 overall this season," Coach Malone said. "We were able to win some sets against some strong opponents this year, something that we lacked last year. We never quit, no matter what the score was at the end."