North Country and Malta Clash in Whitewater

The North Country Mavericks volleyball team hosted the Malta M-ettes in Whitewater last Thursday, September 21, and the Mavs won 3-0.

North Country then traveled to Bainville and defeated the Bulldogs 3-1 on Friday, September 22. Malta also saw action on Friday in Glasgow and lost 3-2 to the Lady Scotties. Malta also lost 1-3 to the Shelby Lady Coyotes in Shelby on Saturday, September 23.

On Thursday, September 28, the M-ettes will host the Chinook Sugarbeeters at the Malta High School Gymnasium at 4 p.m. They will then head to Choteau for the Choteau Mid-Season Invitational on Saturday, September 30.

The Mavericks will also be in the house in Choteau for the Mid-Season Invitational. Before the tournament, the Mavericks will head to Brockton on Thursday to take on the Warriors at 5 p.m.

In the Mavericks' win over Malta, the scores were 25-21, 25-18, and 25-15. The Mavericks were led by Teagan Erickson who had 18 of the team's 37 kills. Paige Wasson had 11 kills and 10 digs. Kennedy Simonson had 22 assists. BaiLee McColly had three aces and two blocks.

The PCN caught up with Wasson, Erickson, and Kendall Scheffelmear, all senior captains that night.

Though she didn't lead the team in any statistical category, Scheffelmear was asked how she was able to be so effective around the net. Scheffelmear was out recovering from surgery.

"I just wanted to be really focused since I didn't play last weekend," Scheffelmear said. "I wanted to have fun. It has been a while and Malta is always competitive. It's always fun."

Malta was led by Denvyr Tuss who had five kills. Kendall Clausen and Ava Hansen each had three aces. Neva Jacobson, Clausen and Addison Ulrich each had 10 digs. Clausen also led in blocks with two.

Over the past four years, the Whitewater senior class has seen plenty of success in their matchups with Malta in Whitewater, winning three out of the last four matchups in the Penguin Palace.

Wasson was asked what it is like to pick up a win in her homecourt.

"It's nice because we don't get many games in Whitewater because we have to split our home games between the three schools and we only have one left, so it is really nice to get to play in the Whitewater gym." P. Wasson said.

Scheffelmear, a fellow Whitewater senior was asked the same question.

"It's nice because everyone that doesn't really come to games gets to watch us and we get to see everyone," Scheffelmear said. "All of the little kids come and watch us and we get home early."

Erickson, a 6'2" Saco senior, was asked what things were like on the front lines, going against Malta's hitters.

"It's a lot of fun," Erickson said. "Malta has a lot of good blockers, so I had to place my hits differently and swing hard to get through those blocks. So, yeah, it's a lot of fun."

Wasson was asked what the team had to do to pick up a win against Bainville.

"We just have to play together because they are probably going to be a very scrappy team, so we just have to make sure that we do all the little things right," Wasson said.

In the Mavericks' win over Bainville the scores were 21-25, 25-23, 25-23, and 25-21. Wasson had 20 kills and 14 digs. Erickson had a team-leading 21 kills. Simonson had 30 assists and 14 digs. Berkley Hillman had ten digs and a team-leading two aces. CharLee McColly had two blocks.

"We had a rough night from the service line spotting Bainville five points in the first set, three points in the second set, five points in the third set, and two in the fourth set," Mavericks Head Coach Charlene Wasson said. "They took advantage of our height on hitting, by really angling their attacks and getting the ball to come off our block and out of bounds. Our defense was making adjustments; they happened to be a little off.

"We fought a good battle and stood our ground keeping our composure in this match," Coach Wasson continued. "This was a great match of strategy and determination by the Mavericks. You tend to learn a lot more from close tight matches that give you a lot of pressure situations."

The scores in Malta's loss to Glasgow were 25-21, 21-25, 9-25, 25-22, and 11-15.

Clausen had nine kills, 15 digs, and five aces. Tuss had nine kills. Jacobson had 34 assists. Giona Lamb had two blocks.

In the M-ettes' loss to Shelby, the scores were 15-25, 18-25, 25-20, and 22-25. Tuss led Malta with 11 kills. Clausen had 26 digs. Macey Blunt had 14 assists. Kataya KillEagle had six blocks. Kelbie Nelson and Clausen both had two aces.