PORTSMOUTH — The Shawnee State University volleyball team will play a 28-game regular season schedule — with 10 home contests, 10 away matches and eight neutral-site affairs — as part of an evenly-balanced and competitive 2024 slate, as announced by the program on Monday afternoon.

Devan Spriggs, who begins her fifth year as the Bears’ head coach, leads a veteran group into two neutral site tournaments to begin the 2024 campaign.

On Friday, Aug. 23 and Saturday, Aug. 24, Shawnee State will compete in the Milligan Mountain Madness Tournament — as the Bears play Milligan at 2:30 p.m. and Cumberlands (Ky.) at 7 p.m. on Friday and Union (Ky.) and Tennessee Wesleyan at 12 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. respectively on Saturday afternoon.

The Bears then turn right around the following weekend on Friday, Aug. 30 and Saturday, Aug. 31, where Shawnee State faces Cumberland (Tenn.) and Ohio Christian University at 5 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. on Friday evening — and then faces Defiance (Ohio) and Lindsey Wilson at 2:30 p.m. and 5 p.m. on Saturday afternoon.

Shawnee State’s first contest in September also serves as the Bears’ home opener — as the Bears will face off against Georgetown (Ky.) in a match that will begin at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 5.

Then, after three consecutive road matches, including its River States Conference opener at Indiana-Southeast on Saturday, Sept. 21 at 12 p.m., Shawnee State returns to Waller Gymnasium for four consecutive contests.

During that stretch, Shawnee State will play host to Indiana-East on Friday, Sept. 27 (5 p.m.), Rio Grande on Saturday, Sept. 28 (12 p.m.), Wilberforce on Tuesday, Oct. 1 (6 p.m.) and Alice Lloyd on Friday, Oct. 4 (6 p.m.) — with the IU-East, Rio Grande and Alice Lloyd contests all serving as RSC matchups.

After traveling to Midway the day after the home bout against Alice Lloyd on Saturday, Oct. 5 (12 p.m.), Shawnee State plays host to West Virginia Tech on Tuesday, Oct. 8 (7 p.m.) — before making a weekend trip to Indiana to play fellow RSC foes in Saint Mary-of-the-Woods and Indiana-Kokomo.

Each of the following three matches after that weekend trip to the Hoosier State are home affairs, with contests against Indiana-Columbus (Saturday, Oct. 19, 12 p.m.), Oakland City (Friday, Oct. 25, 7 p.m.) and Brescia (Saturday, Oct. 26, 12 p.m.).

Down the regular season’s homestretch, four of Shawnee State’s final five matches are on the road — highlighted by a Friday, Nov. 1 match at Rio Grande at 7 p.m.

The lone home contest over SSU’s final five matches of the season will come against Midway on Tuesday, Nov. 5 at 7 p.m.

Spriggs, who won the 2024 River States Conference’s Coach of Character Award, is the first volleyball coach in the history of the conference to win the award.

She will be in her 14th consecutive season involved with the program in some capacity, as the former Northwest High School star played for the Bears from 2011 to 2014 — and served as an assistant coach to former head coach Susan Shelton from the 2015 to 2019 seasons.

Sydney Seth will return to assist Spriggs — in what will be Seth’s fifth year with the Bears as an assistant coach.

For more information regarding the schedule, please visit https://www.ssubears.com/sports/wvball/2024-25/schedule.

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