SLIPPERY ROCK — Jence Rhoads cut pieces of cake and handed them out to her classmates.

"I'm supposed to be the host, I guess," she said, laughing.

It was a fitting scene in the Slippery Rock High School library Wednesday afternoon: Rhoads dishing out cake to many of her soccer and basketball teammates.

If Rhoads had her druthers, she wouldn't be just a 1,400-point scorer on the basketball court or a 100-goal scorer on the soccer field.

She'd hand out assists like pieces of cake, stepping aside to let her teammates get the first crack at the goodies, then take what was left over.

But on this day, like many others recently, Rhoads ruled the school.

The SlipperyRock senior signed a national letter of intent to play basketball at Vanderbilt University next season.

It was the culmination of a lifetime of work, and, when the moment came, Rhoads felt the goose bumps rising on the skin beneath her Vanderbilt hooded sweatshirt.

"I was just so in awe just finally doing it," Rhoads said. "I've dreamed about this my whole life, so, to finally get to sign my letter of intent, it's just amazing."

Rhoads' signing came about 16 hours after one of her greatest moments on the soccer field.

She scored the game-winning goal in the second overtime against South Park Tuesday night to give the Rockets their first state soccer playoff win in school history.

And, just weeks earlier,Rhoads was named homecomingqueen.

"Everything is going really well for me right now," she said.

Indeed it is.

No matter what the net,Rhoads has found it with remarkable frequency in her career.

On the basketball court, she is a two-time Butler Eagle Girls Basketball Player of the Year and has scored 1,458 points in three seasons.

That ranks her third all-time on the career scoring list at the school, behind Tara Codispot (1,473 points) and Heather Kearney (1,672).

Both players are well within reach this season, and passing them is high onRhoads' to-do list.

So is scoring 2,000 points. But her biggest goal is to get back to the District 10 title game, where the Rockets lost last season.

"We have a young team. There will be a lot of developing going on this season," Rhoads said. "But I think we'll be pretty good."

On the soccer field, she has found the net 39 times in 2006, including her dramatic goal against South Park, and has tallied 105 goals in her career.

Rhoads has been playing soccer just as long as she has been playing basketball — she started both when she was 4.

Because basketball occupies most of her time throughout the year, her foot doesn't even touch a soccer ball until August.

"To have someone who plays only from August until November and be so talented is amazing," said Slippery Rock girls soccer coach Blair Gantz.

When asked if she has ever seen another player who can do that, Gantz pauses to think.

"No, not really," she said. "That says something about the type of athlete she is. You only get a few athletes who are able to do that, and to know someone like that, it's great."

Rhoads comes from a pretty athletic-rich gene pool.

Her father, Robert "Posey" Rhoads, was a star basketball player at Mercer HighSchool and at Wake Forest. He also played professionally in New Zealand and Australia.

Her mother, Melinda Hale Rhoads, also was a standout basketball player at Oil City HighSchool and was on the 1984 U.S. Olympic handball team.

Because of her success on the soccer field, many college coaches have approached Gantz about Rhoads.

"I've had coaches say, 'I heard you have somebody we may be interested in,'" Gantz said. "I'd tell them, 'You may be interested in her, but she has no interest in you whatsoever.'"

Sometimes Rhoads wonders what would have been if soccer had been her chosen sport instead of basketball.

Then, she shoots 100 free throws and 500 jumpers and takes a look at the full-ride scholarship from a nationally ranked Division I college basketball team and comes to the realization she made the right choice.

"I don't know. Maybe if I would have concentrated on soccer, who knows what would have happened?" Rhoads said. "But I'm pretty happy with basketball."

Slippery Rock High seniorJence Rhoads has excelled on both the basketball court and the soccer field. Here are her career numbers in both sports:<B>Basketball</B>Points.........1,458Assists.........448Steals.........266Rebounds.........441Blocks.........84<B>Soccer</B>Goals.........105