By Dave Helmick
TuckerCountySports.Com
The Lady Mt. Lions will open their season on the road at “AA” Philip-Barbour on Friday December 2nd. Jim Ambrose will begin his 5th season as the TCHS Girls’ Head Coach and along with his return will be the return of 3 starters from last year’s team. Last season the Lady Mt. Lions were upset by Notre Dame in the first round of the State Tournament and that loss was a shock because Tucker County had defeated the Lady Irish 3 times before that 4th meeting. The Lady Mt. Lions will try to advance to the State Tournament for the 13th straight season as last year the Girls’ program made their 23rd overall appearance and their 12th in a row.
Among the three starters returning is First Team All-State Selection and the leading scorer from last year’s team, junior Sydney Nestor. Also returning for Coach Ambrose this season is senior Elizabeth Nichols who was selected as an All-State Honorable Mention member last season. Sydney Moore also returns for her junior year after starting every game last season for Ambrose and collecting Honorable Mention recognition on the All-State list. Coach Ambrose is will look to get some production from senior Jenna Walker, juniors Cecily Strawderman and Dominique Meadows. Others looking to contribute are sophomores McKinley Murphy, Kelcee James, Riley Evans and freshman Terra Kuhn. Ambrose said, “We only have 14 girls out this year, 2 seniors, 4 juniors, 6 sophomores and 2 freshmen.” Ambrose also added, “This is a good group of girls, they have played a lot of basketball this summer and fall, it is going to be fun to they come together.” Coach Ambrose talked about how team is coming together saying, “This is a really fun group, they seem to love basketball and they are a fun group to coach.”
The schedule this season has got tougher if that is possible. The Lady Mt. Lions added a matchup with “AAA” Martinsburg, “AA” Keyser, Elkins, Lincoln and Frankfort and “A” defending champions Gilmer County. Coach Ambrose had this to say about the schedule upgrade, “We have outdone last year’s tough schedule and we have made it tougher, we have 9 “AAA” and “AA” games on this year’s schedule which will challenge us. The Lady Mt. Lions will host Martinsburg on Saturday Dec 10th and then they will travel to Glenville State College on Dec 12th to take on defending State Champion Gilmer County. The winner will take on the winner of the Wheeling Central/St. Marys game while the losing teams of those contest will face off in a consolation game. Tucker County also added games home and away with Elkins and they will travel to Keyser for a matchup with the Lady Tornados. The Lady Mt. Lions will host Frankfort and Lincoln later in the season and they will travel to Charleston Catholic for a matchup with the Lady Irish on Jan 28th. The schedule still includes home and home contest against “AA” Petersburg along with PVC foes Pocahontas County, Pendleton County, East Hardy and Moorefield. The Lady Mt. Lions will also face Notre Dame home and away.
For a full season schedule go to TuckerCountySports.Com. Long time play-by-play announcer Chris George will have a Tucker County Boys’ Basketball Preview article next week.
