The athletic department at Shawnee State will enjoy a busy slate of athletic events this weekend as a total of seven different programs will be in action over the course of the weekend across three different states (Ohio, Indiana, West Virginia) in an active slate of events that runs from Friday through Sunday.
A preview of each of the athletic events that Shawnee State will be participating in this weekend are below:
Shawnee State Women's Golf at Indiana-East Fall Invite (Friday, Aug. 29 and Saturday, Aug. 30), Highland Lake GC, Richmond, Ind.
Â
The women's golf program at Shawnee State will compete in its first event of the 2025-26 season this weekend as the Bears will held to Richmond, Ind. for the Indiana-East Fall Invitational, which will be a two-day, 36-hole event that begins Friday, Aug. 29 and ends Saturday, Aug. 30.
On the women's side, Shawnee State will be one of 12 teams taking part in Friday's invitational, which also includes host Indiana-East, Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Alma (Mich.), Central State, Defiance, Earlham (Ind.), Grace (Ind.), Fisk (Tenn.), Hanover (Ind.), Huntington (Ind.) and Trine (Ind.).
Shawnee State will send
Aly Wellman,
Saylor Crace,
Olivia Lewis,
Cali Baird and
Brynna Spencer up to Indiana-East to compete Friday and Saturday.
Shawnee State (RV) Women's and (No. 24) Men's Cross Country at Thundering Herd XC Invitational -- Friday, Aug. 29 (6 p.m. women, 6:40 p.m. men), Kennedy YMCA Center, Huntington, W. Va.
Â
The men's and women's cross country programs will take their status as ranked and receiving votes units up the road to Huntington, W. Va. Friday evening when the Shawnee State men's and women's cross country programs run in the Thundering Herd XC Invitational, which is being hosted by Marshall University at the Kennedy YMCA Center in Huntington, W. Va.
Including Shawnee State, the list for men's and women's cross country is up to six teams, as both SSU squads will be competing against Marshall, Ohio, Pikeville, Rio Grande and West Virginia Tech.
The full lineup of runners who will be competing on Friday are below:
Men's team:
Garrett Carver,
Jared Flowers,
Isaiah Lanoy,
Trevor Lanoy,
Eli Lengl,
Jerry O'Dell,
Walker Pannell,
Dakotah Sanders,
Malachi Shugert.
Women's team:
Whitney Adams,
Juniper Allen,
Hadlee Cisco,
Olivia Cisco,
Riley Colestock,
Jessica Elick,
Kirsten Evans,
Emma Hurst,
Payton McQuirt,
Beth Middleton,
Amanda Salmons,
Maggie Taylor.
Shawnee State Men's Golf at Ted Barclay Invitational -- Saturday, Aug. 29 and Sunday, Aug. 30, Denison Golf Club, Granville, Ohio
Â
The men's golf program at Shawnee State will compete in its first event in 2025-26 when the Bears held to Granville, Ohio to take part in the Ted Barclay Invitational -- a two-day, 36-hole event that is being hosted by Denison University and will run from Saturday, Aug. 29 to Sunday, Aug. 30.
In addition to Shawnee State and host Denison, the Bears will compete against John Carroll, Muskingum, Otterbein, Wittenberg, Allegheny (Pa.), DePauw (Ind.), Penn State-Altoona and Randolph-Macon (Va.).
Dave Hopkins' and Alex Pratt's group will send
Ross Ferrell,
Trey Cracraft,
Max Kearns,
Hunter Freeman,
Logan Hughes and
Tanner Stevenson to the event.
Shawnee State Volleyball (5-2) at Emileigh Jo Cooper Memorial Classic (Friday, Aug. 29, vs. Kentucky Christian and at Rio Grande, 5 p.m. Lower Gym and 7:30 p.m. Upper Gym; Saturday, Aug. 30, vs. West Virginia Tech and Midway, 1:30 p.m. Upper Gym and 4 p.m. Lower Gym)
The volleyball program at Shawnee State (5-2) will look to keep its early season momentum flowing with a quartet of matches against Kentucky Christian, Rio Grande, West Virginia Tech and Midway Friday evening and Saturday afternoon as part of the Emileigh Jo Cooper Memorial Classic, which will be held at Rio Grande University in Rio Grande, Ohio.
The Bears, who are out to their best overall start since starting the 2021 season 8-1 overall, have lost just two matches -- a five-setter to Johnson (Tenn.), who went 28-7 in 2024 and a straight-set defeat to Blue Mountain Christian (Miss.) who went 22-8 in 2024 and are 4-1 to start the 2025 season.
Four players have at least 44 kills through the first seven matches of the 2025 season, including
Natalie Reida (63 kills, .250 attack percentage),
Camille Hall (56 kills, .252 attack percentage),
Bree Hicks (50 kills) and
Reagan Lewis (44 kills). Lewis (113 assists) and
Makaela Lovely (98 assists) have helped set up the offense, as has freshman setter
Cally Carpenter (32 assists), while Reida (15 service aces),
Ava Jenkins and
Megan Steele (eight aces each) and Lewis and Lovely (six aces each).
Defensively, Reida (18 total blocks) and Hall and Boerger (11 blocks each) head up the front line, while Steele (134 digs) and Jenkins (67 dives) lead the defense. Steele sits just 10 digs away from 1,000 for her career.
Kentucky Christian defeated Alice Lloyd (Ky.) in four sets in its season opener Tuesday evening, while Midway (Ky.) dropped a five-setter to Cincinnati-Clermont in its season opener Saturday, Aug. 23. Rio Grande is 4-5 overall while West Virginia Tech sits 0-9.
While Shawnee State, Kentucky Christian, Midway, Rio Grande and West Virginia Tech are all members of the River States Conference, the contests will not count toward the official River States Conference standings.
The contests in the upper gym (Rio Grande, 7:30 p.m. Friday and West Virginia Tech, 1:30 p.m. Saturday), will be televised at
portal.stretchinternet.com/rio, but the contests against Kentucky Christian and Midway (5 p.m. Friday and 4 p.m. Saturday) will not.
Â
Shawnee State Women's Soccer (0-1) vs. Pikeville, Ky. (1-0), Saturday, Aug. 30, 5 p.m., Shawnee Turf
Â
Following a competitive showing against Mount Vernon Nazarene that saw the Bears improve from a 5-0 home loss in 2024 to the Cougars to a scant 3-1 road setback to MVNU, the women's soccer program at Shawnee State will look to carry that positive momentum over to its contest against Pikeville (Ky.) in what will be the home opener for SSU Saturday evening at 5 p.m. at Shawnee Turf.
SSU was led by a 78th minute conversion from
Annie Coriell, who scored in front to help Shawnee State tie the match at a goal apiece before Mount Vernon Nazarene added in two goals over the final 11 minutes of play to set the result. Pikeville, in its season opener, defeated Carolina (N.C.) by a 3-0 count Saturday, Aug. 23. Charlene Lofqvist, Rebekah Christopher and Sara Ritter each scored a goal apiece for UPike.
The Shawnee State women's soccer program went 1-1-3 last season over its final five matches at Shawnee Turf.
Shawnee State Men's Soccer (1-0-1) vs. No. 20 Milligan, Tenn. (1-0-1)Â Saturday, Aug. 30, 7 p.m., Shawnee Turf
Â
Facing arguably its toughest test of the nonconference season to date, the home opener for the Shawnee State men's soccer program will be a major test as Shawnee State will take on Milligan (Tenn.) Saturday evening at 7 p.m.
Shawnee State, who drew with Ave Maria in its season opener on a 77th minute goal by
Marco Riva and overcame a 1-0 halftime deficit to force a draw, came back from a 1-0 halftime deficit to Warner in its second contest of the year by scoring three goals over a 24-minute span to claim a 3-1 victory over the Royals.
Alfie Maynard (46th),
Nikos Pontikis (58th) and
Esau Chavez (70th) all scored a goal each in the Shawnee State triumph.
Offensively, the Bears were led last weekend by Riva and fellow senior
Alfie Maynard, who each picked up a goal and an assist to start the 2025 season. Pontikis' and Chavez's goals along with an assist by Trevor Aviero Masanjala have proven to be the leaders in terms of production for Shawnee State so far on the soccer pitch.
Milligan (1-0-1) has been led by junior forward Kerim Akpinar, who has goals in each of the Buffaloes' first two games -- a 1-1 tie against West Virginia Tech and a 1-0 win over SCAD Savannah.
Both the Shawnee State women's and men's soccer contests can be watched atÂ
https://www.youtube.com/@ssubearsathletics/videos.
Additional
Â
Follow all the action on Facebook (
Shawnee State Athletics), Instagram (
ssubears) Twitter (
SSUBears), YouTube (
SSU Bears Athletics) and via a phone or tablet through the SSU Bears app, which can be downloaded by typing in Shawnee State Athletics(Bears) and appears as SSU Bears.
