M-ette Volleyball

Earlier this summer, the Malta M-ette Volleyball team tasted sweet victory as they won the 2021 Missoula Team Volleyball Camp. That taste has the group of spikers hungry for more.

"It gave them confidence," Malta M-ette Coach Tasha Hines said. "I feel like they were always chasing the buck with volleyball and it was there. They just needed to own that."

Last Monday, August 16, the team started holding their first regular-season practices, and the hunger to perform well has been seen on the court.

"If you were to come by and watch our practices, it's different," Coach Hines said. "It's faster. It's loud. The girls are moving and talking to each other, and we are going to keep that. I am so excited for them."

The M-ettes will host the Malta Invitational this weekend in Malta on Saturday, August 28, at 9 a.m.

On the first two days of practice, the team had to hold tryouts due to the number of athletes trying out for the team.

"Our numbers are pretty high," Coach Hines said. "So (the first days) were to see where everyone falls instead of trying to introduce skills to these younger girls. We wanted to see where their raw talent was at."

On Thursday, the athletes were notified of which team they would be on; varsity, junior varsity, or C-Squad.

After establishing teams, the M-ettes worked on passing drills and fundamentals.

"We made a lot of adjustments on our angles and changed the way that we passed," Coach Hines said. "We had a lot of reps to get things set and create muscle memory."

Coach Hines said that there is a big difference between the upperclassmen and lowerclassmen, but the older athletes have been working hard to catch the younger athletes up. She also said that the intensity of the practice has been good for the younger athletes to see.

"You can already see the difference in the younger ones," Coach Hines said of their growth in the first week. "The momentum and speed of our practices have been phenomenal this year."

This week, prior to the Malta Invitational, Coach Hines said that she plans to keep working on the athletes' foundation and passing. Malta will feature a varsity and a sub-varsity team for the tournament.