One Nation, Under God
Senior night in Malta for the M-ettes pitted the team against the Glasgow Lady Scotties and the night was also dubbed "Pink Night" as the volleyball community celebrated Breast Cancer Awareness in honor of Malta teacher Jeanie Engebretson.
During the contests and throughout the night, raffles were held, as was a bake sale, with all the proceeds going to the Engebretson family. Ahead of the contest, seniors Jenessa Malmend (escorted by family including parents Travis and Tracy Malmend); Kloie Marks (escorted by family including her mother, Kristina Uphaus); Raina Mortenson (escorted by her family including parents Paul and Rachel Mortenson); Kyleigh Schipman (escorted by family including parents Jesse and Leslie Schipman), and Wylee Young (escorted by her family including parents Todd and Sonia Young) were all honored during the final home contest in their high school volleyball careers.
Another pre-game ceremony was held in which assistant volleyball coach Cheyenne Young was honored with a star quilt by the volleyball community for her coaching efforts.
In the volleyball action, the M-ettes fought hard but ultimately fell in four sets, 3-1, by scores of 22-25, 20-25, 25-12, and 17-25.
In their lone win, Marks went on a rampage with her serves and with her teammate's help, knocked down 10 straight serves to finish the 25-12 win.
After the game, Marks admitted that her approach to serving changed at the beginning of the season (she takes five steps, one of them sort of stuttered, before sending the ball over the net.)
"I just do it," she says. "I finally started to get it to gel this year. It is awkward, but it works."
Marks said the team wanted to compete better than they did on Senior Night and was happy with how the third set went.
"We wanted to play with passion and we eventually pulled through, dug deep and played well in that (win)," she said. "I think that our positive attitudes really help when we cheer for each other in everything little thing we do, and it really makes us want to play better as a team."
Fellow senior Young helped mightily in the third set with a handful of kills. Standing at just 5'4", Young said her short stature doesn't often limit her in her favorite part of volleyball: being an outside hitter.
"The net is about seven and a half feet and I can get my hands all the way over it," she said. "We had good moments tonight, but we just need to put all the ingredients together and we will win games."
Young said that in order to win in their Friday tilt against Poplar, the team would need to be more focused.
"I feel like our hustle was there all night," she said of the loss against Glasgow, "but our focus wasn't where it needed to be."
In the loss to Glasgow, the team was led in digs by Marks with 18 of the team's 88, kills with 13 of the team's 37, and aces with 4 of the team's 7. Mortenson led the team in assists with 20 of the team's 37 and Kaylanna Bain had 2 of the team's 4 blocks.
On Friday, the M-ettes traveled to Poplar and earned a 3-0 win, 25-21, 25-17 and 25-20. In the sweep, Mortenson led the M-ettes with 9 of the team's 30; Marks led the team in aces with 8 (20 total on the night for the M-ettes); Schipman had a team-high 6-kills (21 total for the M-ettes), and Bain had both of the team's blocks.
The M-ettes face-off with the North Country Lady Mavericks on Tuesday night (after the PCN has gone to press, see the story in next week's newspaper) and then end the regular season with a road contest against Roundup starting at 3 p.m.
Reader Comments(0)