She stands on the home side of the net, looking back and forth at all of her teammates. As the visiting team prepares to serve, her mind is only on one thing: stop that point. As the other team’s player serves the ball, she zones in on its position in the air. “Mine!” she shouts, as she dives to hit the ball, sending it over the net.
Junior Addison Ridge recently celebrated the accomplishment of getting 1000 digs in her varsity volleyball career. A dig is when a volleyball player prevents the ball from hitting the ground on their side of the net after an opponent has spiked or served the ball towards them.
“[A dig] is whenever someone else hits the ball at you, and you get a good pass, and I got 1000 of those,” Ridge said. “That is for career digs for varsity.”
Ridge is a defensive specialist and an outside hitter. She has been playing volleyball her entire high school career, starting on junior varsity her freshman year. Ridge has been around sports and gyms her entire life.
“My mom is a volleyball coach at a different school,” Ridge said. “I grew up with her and I pretty much grew up in the gym.”
Ridge plans on continuing volleyball after high school. Although she doesn’t know yet how far she would like to go with the sport, she knows she doesn’t want to quit after graduation.
“I don’t exactly know what career I want to go towards yet, so it’s all still kinda up in the air,” Ridge said. “But I know for sure that I plan to play volleyball in my future.”
Getting 1000 digs is a large accomplishment for Ridge. She has been building towards this goal for years.
“Addison is the ultimate competitor–she has that fire in her soul that she wants to compete and she wants to hit the ball as hard as she can,” head varsity coach Jessica Dimsdle said. “We always talk about how she has good blood flow and how she just goes hard all the time.”
The varsity volleyball team will be playing in the first round of playoffs on Monday at Greenville High School. If they win, they will move on to the second round on Thursday. The second round location is still to be determined.
“My favorite thing about volleyball is the relationships I build with coaches and teammates,” Ridge said. “It’s probably just the experience and the memories.”
