Paige Valliere grabs NSL MVP, 4 Lady Cats named to all-league team

The Lady Cats dominated the North Star League all-league team.

Five Clark Fork volleyball players garnered honors after leading the squad to its fifth straight district title this fall. Junior Paige Valliere was crowned the league MVP, and seniors Caiya Yanik, Taylor Staley and Katelyn Matteson, and sophomore Eloise Shelton all earned a spot on the all-league team.

It's no surprise that Paige was selected MVP. All her hard work in the offseason paid off as led the team in assists (282) and aces (65). She also had 93 digs and 21 kills.

This is the third straight year Paige has received league honors. Last year, she shared Co-MVP honors, but this season she showed why she's a step ahead of the rest of the league.

"A lot of teams would try to take her out of the equation by hitting balls at her but she usually got them to stop by the third set by passing their attacks up and not letting them hit the ground," head coach Michelle Valliere said. "Paige was one of the team captains and always motivated the girls no matter if we were down by 20 or up by 20."

The three seniors — Yanik, Staley and Matteson — were named to the all-league team for the second straight season.

"All the seniors really stepped up this year and showed up as leaders on the court," Valliere said.

Yanik, a team captain, was a beast at middle blocker, racking up a team-high 32 blocks. She also tallied 85 digs, 72 kills and 44 aces.

"Caiya was a force at the net," Valliere said. "If there was someone on the other side that had an amazing attack we’d put Caiya against them and she loved to shut them down with her block. She also had a great attack, awareness of the court and ability to place balls."

Staley left her mark in the front and back row with a team-high 95 digs and 74 kills. She also served 48 aces and had 12 blocks.

"Taylor was never afraid to attack a ball," Valliere said. "A lot of times girls will get nervous and play it safe by tipping or putting a safe ball over the net, I didn’t have to worry about that with her. She knew swinging at the ball would work best for her and you can see it did with her stats."

Matteson's versatility allowed her to play a major role every match. She amassed 66 digs, 65 kills, 52 aces and 18 blocks. She was all over the court.

"Her serve receive passing saved us in quite a few matches," Valliere said. "Her calmness an ability to read and move to ball was awesome this season. She was an all-around great player, from serving to passing to hitting to blocking."

Shelton rose up in her second season on the team and proved to be pivotal to the team's success. She finished the season with 89 digs, 50 kills and 42 aces.

"[Shelton] did a great job for us on the outside this season," Valliere said. "She was good at looking for holes in the defense and placing the ball in them when attacking. Her jump serve really came into play midway through the season and helped score a lot of easy points for us."

1A DIVISION II NORTH STAR LEAGUE ALL-LEAGUE TEAM

MVP — Paige Valliere, jr., Clark Fork.

ALL-LEAGUE — Katelyn Matteson, sr., Clark Fork; Caiya Yanik, sr., Clark Fork; Eloise Shelton, so., Clark Fork; Tayva Maitland, sr., Kootenai; Leah Frazier, jr., Mullan; Taylor Staley, sr., Clark Fork; Kaylee Lupo, fr., Kootenai.