Dec 16, 2011 By Adam Brewer, For The Greene County Messenger 3 min read

The Waynesburg University women’s basketball team had one of its best seasons and will look to repeat that success in the 2011-12 campaign.

The Lady Yellow Jackets compiled a 21-9 overall record, 10-6 in the Presidents’ Athletic Conference, won a conference playoff game, and then won three games and the title in the ECAC South tournament.

“It was a great finish for us last year,” Lady Jackets’ coach Sam Jones said.

“In the off-season we have had a great attitude and the work ethic has definitely been there. These ladies are just inspired and they want to continue their success from last season.”

Waynesburg finished third in the PAC a year ago, and was picked to finish the same in this year’s preseason poll.

The team returned four starters and other key bench players, but will be without the services of their leading scorer and strong rebounder, Elisha Jones, due to graduation.

The Lady Jackets will be lead by senior point guard Hannah Hunter.

Hunter did a tremendous job orchestrating the offense last year with 12.7 points, five rebounds and a team-high 4.4 assists per game. In her solid junior campaign, Hunter was named to the second-team all-conference.

Heading into the season, the Hopewell, Pa., native has tallied 767 points, 287 rebounds and 309 assists in 81 career games (77 starts) with Waynesburg.

Also helping out with the offense this year will be junior guards Jessi Drayer and Brittany Spencer. After transferring to Waynesburg in 2010-11, Drayer garnered 10.5 points per game and 4.3 rebounds per game with 60 steals in 23 contests.

Spencer, who was PAC honorable mention last year, averaged 10.9 points per game and 7.3 rebounds with 30 starts in 2010-11.

“Those three players complement each other very well,” Jones said.

“They all have strengths and all of them are team players. They work hard and are great leaders for us both on and off the court. They are the driving force for us and they just want to compete in every single game.”

Junior Paige Pearce returned to the line-up this year, as she had 29 starts last season. Senior Amy Walker, junior Emily Wagner, sophomores Emily Miller and Elaine Hasek will provide depth and minutes for the Lady Jackets.

In the off-season, Jones recruited four new faces to the squad, as Hayden Giuliani, Rebecca Kerr, Brittany Rumple and Rachel Lovely will try to get some time on the court this year.

Jones, who is 42-46 with Waynesburg in four-plus seasons, will be assisted by first-year coach and former Yellow Jacket Kristen Lucci (2010 graduate).

The team is 6-2 overall and 4-0 in conference games heading into a Saturday night game at Penn State Fayette, The Eberly Campus.

Upcoming home games for Waynesburg are Hiram on Dec. 19 and Wooster on Dec. 30. The Lady Jackets will start the new year with three straight road contests in PAC action, before hosting Grove City on Jan. 14.

“We want to improve our play in conference games,” Jones said.

“But overall, we just want to continue to improve and build from last season. We are paying closer attention to the finer details and are trying to limit our mistakes that we made as a team the last couple of years.”