ROCKINGHAM — Georgia Grace Anderson, a junior on the Richmond Senior High School volleyball team, has been named the Official Richmond County Female Athlete of the Week presented by Moss Brothers Tire and Service.
Each week, one male and one female student-athlete from Richmond Senior High School will be selected by his or her coach as ROSports’ Official Richmond County Athlete of the Week based on his or her performance in helping their respective team.
A middle hitter and two-year varsity player, Anderson is coming off an impressive week on the court that helped the Lady Raiders begin the season 5-0. As the tallest player on the team, Anderson used her height to rack up kills and block shots at the net to help earn her first career recognition.
Athletic Profile
Age: 16
Birthday: Oct. 6, 2002
Year: Junior
Fall Sport: Volleyball
Position: Middle Hitter
Years on Varsity: 2 Years
Height & Weight: 6-1, 140 pounds
Experience: 6 Years
“BLOCKING SHOTS” WITH GEORGIA GRACE ANDERSON
RSHS Academics: Anderson is not only impressive on the volleyball court, but she’s also making her mark in the classroom. At the start of her first semester as a junior, Anderson is tied with several other members of the class of 2021 as the No. 1-ranked student. She carries a 4.625 GPA and and is an “A” honor roll student.
A member of the Advanced Placement and Richmond Community College clusters, Anderson is taking a handful of college and high school classes this fall. At RichmondCC, she’s in Math 171, Psychology 150, Spanish 111 and History 131, which is online. When she’s at RSHS, she’s taking AP Language and Composition with Ms. Samantha Whitehead and Honors Weight Training with Coach Jessie Covington.
Anderson is also involved in the National Beta Club and is a catcher in the Lady Raider softball program. This year, she hopes to be inducted into the National Honor Society.
“Being a student-athlete with a heavy course load means I have to do a lot of stuff before practice, on bus rides and during JV games,” Anderson explained. “It’s definitely helping me with mytime management skills and it pushes me to stay on top of my school work.
“This year is going pretty good, and I think I’m going to like it,” she added. “RCC classes just started (on Tuesday). I really enjoy weight training because it’s my break during the day.”
Future Plans: Even though her junior year of high school just got started, Anderson is already thinking about college. She’s making it her goal to continue her volleyball career at the next level, and noted several schools including Belmont Abbey College, Greensboro College and UNC-Pembroke have showed interest.
“It’s been my dream to be able to play college volleyball, whether it’s Division I or junior college,” Anderson shared. “I just want to opportunity to keep playing. My dream school would be playing at Appalachian State University.”
She’s not sure what she’ll study yet and plans to take the next two years of high school to figure it out. At the moment, Anderson said she’s considering sports medicine as her potential major.
Athlete of the Week Stats: The Lady Raiders had three big matches last week, picking up non-conference wins against Montgomery Central and Lee County high schools before opening Sandhills Athletic Conference play with a victory over Purnell Swett High School.
During that stretch, Anderson recorded 32 total kills, eight aces and seven blocks. Her best hitting performance came against Lee County, seeing the junior rack up a match-high 12 kills. She also hit double digits with 11 kills against Montgomery Central.
Against the Lady Timberwolves to start the week, Anderson’s four aces helped the Lady Raiders come back twice to squeeze out a five-set win.
Coach’s Corner: Second-year head coach Ashleigh Larsen has seen Anderson grow in her role as one of the team’s leading middle hitters the past two seasons and talked about her effectiveness on both sides of the ball.
“GGA works hard at practice to make sure she betters herself and her team each game,” Larsen said. “She has developed a lot over the last season and that shows her determination and love for the game.
“Georgia Grace has been a big asset defensively with her blocks,” she added. “On offense, she’s finding her groove with Carley (Lambeth) and getting some big kills in.”
Raider Video Chats: Georgia Grace Anderson, Official Richmond County Female Athlete of the Week
New this season is our “Raider Video Chats” segment that allows student-athletes to connect with fans and readers through video interviews. In her video, Anderson talks about the volleyball team’s hot start, her chemistry with her teammates, as well as sharing some personal tidbits about her life in our “Rapid Raider Response” segment.
Click photo for video.
