Marist newcomers off on right foot

Updated: September 8, 2011 7:57PM

A dare or a bet weren’t involved, but No. 4 Marist proved Thursday it could beat Stagg with one shoe off.

Well, at least junior Elyse Panick did on one play during the host RedHawks’ 25-12, 25-19 victory.

It happened well into Game 1. Marist was up 13-6 when during a competitive volley Panick’s left shoe went flying.

“Yeah, that was ... I didn’t even know what happened,” the 6-foot-2 right-side hitter said with a smile. “(Teammate) Rachel Dalton, she like stepped on my shoe and then mine came off.

“I didn’t know what to do, so I just played with it off.”

Eventually, Panick put down a kill to get the point for Marist.

Panick finished with six kills. Kelly Marcinek (eight kills, six service points), Mallory Salis (eight kills, six digs), Dana Loncar (14 digs), Carolyn Yerkes (seven service points, four aces), Kristen Ivkovic (four kills, two blocks) and Ashley Holder (22 assists) also came up big for the RedHawks (5-0).

Stagg (2-6) was paced by Jill Conrad (four kills) and Morgan Thomas (17 digs).

The RedHawks of 2011 primarily are a new group. Panick was on the junior varsity last season and Marcinek at Marian Catholic. Both are embracing step-up roles as juniors with a large amount of early success.

“It’s amazing to be here,” Marcinek said. “It’s like family. I feel a little bit of pressure sometimes, but it’s fun, exciting. I love it.”

The seniors did the stepping up when Marist needed it the most in Game 2.

It was 20-19 RedHawks when Ivkovic converted on a slide play for a kill. Salis then went the service line and fired an ace. Holder added a tip for kill before Marcinek closed the match with a spike.

At 5-0, a new team seems lot like all of the other state-contending Marist squads.

“I love this team, No. 1,” Ashley Holder said. “I think our potential is the same as last year. We worked so hard, and now we want to come out and prove to everybody how good we can be.”

Stagg, off to a rough start in an early tournament, played Lockport tough before losing in two games, and recovered nicely against Marist to make Game 2 a competitive one.

“There’s a ton of talent here. We just need to find out what to do it,” new Chargers coach Deanna Storino said. “Before the match I told them, ‘Let’s go out there and play.’ I didn’t say win, I just said go out and compete. And I think they did do that for part of the match.

“We have a tough schedule. We’re also very young. I don’t expect to be the best next year. I want to be the best right now with this young team. We’ll come around.”

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