M-ettes defeats Mavs, Indians

The Malta M-ettes volleyball team continued their strong 2021 campaign with a pair of wins last week.

The team defeated the North Country Mavericks 3-1 in Whitewater last Thursday, October 14, and then the Poplar Indians 3-0 in Malta on Saturday, October 16.

This week, the M-ettes will travel for a pair of road games. They will first go to Glasgow to face the Lady Scotties, who gave Malta their only regular-season loss (in a full game).

In the M-ettes win over North Country, the scores were 25-20, 25-19, 11-25, 25-23. The M-ettes were led by senior Skylie Lefdahl who had 11 of Malta's 34 kills. Allie Kunze had three of the team's six blocks. Rylee Hines had 15 of 31 assists and six of 15 aces.

"Our serve receive was a little tough tonight, but the best thing was probably that we all stayed together and finished as a team," Kunze said.

Kunze said that one big difference that they saw from North Country in their second match was an improvement in defense.

"They were digging up our hits pretty well and they were strong on the net," Kunze said. "We had to be strong in our placement."

The night featured strong hits from both squads according to Kunze, and both teams had players back from injuries.

"Justine came back and did a good job slowing Paige (Wasson) down with her swing," Coach Hines said.

In Malta's win over Poplar, the M-ettes were led by Lefdahl who had eight Malta's 27 kills and five of six blocks. Kunze had seven of Malta's 25 digs. Lauren Tuss had 11 of Malta's 21 assists and five of 12 aces.

"There was quite a bit of distraction this week, so coming in tonight, we knew we needed to focus on the court with it being senior night and having our 'Block out Cancer Night,'" Coach Hines said. "We just knew that we had to focus during every point, and they did."

Seniors Kaylee Bishop, Skylie Lefdahl, Justine Lamb, and manager Jade Darrington were honored prior to Malta's game against Poplar.

"They definitely lead by example," Coach Hines said of this year's seniors. "They are a group that each one of them plays an important role on this team. They are each respected and that is not something that you can force."