All-Area Volleyball 2023: Back-to-back Player of the Year Ridley helped power historic Dalton playoff run

Dec. 9—In an interview after being named the 2022 Dalton Daily Citizen All-Area Volleyball Player of the Year, Dalton High School's Gracie Ridley, a junior at the time, had this to say of her goals for her final season of volleyball:

"It will be my senior year, so I definitely want to keep my (kills) record or break it again," Ridley said a year ago at this time. "I really just want to go out winning. Winning region again would be awesome, and then going further in state."

Check, check and check.

After setting the school's record for kills in a season as a sophomore, Ridley set a new mark with 407 as a junior, and, as a senior, she did it again. The new record is 425. Ridley wanted to win Region 7-5A again? The Lady Catamounts went undefeated in the region in the regular season, then shook off a setback to Cartersville in the region tournament to defeat the same team twice to earn the title.

The last one is where the most pride lies for Ridley and Dalton High's volleyball team, which finished 39-8 in 2023.

Ridley wanted to go further in the state playoffs after her junior season ended in the Sweet 16. This year's Lady Cats made the deepest run in program history, reaching the Class 5A Final Four.

"I'm really grateful for how far we got to go," Ridley said. "I was very disappointed that we didn't win the state championship, but now, looking back, I know that what we did was a big deal."

For her play on the court this season, and for helping power a playoff run that ended with a hard-fought semifinal loss to the defending state champions, Gracie Ridley has been named the Daily Citizen Player of the Year for a second straight year.

Ridley was a force on the court for the best season in Dalton volleyball history. Ridley would play as a hitter when called upon, receiving a set from Ava Davey or Hannah Ortiz and slamming it down with a spike on her way to setting another new kills mark. At other times, when Dalton needed it, Ridley stepped to the back line, helping receive serves and dig out falling balls to keep them in play for teammates like Davey, Cayla Greenwade and Georgia Sanders to convert into kills.

Ridley totaled 298 digs on the season, reached the 1,000 career kills mark early in the year and was named the Region 7-5A player of the year for a second year in a row.

"I definitely think I got to step up more as a leader as a senior," Ridley said.

After securing the region title, Dalton rolled through Cambridge in the first round of the Class 5A playoffs, then held off Loganville 3-1 in the Sweet 16 at home to officially advance further than in the previous season.

Facing that uncharted territory, Ridley and the Lady Catamounts kept playing to see how far the ride could take them.

A trip to Decatur to play in the state quarterfinals was next. A 3-1 victory earned Dalton a spot in the Final Four.

"When we won in the Elite 8, it was really cool," Ridley said. "There were moments where we didn't really know what was going to happen, but once we did that, we knew."

In the Final Four, Dalton met up with Greater Atlanta Christian, the defending 5A state champions. Dalton took the first set. GAC grabbed the second. Dalton won the third to come within a set of advancing, and battled to the end of the fourth before GAC won it to survive.

Dalton faced an early deficit in the tie-breaking fifth set and couldn't recover, seeing a chance for a trip to the state championship match slip away.

"When we lost in the Final Four, I was really devastated," Ridley said. "We went all the way to five sets, and it was a heartbreaker."

The hard-fought loss, in which Ridley led Dalton with 21 kills, ended a stellar volleyball career for a senior that is following her other sport into college.

Also a two-time Daily Citizen All-Area basketball player of the year, Ridley is playing out her final basketball season before she'll join the University of North Georgia's women's basketball program.

College basketball has long been the plan for Ridley after graduation, but that didn't stop some of the impressed opposing coaches Dalton met this season from asking where she'd be playing volleyball in college.

"When I was a little younger, I didn't know what I wanted to do, but when you get to high school, I felt like I just needed to pick one and I picked basketball," Ridley said. "It's fun to think about (the possibility of choosing college volleyball), but I'm happy with what I decided to do."

Asked whether basketball or volleyball was her best sport, Ridley left it up for others to say.

"That depends who you ask," Ridley laughed. "I don't know."

Whether primary sport or secondary, Ridley left an impression on a Dalton volleyball program that will return several players from the Final Four run of this season.

"It was a lot of fun, and I'm going to miss it," she said. "I'm proud of what we did and I think they're going to keep it going too."