M-ette spikers look to defend their home turf at the Malta Invitational tourney

The Malta M-ettes volleyball team has a large squad, standing at 33 players between their varsity, junior varsity and c-squad.

The team has been practicing hard and looks primed to defend their home turf at the 2014 Malta Volleyball Tournament on August 30 at 9:00 a.m.

The varsity teams from all over the state will be playing at the high school, while the junior varsity and c-squads will be playing at the old gym.

"This is the only tournament that I know of, where you can bring all three of your teams and play," said M-ette Volleyball Coach Julia Tatafu. "It's a fun tournament to open (our season)."

There will be ten teams playing at the tournament, that will have varsity teams at the least. There is the potential for even more teams at the junior varsity and c-squad level.

The M-ettes hope that age will be a factor in their season, being that nine of their players are seniors, after having only one last season.

The team also has a new assistant coach in Kalli Reintjes, along with returning assistant coach Tasha Hines, who will coach the junior varsity teams.

The team had three days of team practices and tryouts and from the outside looking in, the team looks fierce and ready to go, with many of the upperclassmen hitting harder and more precise than last year.

"We're going over basic skills right now," Coach Tatafu told the PCN. "The reason we do tryouts is to determine what girls will be on which teams."

She went on to say that her highest scoring teams went on to varsity, a team of 13.

Though there are many players, some girls will see action at two different levels knowing if they play extremely well, they can move up to the next level.

"Some girls will get to be on two teams, so either they're playing JV-Varsity, or they're playing JV and C-squad.

That is a double-edged sword however, because a varsity player can be moved down to junior varsity at any point of the season.

In practices, Tatafu has a formula and schedule for preparing the team.

"They start off with basic skills of passing, overhead passing, setting, serving and attacking," she said.

They also have conditioning drills, like running 800-meters during practice. They also do a lot of sprint drills and shuffle drills.

The practices were point-based, depending on times players ran during conditing and points earned through the skill drills.

Those practices also had three on three drills, four on four and six on six drills, to see how well the players played with teammates.

The day before the tournament, Malta will have their blue and white scrimmage at Malta High, starting at 5:30 p.m. Before that, there will be a parents meeting, in the gym, at 5:00 p.m. Tatafu encourages all volleyball parents to attend.

The Saco-Hinsdale Wildfire will also be a part of this weekend's action.