Girls athlete of the week // The Post-Gazette’s top female performer from the past seven days
Recently: Connor scored 32, 14 and 23 points in Mt. Lebanon’s final three regular-season games. The Blue Devils won all three to finish with a 15-3 record.
Check this out: Connor, a 5foot-10 guard and one of the WPIAL’s top juniors, is one of the WPIAL’s top scorers with a 21.6 average. She has been a starter since her freshman season and surpassed 1,000 career points in a Feb. 10 game. Connor has scholarship offers from Xavier, Colgate, Kennesaw State and La Salle, among others. Connor is an excellent student, with better than a 4.0 grade-point average. She moved to Mt. Lebanon from New Jersey in the fifth grade. Her brother, Gunner, went to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart and played golf, basketball and baseball.
So, are you point guard, a ‘2’ or what? I would say I’m a “23” shooting guard. But I pretty much play any position that I’m needed.
You didn’t get to play rival Upper St. Clair this year, or even Bethel Park, because of the mask issue. Did the team miss those games? Yes, because we all would really look forward to those games. Even around school, everyone knew those were big games. But it was kind of nice, too, being able to play some other teams that weren’t in our division, like North Catholic.
Did you ever play any other sports? I used to play baseball when I was younger, just because my brother played. Then I played softball up until high school, when I realized I really didn’t want to go anywhere with that sport.
Best player you ever played against? Makenna Marisa (of Peters Township) when I was a freshman.
What brought you and your family to Pittsburgh? My dad’s job (mechanical engineer) and we had some family from here.
Isn’t engineering possibly part of your future? Possibly, just because both of my parents are engineers. I like that or premed.
Why the different spelling of your first name. Most times, it’s ‘Ashley?’ This might sound weird, but I have an older brother named Gunner. My dad always wanted that name for a boy. So when they had me, my mom said, ‘If we have a Gunner, then we have to have a different spelling for Ashleigh.’
Did you have a New Jersey accent when you first came here? Yeah, I definitely did (laugh).
Do you still have one? With certain words.
Like what? I don’t know, people say that I say ‘I-Pad’ weird (laugh).