Preview 2013: Wide open in Western C

It is tough to pick an overwhelming preseason favorite for the Western C tourney field.

That should make an especially interesting year in the Mountain Valley Conference and Western Maine Conference as various Western C teams attempt to establish themselves.

All the top teams from a year ago — Boothbay, Madison and Waynflete — lost their top players. All three still have a number of players back from those teams and should remain contenders.

From the WMC, Old Orchard Beach and Traip should challenge for spots. Both those clubs return much of last year’s teams.

In the MVC, many of the teams are young and rebuilding, including many that were playoff teams last year.

Dirigo (14-4) was the fourth seed and returns much of the club that lost in the quarterfinals. The Cougars could be a team to watch with the extra year of experience.

They graduated just four seniors and return guards Emma Lueders, Megan Bradbury, Kelsey Wilson, Sabrina Daoud, Jessica Conant and Lindsy Crutchfield as well as post players Kelsey Hutchins, Gabby Scott, Lauren Henderson and Rachel Knight.

St. Dom’s (10-8) was also in the quarterfinals and returns many of its starters. The Saints battled injury last year and still made the tourney. If St. Dom’s stays healthy, it could be a team to watch as well.

“Our team has set high goals for this season,” St. Dom’s coach Jon Berry said. “As always, my goals are to have the team and individual players improve all season and to be playing our best basketball in February. Last season, we battle low numbers and key injuries but still made it to Augusta. If we can avoid key injuries this season, this team could accomplish even more.”

Senior guard Kelly Pomerleau led the MVC in scoring last year while guards Callie Greco and Faith Grady and forwards Alexis Dwinall and Bryanna Handlon were nice compliments.

Monmouth (13-5) was the sixth seed and lost in the quarterfinals. The Mustangs lost five seniors but return seven players. Only two of those players back, Kylie Kemp and Ashley Coulombe, saw much time last year. Kemp was the team’s top scorer.

“After losing five seniors from last year’s tournament team, we will be looking for players to step up and fill many different roles on this year’s team,” Monmouth coach Scott Wing said. “This year’s team is a very coachable group of young ladies. We have a goal to improve every time we step on the court and be a tournament team at the end of the season.”

Mt. Abram (9-9) won a prelim and lost in the quarterfinals but graduated most of the experience on that club. New coach Mark Simpson has just two players back — seniors Alex Harnden and Brooke Millbury — that saw much time last year.

“We will look to play hard on the defensive end and hope that some players step up offensively,” said Simpson. “It will be a real rebuilding year for us, but we hope to have fun and improve throughout the year.”

Lisbon finished with five wins and hopes to improve with six players returning. Katelyn Fowler and Abby Roy are the only seniors but juniors Mia Durgin and Mikayla Yanez and sophomores Adrianna White and Bree Sautter all showed promise.

Mountain Valley is trying to rebuild with new coach Ryan Casey. The Falcons were a regular in the Western B quarterfinals but have failed to return there in recent seasons, and this year dropped into Class C.

Casey has just four seniors — Katie Puiia, Shannon Laubauskas, Jenna Plourde, Kaitlyn Virgin — and no starters back. Sophomores Karen Flaherty and Sydney Petrie are the only other returning players.

“We are looking to rebuild this program,” Casey said. “The girls want to be part of something that the young women of our school can be proud of.”

Winthrop has a couple starters back in Randi Dennett and Gabby Stewart from a team that won just one game. Telstar went winless and continues to rebuild.