M-ettes start 2-1 as season kicks off

The Malta M-ettes are off to a solid start after defeating Harlem on Friday at home and defeating Poplar in Poplar last Saturday. The wins come after the team dropped the season opener to Chinook in Chinook on Tuesday, September 6. Malta defeated Harlem 3-0, with the set scores being 25-18, 25-18 and 25-16.

Ella Schye led Malta with six of 20 team kills and seven of 36 digs. Sam Mitchell had 11 of 16 assists. Raina Mortenson also had seven digs. Shay Garfield had five of 13 aces and two of Malta's three blocks.

"We all worked really hard and then came together as a team," Garfield said. "We made sure we controlled everything that we could control so that we could get good hits and good passes."

Senior Julia Meisdalen also provided some length on the frontline racking up three blocks in Malta's win over Poplar the next night. Her three blocks in the Poplar game tied Schye, who also had three.

"I think we did really great," Meisdalen said. "We worked as a team as Shea said and we were really supportive of each other."

Sophomore Janessa Malmend was a bright spot coming off of the bench against Harlem. It was her first regular season game as a varsity player, yet she held her own.

"It's pretty cool to be just a sophomore and play with the older kids," Malmend said.

She admitted to having a few mistakes.

"I think everyone has a lot of those," Malmend said. "On our new serve-receive that we're learning a lot of the times it just goes over my head."

Malmend had five kills in the JV team's 3-1 victory over Harlem earlier that night. Malmend has played with the JV players for years however; she is learning the ways of the older players.

"I think it's just hard because they are all used to being together as a team," Malmend said. "But I think we do pretty good to come together and support each other."

Garfield has learned a few things throughout her volleyball career and one of those things is her approach to hitting.

"If I hit hard a lot of times I will tip a few because they won't be ready for it," Garfield said. "They'll be back on their heels instead, so usually I can get points out of that."

The team lost 3-0 to Chinook one day prior. In that loss the team was led by Schye who had eight of 14 kills. Garfield had three of nine aces. Mortenson and Kyleigh Schipman both had ten digs a piece and Mitchell had nine of 15 assists. The scores were 25-15, 25-19 and 25-17.

After the loss the team knew they had to refocus because for the senior class the Harlem game would be their final home opener.

After the win against Harlem, the team then looked forward to their next game against Poplar.

"I think being loud and encouraging each other if we get down helps a lot," Malmend said.

Malta defeated Poplar 3-2 the next night. The scores were 26-24, 18-25, 24-26, 25-23 and 15-11.

Schye had a season high 16 kills. Malta had 49 kills. Mitchell had 21 of 41 assists. Schye had six of 10 aces. Mitchell has 29 of 105 digs. Schye and Meisdalen both had three blocks.

The team will travel to Glasgow Thursday to take on Glasgow with games starting at 3:30 p.m. Both Malta and Glasgow are 2-0 in conference this season.

They will then face Wolf Point in Wolf Point on Saturday with those games scheduled to start at 1 p.m.