M-ettes second at District Tourney

The Malta M-ettes are headed to the 2021 Northern B Divisional Volleyball tournament as the second seed from the 2B District Tournament after nearly forcing their championship game against Glasgow to a fifth set on Saturday, October 30, in Wolf Point.

"It's pretty good to be able to keep going on in our senior year, with the end goal being State, so hopefully we can keep that going," senior Kaylee Bishop told the PCN.

Malta is one of eight Northern B teams that will hope to earn a spot heading to the 2021 State B Volleyball Tournament in Bozeman on Thursday, November 11. Only three teams from this weekend's Northern B Divisional round will advance.

This Thursday, November 4, in Glasgow, the M-ettes will face the Shelby Coyotes at 11:45 a.m., who go into the Northern B Divisional as the third seed in the 1B District. Malta defeated Shelby 3-0 earlier this season.

"They have a middle hitter that likes to swing right side and a short outside hitter that can get the job done Crosscourt," Coach Hines said. "Our right sides and middles handled them very effectively last time so we just need to repeat the process."

If the M-ettes can make it past Shelby, they will likely face Choteau, who defeated Fairfield 3-0 in the 1B District Championship on Saturday, October 30.

"We know that Choteau will be a hard game but it's doable, we will need to place our hits very smart and be an effective serve-receive team, among other things," Coach Hines said. "But, when we saw Choteau earlier in the year it was definitely our serve- receive that got us the worst."

Coach Hines expressed the utmost confidence in her team.

"There's not a team we can't beat out there, but we have to start early and stay strong to the last whistle, it's our time to shine," she said.

The M-ettes took care of business in the 2B Tourney, winning two games and competing hard in their two losses to Glasgow in the semi-finals and championship games.

The scores in the championship loss to Glasgow were 13-25, 18-25, 25-23, and 25-23.

"We definitely started a little too slow, we had some unfortunate miss serves, but after that first set was over what was done was done," Coach Hines said. "After that, we started coming on strong. We came on even stronger in the third set, which we took. In the second set, we made some adjustments to our blocks, which slowed the tempo dramatically. And that, in turn, returned the momentum to us which gave Skylie and Allison the opportunity to really get after it."

Malta was led by Skylie Lefdahl, who had eight of Malta's 24 kills. Rylee Hines and Lauren Tuss each had 10 assists. Kaylee Bishop had three of eight aces. Tuss had 17 of 91 team digs. Lefdahl and Hines each had five blocks.

In Malta's consolation finals win over Wolf Point, the scores were 25-21, 21-25, 25-19, and 25-21. Malta was led by Allie Kunze and Justine Lamb who each had 11 kills. Kunze also had four aces and ten digs. Hines led in assists with 14. Lefdahl had three blocks.

In Malta's semi-final loss to Glasgow on Friday, October 29, the scores were 23-25, 22-25, and 12-25.

"Harlem was extra scrappy today," Lefdahl said after the win. "That's one thing about them, is that they are extra scrappy. I am happy that we finally woke up and warmed up, or whatever was wrong with us."

Bishop led Malta with five kills. Hines served four aces. Kunze had 14 digs. Tuss had 10 assists.

Malta faced Harlem and won in four sets on the morning of Thursday, October 28. The scores were 21-25, 25-21, 25-15, and 25-16.

Kunze led Malta with 11 kills. Tia Siewing had three aces, Lefdahl had three blocks, Tuss had 12 assists and Brylee French had 12 digs.