Olivia Shaw enjoyed an outstanding four-year volleyball career at Montgomery County High School, finishing as the all-time leader in kills, helping the Wildcats win four Eastern Missouri Conference championships, earning all-district honors three times and receiving two all-conference awards.

That success carried over into Mineral Area College, where she helped the Cardinals finish with a combined 50 wins and a trip to the National Junior College Athletic Association tournament.

“I think for me it was definitely the right choice.” Shaw said. “After high school, it was kind of like borderline of what I wanted to do with school and where I wanted to go. It was a good steppingstone for me. I had no debt. I paid nothing for school. I’ve been on scholarships. It was a great option.”

Now, Shaw is looking to enjoy some more volleyball success down south as she continues her career at Lander University, an NCAA Division II school in Greenwood, S.C., just 77 miles northwest of Columbia and three hours east of Atlanta.

Shaw said her family members are happy that she will be continuing her volleyball career despite the fact that it will be at a school 772 miles away from her Jonesburg home.

“I know they’ll still be supporting me, even 12 hours away,” Shaw said.

This fall, Shaw helped the Cardinals go 30-3 and finish ninth at the national tournament, which was played at Clarksville, Tenn. It was the second time in three years that Mineral Area – located in Park Hills – played at nationals.

After losing to Florida Southwestern State College in the first match, the Cardinals came back to win three straight matches over Frank Phillips College, Casper College and Eastern Arizona College. In the four matches, Shaw finished with 16 kills and 11 total blocks. In the ninth-place match against Eastern Arizona College, she finished with six kills.

“Our first game did not go as great as we hoped,” Shaw said. “We played the No. 2 team and they were really good, but after that I think we got some nerves out. The rest of the games, it was all up from there.”

Mineral Area came back from a 2-0 deficit to beat Eastern Arizona College in five games. Shaw said she and teammate Ava Penuel teamed up to motivate the team after it lost the second game. Both shared team captain duties.

“We talked and said, ‘Hey, guys, we got this. Play with confidence. I know we can beat this team.’ We went out and won the next three sets,” Shaw said. “It was great.”

Shaw graduated from MCHS in 2024. In her senior year, she recorded a team-high 304 kills and finished with 750 for her high school career.

When she joined the Mineral Area volleyball team in the fall of 2024, she continued a volleyball career that began when she was in middle school. She helped the Cardinals win 20 matches in her freshman year.

Shaw finished as one of the Cardinals’ leaders in kills (186) and total blocks (114) for the 2025 season. Last year, she had 141 kills and 117 total blocks. She played middle blocker in her two years at Mineral Area.

“I’m 5-9 on the roster, which is unheard of because the middle is supposed to be your tallest person, but I had the athletic ability,” Shaw said. “ I can get them quicker because taller girls tend to be a little bit slower. They don’t have much control on their body, so I was quicker and more explosive. It worked out really well for me. I have definitely grown over these last two years as a player, hitting wise, blocking wise and mental wise. I used to get really angry when I made mistakes and I learned to shake it off and move on to the next play.”

Mineral Area coach Tim Copeland said he was thrilled to have Shaw on his team.

“Olivia is a great young lady,” he said. “At first glance, at 5-8, you would ask why she is playing middle. But with her athletic ability, along with her vertical jump and will to win, she is a great asset on the court. She is also a leader off the court as she was a captain. She is also a young lady whom a coach can be proud of and happy to have on their team and to be part of her journey.”

Shaw was also successful in the classroom at Mineral Area, earning all A’s. She received her Associate’s degree last year and a welding certificate this year.

“I kept up with school,” Shaw said. “For my next school, it carries over. So I got a scholarship for academics at Lander for keeping up with my grades here (at Mineral Area). It worked out really well.”

This fall, Shaw will join a Lander volleyball program that finished with winning records in each of the last four seasons. The Bearcats were 20-11 in 2025. They are coached by Kathryn Settle.

“I went out there and it was a great visit,” said Shaw, who will major in pre-med and minor in business management at the South Carolina school. "The coaches seemed like super nice people in a really welcoming place. I was like, ‘This is something different and it felt like it was going to be really good for me.’”