Despite a strong defensive performance from Stacia Martin -- where the latter ultimately surpassed 1,000 career digs at Shawnee State -- the volleyball program at Shawnee State University dropped a pair of straight-setters to Lawrence Tech (Mich.) and Grace (Ind.) on the second and final day of the Gray Wolf Invitational at Lourdes University in Sylvania, Ohio.
In the first contest against Lawrence Tech, Shawnee State struggled to generate an effective offensive attack as the Bears posted 16 kills, but committed 20 attack errors during the match en route to hitting -.049 as a team.
The bright spot in the affair, however, was Martin.
Needing eight digs to surpass the 1,000 dig mark, Martin collected nine to put herself above the 1,000-dig plateau for her Shawnee State career -- an accomplishment that has come in essentially two and one-quarter seasons with the Bears. Between her careers at SSU and at Indiana University-East, the latter of which she played at in 2016, Martin has 1,149 digs to her name over her career.
Maria Kolinoff's nine digs, five assists and four kills, along with Macie Rhoads' nine kills and five digs, rounded out the main efforts for Shawnee State.
In the second affair against Grace, SSU fared much better as the Bears combined with the Lancers for 15 ties or lead changes before using a 6-0 run -- behind a Nashail Shelby kill and a Maddie Rann service ace -- to take a 12-8 advantage over the first set's opening 20 volleys.
However, despite clutch kills from Kolinoff, Rhoads, Shelby, and Bella Gill, the four-point edge would evaporate as Grace used a 6-2 run to tie the set score at 14 apiece, then used kills from Anna Frey, Makaela Lochmueller, and Makayla Bell to give the Lancers a 19-17 lead following a 3-0 run behind the aforementioned spikes.
SSU scored the next two points on Shelby's kill and an attack error to tie the score, and tied the score two more times on kills by Kolinoff, Gill, and Rhoads to match Grace's output at 23 apiece, but Grace scored each of the set's final pair of points to accumulate the opening set win.
After giving up an 11-1 spurt to Grace en route to dropping the second set by a 25-11 margin, SSU rebounded nicely in the third set as the Bears and the Lancers tied or traded the lead nine more times, with Shawnee State garnering the early advantage off of three kills from Kolinoff, two kills each from Shelby and Rhoads, and a spike from Miranda Hickey en route to collecting leads of 9-6, 11-8, and 13-10 in the third frame of action.
However, following a third kill from Rhoads that allowed SSU to keep a 14-12 lead, the Bears gave up a 9-2 spurt by Grace that proved to be costly as the Lancers turned the 14-12 deficit into a 21-16 lead. Down 23-17 at one point and clinging to life, Shawnee State did go on a 5-0 run off of kills from Gill and Rhoads, but couldn't get any closer than one point away as Grace scored the final two set points to take the third set and the match.
In the second contest, Gill led the Bears by notching 11 kills and a block-and-a-half while hitting .474 for the contest, while Kolinoff's 10 assists, eight digs, and eight kills on a .200 attack percentage also proved to be huge for SSU in the affair. Shelby and Rhoads added in eight and seven kills, respectively, while Alissa Kefauver posted 21 assists to kickstart the Bears' offensive attack. Martin's 14 digs led SSU (2-12) defensively.
Grace was led by freshman Anna Frey, who posted 14 kills on a .303 attack percentage.
The volleyball program at Shawnee State will return to action on Monday evening and Tuesday evening with back-to-back Mid-South Conference bouts against Campbellsville and Georgetown (Ky.) at Waller Gymnasium in Portsmouth. Those contests will commence at 7 p.m. and 6 p.m., respectively.
