Covenant Marshalls its resources

While the eighth-grade rookie was helping Covenant Life continue its dominance of the Potomac Valley Athletic Conference, her senior sister was resting her injured left knee after tearing her ACL in the summer.

Wednesday night in Gaithersburg, however, both of the Marshalls were on the floor, demonstrating why it will require a Herculean effort to end the Cougars’ 35-game winning streak in the PVAC.

With point guard Kara scoring 17 points and forward Ellen adding six, Covenant cruised to a 54-29 victory over visiting Washington International.

This is a rare opportunity for the Marshall sisters. For years they’ve played on their backyard dirt court. But separated by four years, they’ve never been on the same organized team.

“This was always a dream of mine, but I knew she was too young to play with me in high school,” said Ellen Marshall. “But since they moved her up [to varsity], it became a possibility. And I became more excited, more anxious to come back from my injury.”

Last year, the 5-foot-9 Ellen led Covenant in scoring (21 points per game), rebounding, assists and steals as the Cougars went 25-2. This year, 5-8 Kara has propelled Covenant (16-1, 14-0), leading the team in scoring (15.6), assists (4.0) and steals (7.4).

“They’re completely different players,” said coach Alan Snyder. “Kara is aggressive, always gambling, always pushing the tempo. She’s a little bit wild at times, but you’ll live with that with all the havoc she creates. Ellen is rarely out of position, never makes a mistake.”

They were a perfect duo Wednesday as Covenant put the game away with an 18-2 spurt in the third period that Kara Marshall highlighted with three straight steals that led to fast break baskets.

“From the beginning of the year, she’s led the team offensively,” said Ellen. “Now she’s doing it defensively and vocally. It’s great to see her become a leader so quickly.”