Lady Mavs earn third seed, first-round bye

The North Country Mavericks hard work in the 2020 regular season paid off as the team was able to secure a first-round bye in the 1C District tournament.

The North Country Mavericks enter this weekend’s tournament as the third seed, avoiding a play-in game. Teams seeded 5th-12, squared off in play-in games on Tuesday, October 27.

The Mavericks will play the winner of the Savage and Bainville game in round two of the tournament. North Country’s game is set to begin at 6 p.m. on Thursday, October 29, in Saco.

Last week, the Mavericks picked up a pair of wins against the Lustre Lions in Lustre 3-0 on Thursday, October 22, and the Fairview Warriors 3-1 on Saturday, October 24, in Hinsdale.

In the team’s Senior Night win over Fairview, the Mavericks were led by Hinsdale High School senior Kaitlyn McColly who had 13 kills, 19 digs, two aces, and one block. Hinsdale classmate Danika Soper, also a senior, had 25 assists, nine digs and 1 kill.

Kia Wasson had 17 digs and nine kills, Jaydyn Erickson added seven kills. Jaycee Erickson had 11 assists, seven digs, and six kills.

The scores were: NC 13 - F 25, NC 27 - F 25, NC 26 - F 24, and NC 25 - F 22.

“We started off slow in this match losing the first set 13 to 25,” Coach Charlene Wasson said. “We haven't played a tough match for almost 2 weeks when we played Froid/Lake on October 9th.”

Coach Wasson said that the Warriors always play good defense and are good at forcing teams to make mistakes.

In last Thursday’s win over Lustre, the scores were NC 25 - L 9, NC 25 - L 16, and NC 25 - L 14.

The team was led by K. Wasson who had eight kills and two aces. Soper had 13 assists. McColly had seven kills and four aces.

“We are happy with how our regular season ended and are looking forward to the postseason,” Coach Wasson said.

Knowing that the postseason starts this weekend, Coach Wasson expects teams to be playing their best, so the Mavericks will make the most of the week.

“We will prepare this week to get our timing between setters and hitters working like a well-oiled machine,” Coach Wasson said. “The other item we are going to focus on will be serving and making sure we give ourselves the best chance to score points by serving tough but accurate and consistent.”