Lady Mavs Defeat Malta JV, Nashua

The North Country Maverick volleyball team picked up a pair of wins last week, defeating the Class B Malta M-ettes JV team 3-0 on Friday, September 20, and the Nashua Lady Porcupines 3-0 on Saturday, September 21.

In North Country's win over Malta's JV team, the scores were 25-18, 25-15, and 25-20.

Individual Stats: Aces: Team 10, Gracie Wasson 3, CharLee and BaiLee McColly each with 2. Kills: Team 30, Gracie Wasson 8, BaiLee and CharLee McColly each with 7. Assists: Team 25, Kennedy Simonson 14, Gracie Wasson 8, Berkley Hillman 2 and Emerson Downing 1. Digs: Team 46, Berkley Hillman 13, Emerson Downing 9, Gracie Wasson 7, Ireland Mears 6, Kennedy Simonson 5. Blocks: Team 1 BaiLee McColly 1.

"The girls came away with a 3-set match victory and improved our skills in areas we have been working on," Mavericks Head Coach Charlene Wasson said. "The match was a little patchy here and there but overall it was a good battle for us."

The PC caught up with the team's captains after their win over Malta's JV squad.

"I feel like we're a little bit tippy to start," senior Berkley Hillman said. "We maybe didn't have the best free ball passes or serve-receive passes, but we kind of just came together. After every point we got in our huddle and talked about what we need to do differently. I think that sticking together and just knowing our strong points of each rotation was really important in getting this win."

Though they didn't play Malta's varsity team in this matchup, junior team captain BaiLee McColly, was impressed with Malta's frontline.

"They were definitely taller than some other teams that we've matched up against, and I thought they had some good ways of tracking the ball and I think we just needed to put it down," McColly said. "That was the only way."

Prior to their game against Nashua, junior captain Kennedy Simonson was asked about their approach to playing the Lady Porcupines.

"We are probably going to work on our communication and our serve-receive passes and free balls. We kind of struggled a little bit on those today, so if we clean that up against Nashua we should beat them in three. Hopefully, we can clean everything up."

In North Country's win over Nashua, the scores were 25-8, 25-9, and 25-5.

Individual Stats: Aces: Team 18, Lyli Bear and Gracie Wasson each with 4, CharLee McColly 3 and Kodi McColly, and Berkley Hillman each with 2. Kills: Team 26, Kodi McColly 7, CharLee McColly and Emerson Downing each with 5, Lyli Bear 3 and BaiLee McColly, and Gracie Wasson each with 2.

Assists: Team 26, Gracie Wasson 16, Kennedy Simonson 7, Emerson Downing 2 and Lyli Bear 1. Digs: Team 29, Gracie Wasson 7, Emerson Downing 5, Ireland Mears and Layna Jones each with 4, Kodi McColly 3, CharLee McColly, Lyli Bear each with 2. Blocks: Team 1 BaiLee McColly 1.

"North Country came out ready to play in this match and controlled it from start to finish," Coach Wasson said. "There was a lot of consistent action from serve-receive passing to our attacking this match. This was a good team effort and 13 Mavericks played and did their jobs well."

This week the Mavericks will travel to Wolf Point on Tuesday for JV and C Squad matches. On Thursday, September 26, the Mavs will have a conference match-up with Bainville who is leading the conference. On Friday, North Country will travel to Choteau and then play Saturday in Choteau's JV and Varsity Mid Season Tourney.

"This will be a great week of volleyball for us," Coach Wasson said.

The Lady Mavericks are off to a strong start this season, competing hard in tournaments and they have only lost one regular season game. The team is 5-1.

"Honestly, I feel like we had open gyms all summer and the work everyone put in all summer, our younger players really stepped up this year," Hillman said. "Our first practice, I saw a lot of improvement already from a lot of our JV players, which I thought was really cool for those kids to step into the role of the seniors that we lost last year."