Coming off arguably one of the best seasons in the program's storied history, expectations are once again high for the Marian Catholic girls' basketball team heading into its 2014-15 campaign.

The Fillies captured the District 11 Class A title and advanced to the second round of the PIAA state playoffs, where they suffered a four-point loss to Old Forge.The setback was only Marian's third of the year, with the other two losses both coming to Minersville, once in the Schuylkill League championship game and another in the regular season.Yes, the Fillies will lose several key players from that 25-3 squad, such as Gabby Green (7.57 points per game, 3.1 assists per game, 24 three-pointers), Emily Sofranko (3.96 points per game, 3.5 assist per game) and Lindsay Nemeth (5.1 points per game, 31 three-pointers).But Marian will have its two leading scorers back in junior Savanna Krusinsky (9.8 points per game, 5.8 rebounds per game) and senior Abby Whildin (7.8 points per game, 4.1 rebounds per game)."We're hoping they can do what they did last year," said Paul Brutto, entering his 24th season has the Fillies' head coach. "They were able to put points on the board and contribute in a variety of ways.""I think right now we're still looking for that third piece. I don't know if it's going to be one person, or a group of people."Brutto will likely be looking for more from junior Vanessa Whitecavage (5.8 points per game, 25 three-pointers), senior Ashley Fannick (2.8 points per game) and sophomore Brenna Karnish (2.3 points per game).While contributing on a regular basis throughout the regular season, the trio also saw significant playing time in the playoffs, which is something Brutto hopes will pay dividends this year."It helps a lot. Anytime you're in a big game environment, it's unique. There's nothing like that," he said." And having a lot of kids back that played in those games…hopefully we can learn from it and build on that this season."Brutto acknowledged that, while the experience will help, there would still be a learning curve for the girls that are stepping into starting roles after coming off the bench last season."We have more of an old-school philosophy, and that can be hard for the kids sometimes," he said. "They want everything right away sometimes. But they've been working hard and we're excited about the potential they have."It's going to take a team effort, and they're all going to have to play their roles. It's never about just one person. We want them to focus on what they are and not worry about what they're not. But I think they can be very good."Aside from the changes in the starting lineup, the Fillies will also be adjusting to moving up from Class A to AA this season, where they will be facing bigger schools, such as defending champion Minersville, in the district playoffs."Moving up in class is going to be a huge leap," Brutto said. "We know it's not going to be easy to be successful. Facing teams like Minersville…they're quality teams that we're now going to have to get past in the district tournament in order to get back to the state playoffs."But before they think about playing any games in March, Brutto knows his team needs to focus on the present, something he hopes will lead them to postseason glory."We're focused on the process and winning the day," he said. "That's something that we talk about after every practice, and so far when I've asked them if they've done that, the answer has been 'yes'."This is a long grind, and right now we're just taking it day-by-day, repetition-by-repetition, to get to where we want to be. "