The Lady Mt. Lions season will get underway on December 3rd at Philip-Barbour.
Head Coach Jim Ambrose returns for his 3rd season at Tucker County High School and along with him there is some experience players returning. The Lady Mt. Lions return 1 starter and 3 players that have a great deal of varsity experience from last year’s final four team that lost in the Semi-Finals to State Runner-Up St. Marys. The Tucker County Girls’ Basketball team made their 10th straight State Tournament appearance last year and their 21st trip overall. Coach Ambrose is excited to get this season under way and will try to continue that success from last year.
Senior Madison Mullenax is the one returning starter back from last year’s final four team and she will be joined by the other two seniors Aiyana Kachmarek and Olivia Miller. These 3 seniors have a great deal of experience at the varsity level and have been on the varsity team since their sophomore year. They will try to replace the 4 seniors that were lost to graduation; Stephanie Betler, Savannah Ambrose, Bekah Simmons and Mariah Bowley. Coach Ambrose expects these seniors to step up and continue the winning tradition, but he is also expecting some big things from some of his younger players. Sophomore Elizabeth Nichols returns to help the cause after a freshman campaign at the varsity level for the Lady Mt. Lions. Others that look to make an impact for the varsity team are juniors Lily Nestor, Madison Reall, Lydia Mullenax, Jenna White, Leslie Nestor, Jenna Walker and freshmen Sydney Nestor and Sydney Moore.
This year the schedule has changed a little bit with some new opponents added to make it a tougher schedule than last year. The Lady Mt. Lions will get a big test early as St. Marys will visit TCHS on Dec 5th. Tucker County will travel to Keyser for a pair of contest in back to back nights against “AA” Grafton and Lincoln in the Lady Tornados Holiday Mixer on Dec 29th and 30th. In mid January Coach Ambrose will take his team to St. Marys to face Wheeling Central Catholic on a Thursday night. Then 2 days later Tucker County will travel back to St. Marys to face St. Marys or Wirt County. The schedule still includes home and home contest against “AA” Philip-Barbour and Petersburg along with PVC foes Pocahontas County, Pendleton County, East Hardy, Tygarts Valley and Moorefield. The Lady Mt. Lions will also face Notre Dame home and away and then they will host Charleston Catholic on February 14th at TCHS. Ambrose is hoping that this year’s schedule will help prepare his team for a deep run into the postseason once again.
The JV squad will play a 16 game schedule and feature the following players: Abbey Eye, Lindsey Johnson, Sydney Moore, Cecily Strawderman, Emily Crosten, Mikala Betler, Olivia Smallwood, Dominique Meadows and Allison Zirk. For a full season schedule go to TuckerCountySports.Com. Next week look for the Tucker County Boys’ Basketball Preview.
