She was so little. And the moment was so big. Turns out her heart, it was big too.
Maybe you recall the moment, I do, as I was sitting about 20 feet away. It was the closing moments of the 2023 Class C-2 girls state championship basketball game and Maya Dolliver’s team was in a tight spot. The program said she was 5-6 at the time, - OK, let’s go with that - but either way she certainly stood tall, swishing three money free throws to get the game against rival Oakland-Craig into overtime before her Pender team won the game and the program’s second-ever state title. (She probably thought that looked familiar, she was a nine-year-old in attendance when Pender won their first in 2013.)
It was all enough to set off alarms. No wait, that was a couple of nights before.
“We were in our hotel the night before the semifinals and somebody pulled the fire alarm,” Maya recalls. “Once everything settled down we were talking about what a cool story it would be if all that happened and then we won state.”
Consider it a cool story. Almost as cool as them winning another state title last March. And don’t forget how her team won the first 17 games of this season, nor the tragic turn that followed.
In final moments of Pender’s 18th game of the season, a made-for-TV event that featured two-time state champion Pender against four-time defending Class B state champ Elkhorn North, Pendragons junior Hadley Walsh, the team’s leading scorer and rebounder, went down with an injury. A painful, ugly looking one that was originally thought to sideline her for the rest of the season. That’s TBD, but either way things had changed for Maya’s team, and in a big way.
“It was terrible to see Hadley get hurt, and that is a big loss for our team, but it is also going to make us stronger, having to go on without her,” says Maya, who is a tough, tough-minded competitor. Losing to Elkhorn North, which Pender did, is not the world - they are Class B after all - but the following Monday the Pendragons were run out of the gym by East Husker Conference foe Howells-Dodge. Not a good look, but what followed pretty great.
“I still think we could have won both of those games, but having to play on Monday was upsetting after losing Hadley,” says Maya. “But after the game was over I got to thinking, what team doesn’t have a loss like that happen. Nebraska Volleyball had SMU, Millard West (girls) is the best team in the state and they got beat by Bellevue East. It wasn’t that we lost, it was going to be about how we responded.”
The Pender girls responded with what Maya calls “four great days of practice” and a win over Tri County Northeast, and Monday’s 30-point win over Bancroft-Rosalie in the quarterfinal round of the East Husker tournament. The Pendragons (19-2) will next face West Point-Beemer (16-4) in Thursday’s semifinal round.
Growing up in a basketball family Maya discovered the game real early and played her first organized basketball when in third grade. Her coach was her father, Jason Dolliver, who happened to teach at dear old Pender High. Today Maya attends Pender High and Jason runs it, or something like that, since he’s the school superintendent.
“Coaching Maya has been an experience I would not trade for anything. There have been soooooooo many amazing things that have happened. There have also been challenges, but the good outweighs the bad by a mile,” says Coach/Superintendent/Dad Dolliver. “I love her fight, spirit, drive, will to win, and so much more. She will give everything she has to the point of vomiting because she works so hard. She makes me look like a really good coach. I do my absolute best, but she simply makes me look really good.
“While I am looking forward to her playing at the next level words cannot describe how much I will miss being her coach. She is one of a kind, and I was lucky to be able to be with her on this amazing journey.”
All that shared time in basketball have given Maya and her family many sweet memories, for sure, some of which they revisit from time to time.
“There were all the tournaments, all the games, all the medals, all the snacks and even some hotel stays,” she fondly recalls. “It is also fun to go back and watch the films of our state championship games. They were all great days and fortunately we have been able to make more memories once we were in high school.”
Two state championship later, you could say that worked out just fine.
Maya has also basically rewritten the Pender girls basketball record book. Monday night she broke the career scoring record - she’s now at 1,521 and counting - and also set a new school record for career assists with 363. Ashley Ostrand (Class of 2021) held the scoring mark at 1,511 and Mikki (Buchholz) Schellpepper the assist mark with 355.
Born In Norfolk, which is basically 45 miles west of Pender, Maya’s younger sister Madalyn is a talented junior on the Pender girls basketball team, eighth-grader Mayci is ready to jump on board next year, and younger brother Miles is in kindergarten, “and basically thinks he runs the place,” his senior sister says. (BTW, figures.) She loves her family trips to Aunt Sherry’s place in Sioux City - “we have so much fun!” - as well as bumming around with her friends, shopping, going to cheer on other Pender High teams, sleep overs that include lots of storytelling, of course.
Maya has rung up a perfect 4.0 GPA over the course of her high school career, membership in the National Honor Society too, has served on the PHS student council for two years, this year as its vice-president, and competed at state FFA as both a freshman and sophomore before concentrating on her sports and her grades. She is also a sensational softball player, one of our state’s best, last season earning first-team all-state honors after batting .433 with 52 hits, 45 runs scored and 21 RBI. She also pitched some this year, but not as much as when she was a junior and was a 10-game winner.
While she says there is no particular reason she wears No. 4 in basketball - maybe it was because as a freshman it was the only one left - though there is a reason she doesn’t wear her dad’s No. 33. “He wears a large, and...,” well, you understand.
After considering her many options Maya has signed to play college basketball at Sioux Falls University, a full-ride, where she plans to study to become a nurse.
It is a bit of a ticklish situation Maya and her team face in these final weeks of the season. At full capacity Pender seemed unbeatable but without Hadley around - though there is, fingers crossed, a chance she can make it back for subs - some adjustments need to be made. Or do they?
“Our team always puts defense first, but especially without we need to concentrate on playing great defense in order to win,” says Maya, adding, “but that’s not all that different than before because good defense is what made us state champions in the first place.”
That and having a small point guard with a big heart.
