Dec 6, 2012 By Adam Brewer for The 3 min read

After garnering its first playoff win in school history last year, the West Greene girls basketball team will look to match that success and make a run at the top of Section 3-A in 2012-13.

The Lady Pioneers recorded a 12-12 mark last year and finished fourth in the section with a 5-7 record to make it to the WPIAL Class A playoffs.

In the preliminary round, West Greene captured its first postseason victory in school history with a victory over Frazier. The Lady Pioneers fell to North Catholic in the next round, who then advanced to the Class A championship game.

“Our girls are very proud of last season’s achievements, but we realize that finishing fourth place in the section is not the goal,” second-year coach Jordan Watson said. “We will strive to win more games than last year and finish higher in the section. We tell the girls all the time that if you are talking about what you did yesterday, then you have not done anything today.”

Along with the Lady Pioneers, Section 3-A will consist of Carmichaels, Avella, California, Jefferson-Morgan and Mapletown.

“Without a doubt, Carmichaels and Avella both return a lot of talent and are the favorites,” Watson said. “With that said, for us to challenge for a section title we must dominate the boards, limit turnovers and play fundamentally sound pressure defense. We must complete on every play. If we do those things, we can be competitive against anybody in the section.”

West Greene returns a core group from last year that includes junior forwards Alyssa and Madison Raber.

“The Raber twins will be counted on to dominate the paint,” Watson said. “Both have an arsenal of post moves and can crash the boards. They are extremely dedicated to the game and work year round on getting better. They understand that for this team to reach its full potential, they must stay on the court and must stay out of foul trouble.”

The guard combination of senior Emily Stoll and junior Emily Courtwright will also be counted on this year.

“We have a good veteran core group of girls coming back this year,” Watson said. “Both of the Emilys will be counted on heavily as guards to dictate tempo and control the basketball on offense.”

Watson states that currently the team has 13 players on its roster and that having a junior varsity team this year will help the development of the team in the future.

“We are excited about our numbers,” Watson said. “Our three freshmen are April Arbogast, Sarah Courtwright and Laura Wise. Our three sophomores are Rachel Carrico, Randa Filby and Emily Hoag. All of them will see time on the court at the JV level this season.”

The Lady Pioneers will start the season at home against interstate rival Hundred (W.Va.). West Greene will also participate in the Bentworth Christmas Tournament on Dec. 27-28.

West Greene’s first section game of the season will be against county rival Carmichaels at home on Jan. 3.