M-ettes defeat Shelby, go 1-4 in Choteau

The Malta M-ette Volleyball team outlasted the Shelby Coyotes in Shelby on Friday, September 24, but fell 1-4 in the Choteau Invitational last Saturday, September 25.

Overall, the M-ettes are 6-1 in regular-season games and 3-1 in the Conference.

"We are sitting pretty good, the team chemistry has been great," Malta Head Coach Tasha Hines said. "We need to be better about avoiding the mistake domino, where one (given up) turns into two, and two turns into three."

She said that this year's group is a fun group of girls and spoke highly of their efforts defensively.

"We are a force at the net on defense and both of our middles, Skylie (Lefdahl) and Allison (Kunze), are a huge part of our success offensively and defensively," Coach Hines said.

She also said that the team looks forward to welcoming back Justine Lamb, who is set to play after she finishes her ten practices.

The M-ettes will host the Roundup Lady Panthers this Saturday, October 2. The games start at 1 p.m.

Heading into the week, Coach Hines shared things that the team would work on.

"We will focus on bringing our tempo up, which means lower sets and faster plays," Malta head Coach Tasha Hines said. "Serve-receive will get attention as well, as we need to get that number consistently into the twos."

In Malta's win over Shelby, the scores were 25-18, 10-25, 23-25, and 15-7.

"We really showed up strong in Shelby," Coach Hines said. "We had the momentum to take the second set too but unfortunately, had a jersey mix-up due to one of our jerseys missing and it sure took a while to get out of that penalty point weight, but once they did it was all history.

Coach Hines said that the team's serving was good that night and she gave credit to the team's defense.

The M-ettes were led by junior Allie Kunze who had a season-high 18 kills. Kunze also had 12 of Malta's 55 digs.

"We found out pretty quickly that they were going to try and wear Allison out by serving to her, hitting to her, just sending everything they could to Allie," Coach Hines said. "Just trying to stop her momentum, but she took the challenge with wide-open arms. She led in digs, kills, top three in serve receive, and top two in blocks & serves as well. Allison & Skylie (Lefdahl) both had great nights actually."

Skylie Lefdahl had four of the M-ettes' seven blocks. Tia Siewing had four of Malta's 13 aces. Rylee Hines had 25 of 47 team assists.

Malta went 1-4 at the Choteau Invitational. Teams played games up to 42 points and switched sides of the court at 21. Malta played Choteau, Anaconda, Belt, and Jefferson.

"Choteau was a slow start and our rotation was not working so we switched it for Anaconda, it was better, we won, but still not what we need," Coach Hines said.

The team switched up their serve-receive rotation against Belt, but fell to Belt by 1 point, despite seeing some success.

"Our last match was against Jefferson and they definitely beat us at the net. Our net defense was tired and definitely slower than earlier," Coach Hines said. "All in all, great touches and the perfect opportunity for growth!"