The volleyball program at Shawnee State put together yet another strong performance Saturday afternoon at Waller Gymnasium in Portsmouth, with the Bears hitting an outstanding .292 as a team and putting four players -- Macie Rhoads, Alexis Palazzo, Nash Shelby, and Bethany Colling -- above .438 from an attack percentage standpoint in a 3-0 victory over Thomas More (25-11, 25-16, 25-21) that cinched a season sweep for SSU as well as the Bears' eighth win over its last nine games.

Along with its strong collective attack percentage, the Bears also posted an excellent defensive effort, greatly outnumbering the Saints in total digs (90-68) while edging Thomas More by a 4-3 count in total blocks. Shawnee State's effective defensive play kept Thomas More from gaining an advantage from a serving standpoint as well, as the Saints were only able to tally one ace as a team over the entire match.

Rhoads keeps roll going

Continuing to add to a season that increasingly looks like a First-Team All-MSC caliber year, Shawnee State junior outside hitter Macie Rhoads posted one of her more dominating efforts Saturday afternoon in the straight-set win.

From the outset, Rhoads' swing was on point as the Circleville native posted seven of her 16 kills in the match's opening set to lead SSU to a convincing 14-volley victory in the first frame. She then added another big punch in the third set, notching each of Shawnee State's first four points in the final frame off of kills to help the Bears get rolling offensively and give SSU a jolt in what ended up being a 25-21 victory in the final frame.

On 28 attack attempts, Rhoads notched 16 kills and committed just two attack errors to amass a fierce .500 attack percentage for the afternoon. Rhoads also posted a team-high 21 digs to boot to lead Shawnee State on the defensive end of the floor -- all while only committing one reception error for the match.

For her career, Rhoads now has 1,049 kills and 961 digs for her career. She sits just 23 spikes back of Lauren Helbig and 37 off of Paige Zelich for fifth and fourth place in the history of the Shawnee State volleyball program in kills, and is only 39 digs away from becoming the 11th player in program history to reach 1,000 digs for a career. By reaching 1,000 digs, Rhoads would join Becca Day and Jami Turrill as the only players in program history to record more than 1,000 kills and 1,000 digs for a career.

Colling, Palazzo, Shelby all hit well when called upon

Adding to Rhoads' outstanding performance, Alexis Palazzo, Nash Shelby, and Bethany Colling all hit in an outstanding manner on the frontline.

Between the duo, Palazzo (13 kills) and Colling (eight spikes) combined for 21 kills while committing only one attack error in 45 combined attempts for a .444 attack percentage, while Shelby added in 10 kills for a .444 attack percentage on her own accord.

Palazzo posted six of her 13 kills in the opening set and three additional blasts in a 10-1 run to end the second set, Colling added in four of her eight kills during the same 10-1 spurt and Shelby amassed five of her 10 spikes in the opening frame to help complete the fantastic offensive day for the Bears' contingent.

Kolinoff, Payne continue strong passing; duo along with Fiesler, Cochran set strong defensive tone

Leading the charge for Shawnee State's strong attack, the passing of Maria Kolinoff and Maddie Payne proved to be strong throughout the day.

In all, the two upperclassmen combined for 37 assists and 20 digs while helping Shawnee State on all fronts. With her 16-assist outing, Kolinoff moved to within 15 digs of 1,000 for her career (985), while Payne posted her fifth double-double of the season (21 assists, 11 digs) in Saturday's season sweep of the Saints.

Darian Fiesler (19 digs) and Emilee Cochran (17 digs) were also strong defensively, with the duo, along with Kolinoff and Payne, combining for 67 digs while not recording a single reception error in the win. The Bears, as an entire unit, only committed a single reception error over the entire game, receiving the ball at a stout 98.9 percent clip as a team in the win.

NEXT UP

With the win, Shawnee State (10-8, 8-5 MSC) now sits tied with Life (Ga.) in fourth place overall in the Mid-South Conference standings. Only Lindsey Wilson, Campbellsville and Georgetown -- the latter pair of teams just a game above the Bears each -- sit with better conference records.

The Bears will look to move the needle further as Shawnee State travels to Williamsburg, Ky. for a matchup at Cumberlands (Ky.). Game time begins at 6 p.m.

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