1000 assists and counting for Stone

PHOTO COURTESY OF SR VOLLEYBALL

South Ripley senior Macy Stone celebrates with coaches, teammates and fans after recording her 1000th career assist last week in a win against Rising Sun.

South Ripley senior Macy Stone joined an exclusive club this past Thursday, recording her 1000th career assist in a home match against Rising Sun as part of Lady Raider volleyball action. 

Stone’s career mark came inside a 3-0 win for the Lady Raiders, the first match of the season for the team that counted towards the Ohio River Valley Conference standings. She finished the night with a team-high 19 assists and also recorded three aces, six digs, five kills and a block.

Heading into this week, Stone stood at 1,016 assists for her career and was at 192 assists for the season. She put up 611 assists as a junior after combining for 213 assists in her first two varsity seasons.

The senior standout’s efforts aided in a sweeping effort of the Lady Shiners. South Ripley 25-18 but would be challenged the rest of the way despite the shutout. Rising Sun put up a big fight in set two before ultimately falling 27-25 and the Lady Raiders fended off their visitors in the third set, settling on a narrow 25-23 decision.

Kaidyn Gilpin and Ellie Lauber each had seven kills for the Versailles crew while Avery Andrews and Claire Samples each served three aces. Samples added a team-high three blocks and Lauber again aided, this time with 11 digs. Lexi Franklin put up nine digs and eight assists.

Thursday night’s win was stuck in-between a pair of losses as South Ripley fell 3-1 at Scottsburg one night prior and suffered a 3-0 defeat in a home match Monday against Madison.

The Lady Raiders won 27-25 in the opening set against Scottsburg but the host Warriorettes strung together three-straight set wins of 25-15, 27-25 and 25-10. Lauber had 10 kills for South Ripley and the quartet of Gilpin (18), Lauber (17), Stone (15) and Franklin (13) paced the digs department. Stone added 19 assists and a team-high three blocks.

A 27-25 final was also had on Monday against Madison but the opening set instead this time went to the foe. The Lady Cubs controlled the rest of the evening, completing their sweep of South Ripley with scores of 25-19 and 25-16 in sets two and three respectively. Statistics from the match for the Lady Raiders were unable to be provided by time of print.

South Ripley (8-4, 1-0 ORVC) was scheduled to be home against Switzerland County in an ORVC match on Wednesday and will host Lawrenceburg tonight. The Lady Raiders then play host to the Ripley County Tournament on Saturday where they will face Jac-Cen-Del in the opening round.