Shawnee State women's soccer vs. Oakland City, 5 p.m. Thursday; Brescia, 1 p.m. Saturday (SENIOR DAY), Shawnee Turf
 

Leading off the weekend's action, the women's soccer program at Shawnee State will begin the weekend by hosting a contest against Oakland City (Ind.) at 5 p.m. Thursday evening, which will be followed by Shawnee State's contest against Brescia (Ky.) at 1 p.m.

Shawnee State enjoyed a breakout weekend in last Saturday's contest against Kentucky Christian, scoring four goals in both halves of an 8-0 victory against Kentucky Christian at Shawnee Turf. Freshmen Lexi Conkel and Haley Hall scored their first career goals in the contest with Conkel going on to secure a hat trick by scoring three times in a two-and-a-half minute span early in the opening half of competition to get Shawnee State off and running in the match.

Both matches will be critical in terms of Shawnee State's postseason hopes -- as the Bears sit in seventh place in the River States Conference standings. The top six teams make the tournament field, but SSU has an excellent chance to move up the conference ladder as Oakland City sits 8-2-2 and 4-0-1 overall in their own status atop the league, while Brescia holds the sixth and final spot in the conference rundown at 8-4 overall and 3-2 in the RSC currently.

Both contests can be watched at https://www.youtube.com/@ssubearsathletics.

Shawnee State men's soccer (7-2-2, 3-1 River States Conference) vs. Oakland City (4-8, 3-1 River States Conference), 7:30 p.m. Thursday; Brescia (3-8-2, 2-3 River States Conference), 3 p.m. Saturday, Shawnee Turf
 

The men's soccer program at Shawnee State follows the women's soccer program with contests against Oakland City and Brescia themselves at 7:30 p.m. Thursday and 3 p.m. Saturday, with both contests going a long way toward the Bears locking up not only a River States Conference Tournament berth, but homefield advantage for the second straight season as well.

Shawnee State took a 5-0 first half lead and ultimately outshot Kentucky Christian 27-1 while not allowing a single shot on goal in the Bears' 6-0 victory. Nikos Pontikis and Trevor Aviero Masanjala each scored twice in SSU's triumph.

During the Saturday afternoon contest against Brescia, the Shawnee State men's soccer program will be hosting Chaos Football Club as its special guests for the contest. Youth who wear any Chaos FC jersey to the match get in free of charge.

Both contests can be watched at https://www.youtube.com/@ssubearsathletics.

Shawnee State men's and women's swimming at Cumberlands (Ky.), 2 p.m., Patriots Aquatic Center 
 

The men's and women's swimming programs, fresh off second and fourth place team finishes and a NAIA provisional cut time from true freshman Kaylee France in the 50 yard freestyle, will compete in a dual meet against Cumberlands (Ky.) at 2 p.m. in a road event that will take place at the Patriots Aquatic Center in Williamsburg, Ky.

Changar, who placed second overall in the 100 yard backstroke, posted another impressive effort by swimming a 54.12 in the event to put himself within striking distance of a NAIA provisional cut time in his first official collegiate swim meet and scoring 17 points in the event.

As for Ababay, the talented freshman from Turkey continued stacking up top-five finishes of his own, placing fourth out of 23 swimmers in the 200 yard freestyle and reaching out to grab fourth out of 34 swimmers in the 100 yard freestyle. Like Changar, Ababay is also within striking distance of NAIA provisional cut times in those events, finishing just three-tenths of a second back of a NAIA provisional cut in the 100 yard freestyle. He scored 30 points between the two events.

Lewis ultimately led the charge for the Shawnee State women's swimming program Saturday, swimming a stout 1:01.93 to win an eight-individual 100 yard butterfly event and finishing second out of 22 swimmers in the 100 yard freestyle, swimming a 56.01 to come within two-and-a-half tenths of a second from winning the event. Lewis ultimately posted three top-five finishes in individual events alone over the weekend, adding in a fourth-place finish in the 50 yard freestyle Friday evening.

France, who enjoyed an excellent debut Friday evening by posting a NAIA provisional cut time of 25.58 in the 50 yard freestyle, finished third out of 17 swimmers in the 100 yard backstroke, notching a time of 1:03.27 in doing so.

Bosler, who finished second in the 200 yard individual medley Friday evening, added in another stout performance with a fourth-place finish out of 11 swimmers in the 200 yard breaststroke, swimming a 2:36.65 in that event.

The men's and women's cross country programs at Shawnee State return to action after nearly two weeks off with a meet that was added late to the schedule -- as the Bears will run in the annual #JennaStrong Cross Country Invitational, which is being held by Wilmington College in Wilmington, Ohio.

Men's runners participating in the event include Jared Flowers, Kaiden Lanoy, Eli Lengl, Rowen Lloyd, Jerry O'Dell, Walker Pannell and Dakotah Sanders while the women's runners who will be racing include Whitney Adams, Natalie Brammer, Hadlee Cisco, Riley Colestock, Kirsten Evans, Emma Hurst, Payton McQuirt, Beth Middleton and Allana Pemberton.
 

With a strong 16-8 overall record that ultimately results in wins across two-thirds of its matches, the volleyball program at Shawnee State can go a long way toward securing a home match for at least one River States Conference Tournament affair when the Bears travel to Indiana-Columbus at 7 p.m. Friday evening and then play at Indiana-Southeast at 1 p.m. Saturday afternoon.

In addition to the Bears moving a step closer toward securing home court for a RSC Tournament match in the quarterfinal round, Shawnee State would move within two wins of securing its first 20-win season since 2012 with a sweep of the weekend's festivities.

Both matches can be seen at https://www.youtube.com/@IUColumbusAthletics2 and https://www.youtube.com/@iusathletics.

Shawnee State men's and women's bowling at Ohio Bowling Conference Event No. 1, Saturday, Oct. 18

Lastly, the Shawnee State men's and women's bowling squads will be hitting the lanes throughout the day on Saturday, as the Bears will look to build on their performances at the DO Apparel-Brunswick Collegiate Open at the first Ohio Bowling Conference Event.

Blake Landers, who won the Mid-South Conference's Bowler of the Week honors on Sept. 24, averaged 228 pins per rack while Graham Copley, Jaylen Sumler and Zach Ison all nabbed averages at or above the 200-pin mark with Copley posting a 207.7 pin average in the men's bowling program's season opener.

As for the women, Onesti Evans, Kaylee Randolph, Morgan Higgins, Coryn Darling and Maria Mara all finished inside the top-30 overall. Four of the five leading bowlers are of either freshman or sophomore eligibility.