The Shawnee State Volleyball Team easily handled the Cavaliers of UVa-Wise in three sets on Thursday night in their final home match of the season. The Bears improve to 11-21 on the season and 5-6 in the Mid-South. The Cavaliers fall to 3-7 in the MSC and 11-16 overall.

Shawnee State built an 11-4 lead early in the opening set, but the Cavaliers battled back to come within 16-14. After a SSU timeout the Bears came out strong and outscored the Cavaliers 9-4 in the set to to take set one 25-18.

Behind sophomore Hannah Gephart's serves, the Bears opened the second set on a 5-0 run. UVa-Wise rallied back tying the set 7-7 but the Bears answered with three straight pints and didn't trial the remainder of the set en route to a 25-14 victory.

In the final set, Shawnee State continued their dominance and led by as many as seven at 15-8. The Cavaliers fought back and got within four at 19-15, but Shawnee State closed the game on a 6-0 run to win 25-15 behind senior Kelly Schumacher's serves and three kills by freshman Kelsey Bielanow.

Bielanow finished the night leading the Bears with 10 kills. Senior Shaye Berry added seven kills in her final home game as a Bear. Juniors Alex Pohl and Holly Tobias each added five kills. Gephart dished out 33 assists to go along with seven digs and three service aces. Sophomore Kirsti Yates and junior Jessica Winkelman dug up 11 and 10 digs respectively. In her final home game, senior Kelly Schumacher had five kills and two service aces.

Shawnee State rounds out the regular season at the Georgetown Invitational on Friday and Saturday. The Bears open the tournament and will face Olivet Nazarene tomorrow at 2:00 p.m.