LATROBE — Ashlee Shearer can't play the sport she loves this season, so she's doing the next best thing: she's broadcasting it.

Shearer, a Slippery Rock HighSchool graduate and member of the St. Vincent College volleyball team, was kept off the court this year by a persistent neck injury she suffered years ago.

She played through the pain last season as a sophomore, helping the Bearcats to a school-record 28 wins, but this season she decided she had to get her ailing neck checked.

"It would build up, and then I'd spend the entire day in bed," Shearer said.

Shearer found she had damaged the vertebrae in her neck sometime earlier in her life, possibly while she was playing multiple sports in middle school and junior high. It never properly healed and her neck has lost flexibility.

She is in physical therapy and expects to make a full recovery and return to the team next season.

"I don't want people to think I'm paralyzed or anything," Shearer said. "I function normally. I just know that next year is my last year, and I'm going to come out really, really strong."

Until then, Shearer, who is a junior communications major with a minor in business administration, has found a home broadcasting volleyball matches for the college television and radio stations.

"We had people doing it who didn't know much about volleyball," Shearer said. "I think I added some knowledge about the game. Being a communications and marketing major, it's perfect for me."

It also allows her to stay close to her teammates, even though she can't be out there on the court with them.

Last year, Shearer blossomed into one of the more versatile outside hitters for the Bearcats.

She was second on the team in service aces with 33 and also added 119 digs in 30 matches for St. Vincent.

At Slippery Rock HighSchool, Shearer was part of a team that went 18-0 during her senior season.

Two of her teammates on that team, Danielle Hogue and Beth Mihalik, are playing college volleyball at Westminster and Washington & Jefferson respectively.

Both of those schools are in the Presidents' Athletic Conference. St. Vincent joined the PAC this season, although it is not eligible for the postseason.

St. Vincent has played both Washington & Jefferson and Westminster this season, beating both.

Shearer, Hogue and Mihalik have stayed close since they went off to college.

"I miss the team we had before," Shearer said.

Mihalik said it is always strange when she plays against Shearer and Hogue.

"When we play Westminster — we're bitter rivals — I'll go up to Danielle and hug her and my teammates will look at me funny, like what the heck are you doing. It's a little bit different. I do the same withAshlee."

Mihalik, who had her own medical problems last season as she battled mononucleosis, can relate to what Shearer is going through this season.

"She's a little bit frustrated," Mihalik said. "But if I know her, she'll be back."