M-ettes Earn Second In Competitive District Tourney

The Malta M-ette Volleyball team took second place in the 2024 District 2B Tournament in Malta last Saturday, November 2.

The M-ettes battled hard in the 2B District Tournament, defeating the Harlem Wildcats 3-0 in the opening round of the 2B District Tournament last Thursday, October 31. The M-ettes also bested the Glasgow Lady Scotties in the quarterfinals 3-2 on Friday, November 1, and then later lost to the Fairview Warriors 3-1 in the semifinals later that day.

The next day was similar as the M-ettes posted a dominant 3-0 win over Glasgow, and the team made a run at the 2B Championship, but fell 3-2 to Fairview Saturday night.

Malta will face the Chinook Sugarbeeters in the second game of the Northern B Divisional at 11:45 a.m. on Thursday, November 7, in Shelby.

The winner of the game will likely be paired with the Fairfield Eagles, who defeated the Shelby Coyotes 3-0 in the 1B Championship last Saturday.

The Eagles have not lost many sets this season and that continued in the 1B District Tournament. Chinook was the only team last weekend to win a set against Fairfield.

In Malta's Championship loss to Fairview, the scores were 25-20, 14-25, 16-25, 25-22, and 15-17.

Senior Ava Hanson who had seven aces in the championship, was asked about the game.

"It's for sure a bummer because I feel like we always play them and we always fall short," Hanson said. "I know we all left it out there because we all gave it everything we could and this time it wasn't enough, but it will be at divisionals."

Junior Kendall Clausen led Malta with eight kills and 16 assists. Kelbie Nelson had 33 digs. Hailey Welch had four blocks.

Malta had a total of 107 digs, 37 kills, 34 assists, nine blocks and nine aces.

In Malta's third place game win over Glasgow, the scores were 25-15, 25-17, and 25-17.

The M-ettes were led by junior Denvyr Tuss who had eight kills. Neva Jacobson had four blocks. Clausen had seven aces and 15 assists. Nelson had 29 digs.

"Our energy was absolutely insane, the whole crowd, the whole atmosphere of the gym was just great and helped us really crush them," Tuss said.

Malta had a total of 70 digs, 31 kills, 29 assists, 15 aces, and nine blocks.

The scores in Malta's semi-final loss to Fairview were 14-25, 20-25, 25-19, and 19-25.

The M-ettes were led by Tuss who had 12 of Malta's 33 kills. Jacobson had 16 of Malta's 31 assists. Hanson had five of Malta's 14 aces. Clausen had 18 of Malta's 71 digs. Jacobson and Shaylee Hines both had two blocks.

The scores in Malta's quarterfinal win over Glasgow were 25-18, 25-23, 17-25, 12-25, and 15-6.

"I think the key was mainly working together and bouncing back in that last set," Tuss said.

Malta controlled the first two sets but fell in the third and fourth sets. Glasgow had the momentum.

"I think we were just kind of going head-to-head with our teammates and we were not communicating like (Head Coach Tasha Hines) said," Hanson said. "She said that we were communicating at each other, not with each other, and that really affected how we responded to them as a team."

Clausen reiterated that Coach Hines' talk made an impact going into the fifth set.

"Yeah, our Coach, Tasha, kind of snapped at us and I think that brought all of our momentum back from that third and fourth set," Clausen said. "We just really wanted to crush them in that fifth set."

Tuss led the M-ettes with 16 of Malta's 40 kills. Nelson had 29 of Malta's 98 digs. Jacobson had 18 of the team's 38 assists. Welch had three of Malta's 12 aces. Welch also had seven of 12 team blocks.

In the M-ettes' first round win over Harlem, the scores were 25-11, 25-6, and 25-17.

Tuss led Malta in kills, with 12. Clausen had 18 assists. Nelson had seven digs. Jacobson had three aces. Welch and Hines had two blocks.

Malta had a total of 29 digs, 26 kills, 25 Assists, 10 aces, and five blocks.

Coach Hines was asked about the team's key to victory over Harlem.

"I would probably say our serving and our just overall energy, attitude, and teamwork," Coach Hines said. "Just all the little things we did in the process of that game just made it easy for the W."

Coach Hines was asked about how the team was able to stay so engaged this weekend despite seeing the same teams that they have seen throughout the season.

"Just creating new things, trying to create new plays, new tempo things to keep the girls engaged and just not to relax too much," Coach Hines said. "We're so fortunate to have the girls that we have. They're just so supportive, I mean, sure, we've had some Bumpy times but at the end of the day they'll come together and they support one another, and even in that third set when our energy wasn't quite as high as what we hoped to see, they pulled through and just encourage each other. Every point, every single point there was encouragement."