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Young St. Francis hangs with Marist

Although Marist took to the court unbeaten and top ranked in the state, RedHawks coach Jordan Vidovic knew to take nothing for granted.

After all Marist was visiting St. Francis, and the host Spartans know a thing or two about top rankings and winning. So while standout outside hitter Savannah Thompson did lead the way to a 25-19, 25-21 nonconference win for the visitors, a young St. Francis team did make them work for it.

"It's always a tough environment to play against these guys and we knew they were coming out strong," said Vidovic, whose team improved to 8-0. "We know they have some really good young players. We were definitely ready for a test so we were happy to be able to control it a little bit at the ends of both games."

St. Francis sophomore Anna Calcagno, a 6-foot-1 outside who had a big summer in the national club spotlight, is one of the Spartans whom Marist was most concerned with. To combat her some the RedHawks countered with tough serving and a big block that kept the Spartans' offense out of sync for much of the night.

"Marist is a great serving team and they took us out of our offense," St. Francis coach Lisa Ston said. "Being that they're ranked 1 and 2 in the state (in two polls) and we are young age-wise and quite honestly only have one returning player who played consistently last year, to go 25-21 with them is not a bad start."

St. Francis (5-2) stayed with Marist for much of the night, but the more experienced RedHawks always seemed to find Thompson when they needed a point, and setter Molly Murrihy flashed an all-around game that is tough to contend with. St. Francis trailed 16-14 in the opener following a kill by Katelyn Hanrahan and closed to within 20-18 late in the second game. But Marist came through with big points late in each set. Murrihy ran a smooth offense with 25 assists and added 3 kills and 5 blocks.

"We have some good experience on our side and I thought that showed late in both games," said Vidovic, whose veteran squad also features super soph Camryn Hannah, who had 6 kills and 3 blocks.

For Calcagno and her Spartans teammates, the hope is that facing tests like Marist will help the program make another strong playoff push, something the Wheaton school has grown used to the last two decades.

"We just see what we did wrong," she answered when asked what St. Francis would take away from this match. "We had a lot of unforced errors. We dug a little bit of a hole so that at the end it kind of messed with us a little bit. If we don't dig a hole like that I think we're able to stay up with them and to keep playing."

Despite the setback Ston liked the fight she saw in her team and in her young outside hitter.

"We have a lot of growing to do, and we have a lot of learning to do as far as the pace of the game, to play teams like that that go aggressively after the ball no matter where it's set," she said. "We have to learn that, so that's a building block for us. As for Anna, she did not back down. She went after that big block and she scored us some points."

  St. Francis' Maddie Shulski returns a serve against Marist during varsity girls volleyball in Wheaton on September 5, 2017. Mark Black/mblack@dailyherald.com
  Marist's Savannah Thompson hits one past St. Francis' Sammantha Ward and Madison Wilkens (7) during varsity girls volleyball in Wheaton on September 5, 2017. Mark Black/mblack@dailyherald.com
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