Ravenswood volleyball enjoys outstanding season

“We played one of the most difficult schedules in Class A,” said head coach Chris Michael.

That included Buffalo, Williamstown, James Monroe, Wirt County and Greenbrier West, who all played in the Class A portion of the West Virginia High School State Volleyball Tournament (won by Williamstown).

One of the highlights of the season was bringing “The Net” back to Ravenswood in the annual rivalry showdown with Ripley, which creates one of the top high school volleyball environments year after year.

Ravenswood finished fourth in the 16-team Little Kanawha Conference, one of the best leagues in the state for many sports, including volleyball. It was Ravenswood’s best placing in the LKC since a 2010 runner-up finish.

Ravenswood’s team captains this season were senior Abby Scritchfield and junior Macy Casto.

Ravenswood will lose Scritchfield, Lexi Smith and Kaitlyn Miller to graduation.

Manuel Pueyo, a foreign exchange sophomore, will also be leaving the program.

Ravenswood will return letter winners Casto, Annie Starcher, Angelena Fowler, Holliday Burrows, Peyton Mellinger and Anna Casto.

“I’m so proud of this team,” said Michael. “I knew we could be as good as any team in Class A and we proved that throughout the entire season.

“The cruelty of sports is that only eight teams go to the State Tournament and only one team can win it. Unfortunately, we came up a few points short to No. 1 Buffalo in the regional. It’s not fair. This team deserved to be in Charleston. We coached hard, we played hard, we challenged ourselves all season, we just came up short.

“This will hurt for a while, but for the returners it will be used as motivation to continue to push even harder to accomplish our goals. This group will be highly motivated to get to Charleston next year

Michael praised his program’s fan base.

“I want to give a special shout out to the fans at Ravenswood, especially the students at Ravenswood High School. They showed up for us all season. They were loud and we felt their presence.

Michael said the devoted Ravenswood volleyball fans make “sports fun, excited and memorable.”

A statistical breakdown of the Devilettes in 2023 follows.

Points: Macy Casto 742, Scritchfield 647, Anna Casto 546, Burrows 190.

• First time in school history to have 3 players score over 500 points in a season.

Most Accurate Servers: Anna Casto 530/557 (95%), Fowler and Starcher at 94% each.

Aces: Scritchfield 107, Macy Casto 86, Anna Casto 74, Pueyo 73 and Starcher 62.

• Set school record for number of ACES in a single season with 469 (previous record set in 2-16 was 451).
• Scritchfield set the career ACES record with 375.

Setting: Starcher 2,772 sets on target with a 96% accuracy.

• Starcher set the school record for sets on target in a single season with 2,772 (previous record was set in 2010 by Kaci Sullivan with 2,698).

Kills: Macy Casto 503, Scritchfield 375, Anna Casto 262 and Burrows 109.

• First time in school history to have 3 players earn 250 kills or more in a season.
• Scritchfield (1,065) and Macy Casto (1,089) both eclipsed the 1,000 kill marks for their careers.

Team set the school record for kills a single season with 1,276 (previous record set in 2010 was 1,206).

Spikes in play: Macy Casto 1,063, Anna Casto 734, Scritchfield 726 and Burrows 325.

• First time in school history to have 3 players put 700 or more spikes in a play in a single season.

Blocks: Scritchfield 88, Mellinger 71, Burrows 42 and Macy Casto 31.

Passing %: Macy Casto 76%, Anna Casto 73%, Pueyo 73% and Abby Scritchfield 72%.