WINCHESTER, Va. -- Senior Rachael Miller hit her only two triples in Wednesday's basketball game at Shenandoah University in the first three minutes of the Old Dominion Athletic Conference competition.

But, the Virginia Wesleyan College sharpshooter made them timely as her first triple tied the game in the early going and her second gave the Marlins a lead they held thereafter en route to an 82-64 victory over the host Hornets.  It was the sixth of six consecutive games on the road for the Marlins to open the season.

Miller (Sterling Park/Park View)hit her second triple wth 17:41 to give Virginia Wesleyan a 10-7 lead.  Scoring by Nancy Kelly (Phoenix, Md./Dulaney) andAndrea Paphites (Virginia Beach/Princess Anne)helped keep the Marlins (3-3, 1-0) a step ahead through the next several minutes before an 8-0 run pused VWC into a 22-13 lead with 9:09 remaining before halftime.

Shenandoah (1-5, 0-1) came back in the final minutes however, riding the scoring of Imani Heggins (Chesapeake/Great Bridge) and Cyrstal Petrus (Fairfax/Chantilly) to pull within a 28-27 score with 1:12 on the clock.  Virginia Wesleyan recovered quickly though, as Symonne Newsome (Reistertown, Md./St. Paul's School for Girls) and Sarah Seipp (Gaithersburg, Md./Gaithersburg)came through with scoring to help the Marlins open up a 35-27 halftime lead.

That's where close ended for the home team though as Katie Tassa (Bristow/Manassas Osbourn Park), Newsome and Kelly led the Marlins into a double-digit lead in the early minutes of the second half.  The Marlins led 62-42 with 8:32 remaining in the game after a Seipp triple and enjoyed their largest lead of the game at 76-48 with 3:58 on the clock following a triple from rookie Kelly Jones (Ellicott City, Md./Mt. Hebron).

Seipp led all scoring with 18 points and capped a double-double with a team-high 10 rebounds. She also led the Marlins with four assists.  Kelly hit 8-of-13 field goal attempts en route to 16 points and Paphites came through with 10 points, hitting 5-of-8 field goal attempts.  Kelly, Tassa and Newsome all pulled down seven rebounds for the Marlins, who outrebounded Shenandoah 52-33.

Holly Chittenden (Boyds, Md./Poolsville) and Heggins scored 15 points each to lead Shenandoah, and Corin Scott (Winchester/Handley) finished with 14.  Heggins led all rebounders with 12, followed by Chittenden with 11.

Virginia Wesleyan returns to ODAC competition on Saturday, Dec. 1, in a key early season conference showdown.  The Marlins will play their first home game of the season against Eastern Mennonite University's Royals at 3 p.m. VWC and EMU tied for first place in the final 2012 regular season standings.  EMU was tagged No. 2 in the ODAC's preseason poll, while VWC was No. 3.

--AMDG