OAKLAND CITY, Ind. -- Playing a conference opponent nearly five hours away from home and in a different time zone is always a difficult test.

That's especially the case when that opponent is coming off of its biggest victory of the year against a top-25 opponent.

However, the Shawnee State volleyball program left little doubt as to who the better team was Friday evening in its River States Conference match against the Oakland City Oaks' volleyball program.

In all phases of the game, Devan Spriggs' group dominated the statline as the Bears hit .257 as a team while holding the Oaks to a .122 mark on the opposite side, posted 75 digs to 57 for Oakland City, and trailed just six times the entire evening in a 3-0, wire-to-wire drubbing of a respectable Oakland City program (25-16, 25-18, 25-21) Friday evening at Johnson Center in Oakland City, Ind.
Shawnee State (15-6, 5-1 River States Conference) started strong and never let up from beginning to end as the Bears had seven different players notch kills in its opening set win over Oakland City on the way to getting nine different individuals in the kill column in its straight-set victory over the Oaks. The Bears ultimately had five players (Camille Hall, Whytney Faulkner, Bree Hicks, Natalie Reida and Katelynn Boerger) finish at or above 7.5 points total for the match despite only playing three sets in all.

Of that quintet, Boerger, Hall and Reida each hit no worse than .312 on the evening with Boerger and Hall hitting .481 and .400, respectively as the frontline put together a complete performance from start to finish in the match.

The frontline was led by an effective two-setter system -- with freshman Cally Carpenter doling out 24 assists and senior veteran Makaela Lovely adding in 19 dimes to lead the offensive charge.

On the back row, Megan Steele posted 23 digs in just three sets of play while Ava Jenkins and Brooke Bossert added in 13 and 12 dives, respectively -- capping off a highly efficient and effective performance from front to back in the contest, one where Shawnee State faced just two deficits after the conclusion of the opening set.
Trailing by a 7-6 margin early in the first frame of play, Shawnee State ripped off a 5-0 run to take an 11-7 advantage as Whytney Faulkner posted a pair of kills while Camille Hall and Reagan Lewis each added one spike apiece to give the Bears a four-volley lead.

Oakland City closed the Shawnee State advantage to 13-11, but that proved to be as close as the Oaks would come to the lead over the remainder of the set as the Bears got two kills from Bree Hicks, one each from Katelynn Boerger and Natalie Reida and a combined block from Boerger and Hall as the Bears built a sizeable 21-14 lead. Reida used two kills from there to help power Shawnee State to the final four volleys it needed to claim the opening set.

In the second frame, Shawnee State trailed just once. The Bears jumped out to a 7-3 lead as kills by Boerger led to Shawnee State's first three points in the set while Hall added in two more rips to give SSU a four-volley lead.

Oakland City came back to tie the set on three separate occasions -- grabbing a 10-9 advantage at one point -- but SSU rallied, getting two kills each from Boerger and Hicks in a 6-1 run that gave the Bears a 15-11 lead. Six different players, including Boerger, Faulkner, Hall, Hicks, Lewis and Makaela Lovely, all posted at least one kill each from that point forward to keep the lead at a comfortable margin for Shawnee State, as the Bears took a 25-18 decision in the second set.

Shawnee State also trailed only once in the third frame -- 2-0 -- before rallying with six consecutive points as Reida tallied up a pair of kills to get the Bears off and running in the third set. Reida then added in a third kill, Hall posted two more spikes, Boerger combined with Reida on a block, and Lewis got in the mix with a kill of her own, lifting Shawnee State to a 13-8 lead.

Boerger then took over matters midway through the third set by posting three kills to help Shawnee State extend its lead to an 18-11 margin, and after Oakland City came back to trail by just one, 18-17, in the frame, the Bears' offensive attack regrouped as Boerger, Faulkner, Hall and Lewis all posted a kill each as part of a 7-4 run that finished Oakland City off for good.