Cardinals start season with sweep of Panthers

WAKEFIELD — Wakefield-Marenisco started the volleyball season with a 3-0 sweep of defending Porcupine Mountain Conference champion Ewen-Trout Creek Tuesday night.

The Cardinals won 25-17, 25-11, 25-16.

“The girls have been working really hard over the last 2.5 weeks,” W-M coach Jessica Novascone said. “They’re very excited about this season. To come out here and be 3-0, they never really had a lull point in the game. They always kept that momentum up. To be able to come here and do that from start to finish was always something we’d struggle with in past years. Coming out with intensity, but them making some mistakes and losing the intensity. The game tonight, even if they made mistakes, they kept the intensity up.”

Kassidee Yon recorded seven assists for the Cardinals. Summer Curtis had eight kills and an ace. Miranda Sibley tallied four kills and two assists. Lauren Grace had two kills and three aces and Hallee Yon finished with three aces and one kill.

“Our passing game has been weak in prior years,” Novascone said. “It’s led them to struggle on offense. But tonight because our passing was on point, we were able to set up different things in our offense.”

The defense also came up big Tuesday.

“Everybody stayed on their toes,” she said. “Nobody was second guessing themselves. They were going with their instincts.”

The Panthers have a new look this year after graduating a lot of seniors.

“The chemistry really came together this game,” new E-TC coach Amber Pearsall said. “The girls improved significantly from the very first tournament I was coaching with them (a couple of weeks ago).”

Molly Niemi had seven digs for the Panthers and Marlene Lannet had six aces.

E-TC hosts Bessemer Thursday.

W-M hosts Bessemer Monday.