ABOVE: Mavericks' Emily Anderson drives a spike back across the court in a Valley Conference volleyball match in Trimont on Monday against Blue Earth Area.

TRIMONT – The Martin County West Mavericks came out swinging on Monday night in a dominant win over the Blue Earth Area Buccaneers, winning 25-12, 25-7, 25-12 in a nonconference volleyball match.

MCW head volleyball coach Kayla Zehms said much of the success just came from setting up the offense and letting the hitters attack.

“Just feeding the ball and then allowing it to go,” she said. “A lot of times their block wasn’t quite

closed, so it opened the avenue for our outsides just to be able to have a day.”

Leading the Mavericks was Maddie Carlson with nine kills and 14 digs, while Emily Anderson added seven kills, 18 digs and two aces. Gianna Chase ended the night with two kills, while Emily Schettler tacked on a kill, 14 digs and 13 assists. Courtney Anderson finished with a kill, 11 digs and an ace also for MCW, while Meia Schuett came away with a kill, one block, and two digs and Cami Clow added two aces and four digs.

“[It was a] Monday night matchup, we’re coming off a Homecoming week,” said BEA volleyball head coach Donna Nawrocki. “We weren’t able to do much practicing between that and now, we were slow. Martin County West has a very athletic and great [team], they’re a scrappy team. I knew they had power, and we just couldn’t handle it tonight, and they had a great night.”

The stat leaders for the Buccaneers were Autumn Gordon with eight kills, 17 kills and an ace, while Taylor Ripley added five kills, five assists and a block. Tailor Douglas put up three kills, five digs, a block and an ace, while Madison Ehrich added seven kills and an ace and Madelyn Ferguson had 11 digs.

The Mavericks opened Set 1 with a 5-0 run to jump out to an early lead. The Buccaneers got their offense moving but were overpowered, cutting into the lead heading into the final points of the set down 20-11. The Mavericks went on a 4-0 run before the Buccaneers were able to respond, but Carlson put away the final point to secure the first set.

Set 2 was all Mavericks, who went down by 2 points before a 4-0 run put them back out in front 4-2. A 13-0 run closed out the set.

The third set of the night was more of the same, with Mavericks taking a commanding lead courtesy of a strong outside attack, putting them up 14-9. The scoring continued for the Mavericks, who only allowed 3 points before closing out the set and securing the victory with Jaylee Brower driving home the final points of Sets 2 and 3.

Heading into the home stretch of the season, the Mavericks are starting to look towards the postseason.

“We have a couple tough competition games coming up here which will help us get ready for that postseason that’s coming up as well,” said Zehms. “Every day is a tough day, and that’s what we want.”

The Buccaneers are focused on the next game with a busy schedule this week.

“Right now, we’re just going one game at a time because [we’ve] got a game [Tuesday] night, we got a game Thursday night, and a game next Monday,” said Nawrocki. “So we’re just trying to go one at a time and take everything, learning lessons, where we can put it together for the postseason.”

The Buccaneers are at St. James on Tuesday and the Mavericks will host Alden-Conger Tuesday.