The Ripley High School volleyball team finished a stellar season by taking runner-up honors at the State Volleyball Tournament held at the Charleston Civic Center November 14th and 15th.

Ripley gave fans three exciting matches at the tournament, each leaving spectators on the edge of their seats to the end. In the first round, Ripley outlasted Woodrow Wilson in 5 games. After being up 2-0, the team found themselves heading into a fifth game at 2-2. In the final game, the team was down by 13-8 at one time (the game only lasted to 15, win by 2). However, the crowd encouraged the players and they rallied to take the final game 21-19 and fought off 8 match points to Woodrow. The games scores were 25-17, 26-24, 16-25, 9-25, 21-19.

Junior Lexy Kessel had 21 kills in the match offensively to go with 25 digs defensively. Alannah Sheets added 12 kills and Brittani Brooks 10.

Brooks was perfect at the serving line at 16/16. Sheets was 17/18, Chasity Raines 23/27 with 6 aces, Kessel 12/13, and Layhew 11/13. Layhew also had a team high 27 assists in the game with Sheets tallying 13.

The semi-final match was just as thrilling as Hedgesville took Ripley to 5 games, as well. The Vikings won the first game of the match and dropped the second two heading into the fourth game. After the team won the fourth game, the match score was tied at 2-2 to begin the final game. The Lady Vikes were able to pull out the win at 25-21, 13-25, 21-25, 25-22, 15-13.

Lexy Kessel goes to the floor after making the final kill on an assist from Alannah Sheets (7). Brittani Brooks (20) and Chasity Raines (15) express their excitement, as well.

Kessel had 25 kills in the match with Layhew and Sheets producing 28 and 20 assists, respectively.

Ripley had a phenomenal serving game with Brooks at 23/23, Layhew 19/19, Kessel 17/17, Sheets 15/15, Raines 13/14, and Sayre 10/13 with 3 aces.

Kessel came up with 18 digs, Sayre 11, and Brooks 8.

In the championship match of the tournament, #2 Ripley was matched against #1 Musselman. Although the Musselman team expected to take the state title easily, Ripley gave the team a run for their money by competing in another 5 game match. Ripley dropped the first two games to the Lady Applemen before rallying once more to win the next two games. With a state title on the line, Musselman pulled out the close deciding game to take the championship. Game scores were 23-25, 23-25, 25-21, 25-23, 11-15.

Kessel and Brooks had 18 and 13 kills, respectively. Kessel also had 27 digs to her credit and Sayre 12.

Layhew was the assist leader with 27 while Sheets had 17. Layhew was also the serving leader at 23/24. Brooks was 18/19, Kessel 13/14, Raines 19/23 with 3 aces, Sheets 14/16, and Sayre 13/14.

All-Tournament Team Lexy Kessel, Alannah Sheets, and Brittani Brooks.

Ripley placed three girls on the prestigious All-Tournament Team in juniors Kessel, Sheets, and Brooks.

Ripley finished the season with a record of 50-7-3 and a state ranking of #2. Ripley also claimed the Sportsmanship Award at the state tournament which judges the players, fans, and coaching staff on their sportsmanship throughout the tournament.

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