One Nation, Under God
For the first time the North Country Mavericks have punched their ticket to the State C Volleyball Tournament starting on Thursday, November 10.
"We are over the top excited to be heading to Bozeman for the State Tournament. We have never experienced state volleyball as a Maverick team," Mavericks Head Coach Wasson said. "Saco/Hinsdale (formerly known as the Wildfire) have made a few trips together as a co-op to State and seen some great success at that level. Now it is our turn as Mavericks to start our journey."
Making the tournament this season is special for another reason.
"It's pretty special because when we started our co-op, this year's seniors were fifth graders, so they are like the first generation of Maverick players to be all Maverick," Coach Wasson said.
The Mavericks, who enter this weekend's tournament as the Eastern C's runner up are set to to face the Northern C Champion Belt Huskies on Thursday at 4 p.m.
"I would say that we are fairly equal," Coach Wasson said. "I think they have some decent hitters. They play pretty good defense but overall I feel like they have one setter that they play all the way around."
The Mavericks, a co-op consisting of athletes from Saco, Whitewater and Hinsdale earned a spot at state by going 3-2 at the Eastern C Divisional Tournament last weekend in Culbertson.
First the Mavericks defeated the Jordan Mustangs 3-1 last Thursday, November 3. They then defeated the Broadus Hawks 3-2 later that day. The Mavericks lost their first match to Circle 0-3 on Friday night, but then fought to defeat Froid-Lake 3-2 on Saturday morning.
The Mavs met up again with Circle in the Eastern C Championship and fell 0-3. The scores in that championship game were 20-25, 20-25, and 18-25.
The following are stats according to Coach Wasson: Aces: Teagan Erickson two, Paige Wasson and Kendall Scheffelmear each with one. Kills: T. Erickson 17, Wasson 12, Scheffelmear six, and Mattea McColly two. Assists: Wasson 20, Kennedy Simonson eight, Berkley Hillman four. Digs: Kora LaBrie 10, Wasson eight, and BaiLee McColly four. Blocks: Teagan Erickson two, and Mattea McColly one.
"In this match, we handled the serving way better than Friday and were able to find a flow on offense," Coach Wasson said, "We were a little slow on defense once in a while, probably from playing back-to-back matches. We were so excited after the FML match about making it to state that we came down off the high and really leveled out. Some kids were exhausted but still managed a way to be focused and scrappy. We didn't let as many balls touch the floor this time around when we played them. I also believe Circle got on a good playing streak this tournament. Regardless of taking second, these kids really grew this weekend as a team."
In the team's win over Froid-Lake, the scores were 25-16, 25-19, 19-25, 13-25, and 15-9.
Stats: Kills: Erickson 27, Wasson 19, Scheffelmear four, M. McColly and B. McColly each with three. Assists: Wasson 26, Simonson 14, and Hillman eight.
Digs: LaBrie 15, Scheffelmear and Wasson each with 11, and B. McColly 10. Blocks: Wasson and Erickson each with two, Mattea McColly and BaiLee McColly each with one.
In their semi-final match with Circle the scores were 14-25, 21-25, and 27-29.
"This match was our worst passing match of the tournament," Coach Wasson said. "We really let their servers get to us. Our younger kids were feeling the pressure and tried to settle their nerves fast but it didn't happen as we wanted it to. We talked during practice this week about how stressful this tournament is over Districts and how each person needed to be in a focused controlled state of mind to make it to state. We just didn't get it done in this match."
In their quarter-final win over Broadus, the scores were 25-23, 19-25, 25-17, 13-25, and 15-7.
"This match was so much fun having hard hitters go against each other. In the sets we lost, we got really hung up on one or two of their servers," Coach Wasson said. "So when we lost the 4th set and then lost the coin toss I felt pretty confident when I saw they started in a different rotation that we were really going to be in control of the match. I believed our match ups in the front row were better and more dominant than their front row in set five."
Stats: Aces: Wasson five, M. McColly three, LaBrie two, and Simonson one. Kills: Erickson 21, Wasson 14, Scheffelmear 10 and M. McColly three. Assists: Wasson 26 and Simonson 11. Digs: LaBrie 12 and B. McColly nine.
The scores in the opening win over Jordan were 25-19, 24-26, 25-12, and 25-11.
Stats: Aces: Wasson, Scheffelmear, LaBrie, and Simonson each with two. Kills: Erickson 24, Wasson 16, Scheffelmear 12, and Mattea McColly six.
Assists: Wasson 29, Simonson 12, and Hillman six. Digs: Wasson 16, LaBrie 15, and Scheffelmear nine.
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