BOONE, N.C. - Appalachian State University women's basketball held its annual media day on Tuesday at the Holmes Center.
Head coach
Angel Elderkin and four players in
Bayley Plummer,
Pre Stanley,
Madi Story and
Tierra Wilson spoke to the media on expectations for the upcoming season.
MEDIA DAY PRESSER
The Mountaineers host Lees-McRae in a Nov. 3 exhibition at 2 p.m. inside the Holmes Center and will open up the regular season six days later at UAB.
All 10 of the Black and Gold's active players return from 2017-18, including third-team all-Sun Belt selection and the conference's leading rebounder,
Bayley Plummer.
Pre Stanley (11.4 ppg) and
Tierra Wilson (10.5 ppg), who were the Mountaineers' first freshmen since 2009-10 to lead the team in scoring, are back for their sophomore year.
Nicola Mathews, the Apps' leader in assists at 3.0 apg and
Lainey Gosnell, App's scoring spark off the bench last year, is back as well. The trio of Wilson (56), Gosnell (38), and Mathews (38) was the Sun Belt's third-highest shooting trio from beyond the arc with 132 of the team's 167 3-pointers. That number was the second highest made in a single season in school history.
Maya Calder,
Kaila Craven,
Dominique Jeffery,
Anna Perez Gomez, and
Armani Hampton add to the number of weapons on the team. First-team all-preseason Sun Belt selection,
Madi Story, is back after tearing her ACL, while UCF transfer,
Ashley Polacek is now eligible after sitting out due to NCAA transfer rules.
RETURNERS
Maya Calder
Tierra Wilson
Nicola Mathews
Pre Stanley
Kaila Craven
Armani Hampton
Ashley Polacek*
Anna Perez Gomez
Lainey Gosnell
Dominique Jeffery
Madi Story^
Bayley Plummer
* - Sat out in 2017-18 due to NCAA transfer rules
^ - Sat out due to injury
NEWCOMERS
Appalachian brings in four talented freshmen from Texas, Virginia and North Carolina in
Brooke Bigott,
A'Lea Gilbert,
Haile McDonald, and
Emma Newton. Bigott stuffed the stat sheet at Seven Lakes High School, while Gilbert went to South Meck where she was an inside force averaging a double-double. McDonald helped her squad win a state title in Virginia and Newton was a 1,000-point scorer at Asheville Christian Academy.
