Mavs Maul Malta M-Ettes

Well, maybe “maul” isn’t the politically correct word there but at times that is just what itseemed. A mauling.

The North Country Mavericks, led by Jada Sudbrack and Mickayla Johnson, whupped up on the M-Ettes 25-16 in the first game of the match setting the stage for the next four games. Again, Sudbrack led the charge with Johnson, Delaney Beil, Bailey Funk, Tatum Moore, Casity Boucher and Payton Chopper filling in the gaps making super digs, great passing, monster blocks and thundering kills. This wasn’t your grannies' volleyball, folks. It was poetry in motion.

About the only drawback was, as Mavericks' head coach Kathy Siroky told me, the ability "to put two winning games back to back.” Scoring went like this in Malta: North Country 25-16, Malta 25-18, North Country 27-25, Malta 25-15 and the finale’ was Mavericks 15-11.

The third game was a beauty indeed! The Lady Mav’s played their best game of the season (my opinion, of course and who am I to say anyhow) when, behind 21 to 18, they came back to tie it up at 23 all with a perfect set by Beil and a perfect KWA by Sudbrack. Sudbrack and Johnson teamed up for a block and put back to give the Mav’s a one pernt lead but NC served out of bounds which tied the game at 24 all. Yikes!

Malta hit their next serve into the net and NC’s next serve barely went out of bounds. Tie game again at 25. Then the big guns stepped up when Johnson had a partial block of an M-Ette kill giving the Mavs' the lead again. Then Boucher made a good dig and pass of a Malta serve sending it up, up and up to Beil who eyed the ball’s trajectory and timed a perfect set to Sudbrack who charged the net, hair flying one way, arms and legs flying the other ways and BAM hit a KWA to the far left corner that the Malta team just watched as it hit inbound for the final point. Mav’s win 27-25.

Malta came alive and jumped right on the Mavs in the fourth game and wouldn’t let the girls from the North Country breathe, winning handily 25-15 which set up the "first one to 15 final game."

Sudbrack, paying back a couple Malta doinks, doinked one to start the fourth game off in style. On the next play Casity Boucher set Jada up for yet another of her team-leading 13 kills.

Johnson got a BWA that the M-Ettes managed to dig up and return and Boucher made a sliding dig passing to Moore who made a great one-armed save getting the ball to Johnson who had one of her 9 KWAs. Not to be outdone Funk one-armed a Malta shot that hit the net, balanced there for about a minute and a half and finally fell into the Malta court for the pernt.

The final few points went exactly (or so) like this: Beil to Johnson for a kill. Beil to Moore, BAM. Boucher to Johnson, pernt.

With the score tied at 11 the North Country Lady Mavericks pleased the fan faithful by rattling off the next four straight points for the game and match.

The Mavericks tallied 10 aces (Chopper 3), 30 kills (Sudbrack 13, Johnson 9), 25 assists (Beil 20), 9 blocks (Sudbrack 5, Johnson 4) and 37 digs (Moore 12, Sudbrack 7 and Boucher 7).

Next up was the Opheim Lady Vikings for a match played in Hinsdale. The Mavericks traveled to Opheim a couple weeks back and came home victorious winning the match in three. The fans were happy with that outcome. They were apprehensive, however in Hinsdale when the Vikings took the North Country ladies to a score of 26 to 24 favor of the Mav’s. Opheim played a very strong game and the Mav’s didn’t but as coach Siroky said of that game “a win is a win.”

The other two games went 25-17 and 25-17 for a final tally of 3-0 for the North Country Lady Mavericks.

There were 29 kills (Sudbrack 10), 8 aces (Johnson, Moore, Sudbrack 2 each), 17 digs (Moore 5), and 22 assists (Beil 18).

That’s it for now, folks. Thanks for listening.