Mavericks Earn First-Round Bye in 1C Tourney

The North Country Mavericks volleyball team has earned the second seed in this weekend's District 1C Volleyball Tournament at Plentywood High School thanks to their 9-1 conference record.

The team's lone loss in 1C play was at the hands of the Plentywood Lady Wildcats who were 10-1.

The Lady Mavericks will wait to see the winner of the match between Culbertson and Nashua in Game 4 at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, October 26. The Mavs' game starts at 7 p.m.

If North Country can defeat Nashua or Culbertson in the second round, they will make the semi-finals and likely face Scobey, who was one of six teams to win a set against the Mavs.

The Mavericks picked up a pair of wins during the last week of the regular season. They traveled to Frazer last Tuesday, October 17, and defeated the Bearcubs 3-0. They hosted Chinook in Whitewater on Wednesday, October 18, and won 3-0.

The scores in their win over Frazer were 25-2, 25-7, and 25-11.

"We came ready to play," Mavericks' Head Coach Charlene Wasson said. "Right off the bat we had strong serving in set one. Kendall Scheffelmear served 20 times and kept things rolling quickly. In set two, we settled in and continued to get the job done. In the third set, the JV kids went in and finished out the match playing strong like they always do."

Teagan Erickson had 10 of the team's 30 kills. Scheffelmear had six of the team's 20 aces. Kennedy Simonson had 14 of 28 team assists.

The scores in their win over Chinook were 25-13, 25-22, 25-9.

"We played Chinook early in the season, the first weekend in September in a tournament where we lost two sets to them," Coach Wasson said. "Tonight we were firing on all cylinders. We took control of the match in the first set and never let up. Our serve-receive passing allowed us to attack from any position and the sets were right where they needed to be to get our hard hits."

The team was led by Paige Wasson, who had 15 kills, six digs, and two aces. Erickson had 10 kills and eight digs. BaiLee McColly had seven kills and three blocks. Simonson had 19 assists. Scheffelmear had three blocks and two aces.

Coach Wasson expressed pride in the team's JV squad who saw plenty of action in 2023.

"I want to give a shout-out to the JV girls who worked hard all season and had twice as many matches as last year," Coach Wasson said. "They picked up their first loss against Chinook JV in five sets on Wednesday. Their dedication and ability to get better throughout the season by pushing the Varsity each day in practice is what I appreciated the most out of them this season."