Mavericks First in District 1B Tourney

The North Country Lady Mavericks volleyball team earned a first place trophy for the first time in the co-op's history last Saturday after defeating the Plentywood Wildcats 3-1 in the 1C Championship last Saturday, October 28, in Plentywood.

"We celebrated, but you could tell the girls were not overly excited because they know next week is a pivotal weekend of volleyball if they want to get back to State," Mavericks Head Coach Charlene Wasson said.

North Country will face the Circle Wildcats in the opening round of the Eastern C Divisional Tournament in Sidney on Thursday, November 2, at 2 p.m. Circle went 2-2 at the 2C District Tournament last weekend, and earned the fourth seed.

There will only be two spots for Eastern C teams at the State Volleyball tournament in Bozeman which is scheduled to start on Thursday, November 9.

In the Mavericks' 1C championship win over Plentywood, Coach Wasson admitted things did not start off ideal.

"We came out slow and lost the first set, then adjusted and got ourselves going again," Coach Wasson said.

The scores were 19-25, 25-19, 25-8, and 25-17.

The Mavs had a total of 56 kills, led by Teagan Erickson who had 22. Paige Wasson had 16 kills, and Kendall Scheffelmear had eight kills.

The team had a total of 12 aces. Wasson had four, BaiLee McColly, Berkley Hillman, and CharLee McColly each had two.

The Mavs had 43 assists. Kennedy Simonson had 29 assists, Wasson, and C. McColly both had seven assists.

Wasson had a team-leading 13 digs. Hillman had eight digs and Scheffelmear had five digs.

The team had six blocks. B. McColy had three, Erickson had two, and Simonson had one.

The Lady Mavericks also defeated Plentywood in the semifinals. The scores were 25-14, 25-16, and 25-24.

"On Saturday we were able to get a little revenge from the only loss of our season to the Plentywood Wildcats," Coach Wasson said. "The girls came out ready to go and never looked back. We were passing the ball well off serve-receive giving us the option to put our set wherever we wanted and making our plays end with kills. We won this match in three sets and earlier in the year, September 1 to be exact, we lost to Plentywood in five."

P. Wasson and Erickson both had 12 kills. Scheffelmear had four kills and B. McColly had three. Simonson had 23 assists. Wasson had 14 digs, Hillman had 11 digs and Simonson had eight digs. C. McColly had two blocks. Scheffelmear and Erickson both had one block.

The Mavericks defeated the Scobey Spartans 3-0 in the second round of the 1C tourney. The scores were 25-22, 25-7, and 25-15.

"Our ability to stay collected and cool really paid off for us this weekend," Coach Wasson said. "We never let anything really rattle us. We took on the Scobey Spartans on Friday at 4:30 p.m., the only match we played that day."

Erickson had 15 kills, six digs, two aces, and one block. P. Wasson had 13 kills, six assists, six digs, and five aces. Scheffelmear had eight kills and two aces. Simonson had 27 assists and seven digs. C. McColly had four kills and two blocks. B. McColly had three blocks.

"We were able to pass the ball really efficiently in this match," Coach Wasson said. "Our defense stepped up this weekend and there wasn't a ball that dropped without someone getting their hands on it. This really frustrates the offense and that is what we did in this match."

In the opening round of the 1C tournament, the Mavericks posted a dominant 3-0 win over Culbertson, The scores were 25-8, 25-19, and 25-13.

"The roads were a little suspect but we made it in plenty of time to unwind and relax at the motel before heading to the gym Thursday for our 7:30 p.m. match up with Culbertson who earlier in the day beat Nashua," Coach Wasson said. "We came out in this match focused and ready, no slow starts for us."

Erickson had 13 kills, and eight digs. P. Wasson had 10 kills, six digs, and five assists. Scheffelmear had four kills and three blocks. Simonson had 20 assists. Hillman had 13 digs.