Stone Cold

Meet Ronika Stone, the unstoppable force for Valley Christian-San Jose volleyball

  Story by DAVID KIEFER | Photos by NORBERT von der GROEBEN

  Here it comes.

  With Ronika Stone on the court, it was only a matter of time before Valley Christian High School would break out the ‘slide.’

  This time, St. Ignatius-San Francisco is on the other end, trying to hang on in this West Catholic Athletic League girls volleyball match.

  Stone, a middle blocker, cuts to her right and Tori Dilfer releases a perfect set just inside the antenna. Stone circles behind her setter, leaps off her left foot, rises high, and pounds the ball into the floor, directly in the heart of the Wildcats’ defense.

  The Warriors engulf Stone on the court and the bench erupts. This, after all, is Stone at her best — one of the nation’s most lethal hitters performing a move in which all the skills and athletic ability that make her so great coalesce into one unstoppable motion.

  Stone is a 6-foot-3 middle blocker on a team two years removed from a CIF Division III State championship. The Warriors, seeking another state title, were No. 25 on the MaxPreps.com Top 25 computer rankings (through Oct. 24). Valley (23-7 overall) was 4-1 in the WCAL, a league so tough that two of its teams, Archbishop Mitty-San Jose and Sacred Heart Cathedral-San Francisco, are defending state champs.

  Ronika, the daughter of 12-year NFL right guard Ron Stone, is regarded as one of the top recruits in the country. Bound for the University of Oregon, where she will be reunited with her sister Ronna, a freshman on the Ducks’ track and field team, Ronika is averaging 5.5 kills and 3.9 digs per set, hitting at a .366 percentage, and has 41 solo blocks.

  Her ability seems effortless. She is strong and lean and powerful and fast. She can jump — she won the 2015 WCAL high-jump title and set a school record of 5-5 in her first season of track and field — and she is incredibly athletic. In 2014, the last of her two high school seasons of basketball, Stone had 13 points and 11 rebounds in a Central Coast Section Division III championship victory over Soquel.

  “She’s a special player, obviously,” said Valley Christian first-year coach Ron Whitmill, who has worked with her on a personal level through the Vision Volleyball Club. “I knew what she can do on the volleyball court, but just the type of person she is in the gym on a daily basis, that was a surprise to me. I was impressed with the kind of leader she is.
She’s not just really good, she actually asks a lot of her teammates.”

  Stone is goofy. There is no more appropriate way to describe her. She has a sense of humor that disarms even the strangest of strangers, and a smile that simply invites others to share the same carefree demeanor.

  When Maddie Dilfer, a current Notre Dame sophomore setter, was leading that Valley Christian state title team, Stone and their Warrior teammates had to remind Dilfer to loosen up and not take the game so seriously. This year, Stone, now in that role herself, understands Dilfer’s mentality better than ever.

  “Our team personality is probably the craziest we’ve ever had,” Stone said. “We used to have dance parties before every match.”

  But the danger now, as Stone sees it, is preventing that craziness from affecting their play. It’s her role to take the team down a notch and “to stay in character,” on the floor. Stone can still be goofy — just watch her excitement on the floor and fun interactions with teammates — but she’s also the first to take a teammate to task if that player is not focused.

  It’s part of her maturation that has accompanied her rise in talent.

  In an athletic family, competition was a given. The Stones would break into contests of jumprope, pushups, situps, or handstands.

  “Maybe it was the competitions we had that were imprinted in her,” Ron Stone said. “Our attitude was, it may be hard, but you can always do more.

  “It helps to have good genes, but it still has to come within the kid. The parent can’t do it for them. It has to come from within.”

  The Stones, including sophomore brother R.J., a burgeoning Valley Christian football standout, have never been afraid of working hard. In the weight room, Ronika prefers to lift by herself because it bothers her if she sees others cheating on their sets. Even when told to perform squats without weights during the season, Stone can’t help but lifting with weights anyway.

  As a supreme offensive player, especially playing middle, Stone could be substituted in the back row as many of her peers are. But she has refused, working hard on her backrow defense and her passing.

  “Middles don’t really have to pass,” Ronika said. “But I felt like being put in those situations is better for me in the long run.”

  That decision required a deep commitment. There was no halfway. She has to be good if she’s going to take those spots on the floor.

  “Otherwise, I’ll be a huge target,” she said. “I have to get better or our team is going to lose.”

  As you may be able to tell, Stone is not your typical middle, a position akin to a center in basketball where height, but not necessarily mobility, is vital. The middle is not often the first hitting option.

  But Stone developed a unique style early on that has added to her arsenal. She jumps off one foot. It began in basketball while shooting layups. It shifted to volleyball when her first coach at Vision, Mitty coach Bret Almazan-Cezar, taught ‘the slide’ on her first day.

  “It came naturally,” Stone said.

  Add her outstanding serving, her ability to control the net on the block with her side-to-side quickness, and there is little Stone can’t do on the court. For instance, in the sweep over St. Ignatius, Stone had 16 kills, nine digs, 2.5 blocks and an ace.

  The U.S. Youth National team has seen the gifts she brings as Stone starred in the middle for the team during the FIVB Under-18 World Championship in Peru during the summer, winning a silver medal. She was among only two Californians on the roster, and the only one from Northern California.

  She played outside hitter during Valley Christian’s state championship season, and even played right-side hitter for Vision. At Oregon? Who knows.

  “Wherever I play is fine, as long as I’m playing,” she said.

  This season, Valley Christian is talented — Tori Dilfer, a junior, has committed to TCU, and senior hitter Ashlyn Fleming will play at Pacific — but the Warriors are attempting to find ways to beat teams like Mitty and SHC without the depth or pure firepower of two years ago.

  However, the Warriors, despite two narrow losses to Mitty in matches stretched to maximum sets, haven’t given up hope of getting the best of the Monarchs in the WCAL tournament before contending for Central Coast Section, NorCal and state titles.

  “From a coaching standpoint you get excited about all the different things you can do with a player like her,” Whitmill said. “Our offense is built around her, but rather than expecting her to do everything, if we’re going to be good, everyone else has to step up and get better and support her the best we can.”

  Not only does Stone have the ability to outjump many blocks, but her quickness prevents blocks from setting up. Because she jumps off one foot, she can rise faster than the defense. And when she slips into the slide, the defense can rarely keep up.

  The results are points like the series of kills Stone inflicted on St. Ignatius. From the backrow, the middle, and even on the lethal slide, Stone could not be stopped.

  The Wildcats are not alone. Some of the best teams in the country have had the same problem when facing Stone on the slide.

  Even when they know it’s coming.