WVU a second home for C-M’s Tucker
The trip down Interstate 79 will be nothing new for Abby Tucker.
The Canon-McMillan senior’s family is from West Virginia and she attended multiple volleyball camps in Morgantown.
Tucker’s dream of playing volleyball at the collegiate level became official when she signed her national letter of intent Nov. 13 to continue her academic and volleyball careers at West Virginia University.
“West Virginia has been like my second home, and WVU has always been my dream school,” Tucker said. “I started going to camps there in eighth grade. I really enjoyed it and kept going back.”
At 6-1, Tucker admits that being tall has helped her with volleyball, but she has put in plenty of work after starting in seventh grade.
“I did try basketball when I was younger, but I didn’t enjoy it at all,” Tucker said. “After seventh grade, I started to play club volleyball, which really helped me improve my game, plus all of the college coaches and recruiters notice you when you play club, especially when it comes to the big tournaments.”
Tucker played four years of club volleyball with SKY Elite before moving to Renaissance this year.
Tucker played middle blocker all four years in high school and in club, but she was told by college coaches to be ready for anything.
“At the end of the day, the people who got me to the point of playing in college were from SKY Elite volleyball club,” Tucker said. “I was so blessed to be around them, and they helped bring me up.”
Because of NCAA rules for volleyball, college coaches can’t contact players until after their sophomore year of high school in June, but once Tucker had her chance to see what West Virginia volleyball was about up close and personal, she took a trip to Morgantown and the decision was easy.
“I went to a camp prior to my junior year of high school and got to play with some of the girls on the WVU team,” Tucker said. “A couple of weeks later, they reached out again and I set up my official visit. I loved everything about it, and after a couple of weeks, I told them I wanted to play for them.”
The coaching staff that recruited Tucker has moved on, but the new staff has been just as welcoming, and she is eager to get to campus following her graduation from Canon-McMillan.
Tucker plans to study exercise physiology and intends to be an athletic trainer.
The Big Macs’ volleyball team had a tough year when Tucker was a freshman, but the team has won three straight section titles, advanced to the WPIAL final her junior season and was in the semifinals of the WPIAL playoffs in October.
“I was able to play for the varsity team my freshman year, which was a goal but I never expected that to happen,” Tucker said. “We were able to have a good run the last three years.”