BOX SCORE
Prairie View A&M lost its second-consecutive game to Texas Southern in a fifth set, dropping the 3-2 match (20-25, 25-20, 19-25, 25-12, 12-15) Wednesday night in Houston.
The fifth set went down to the wire. With the score tied at 10 Prairie View A&M made an attacking error to give the Lady Tigers a 11-10 lead. TSU followed it up with a kill and then an attack error to put the score at back to within one point. However, TSU capitalized off of another PV attack error and a kill of its own to take the lead and hold on to it for the 15-12 win.
The Lady Panthers lost in similar fashion on Sept. 8 in Las Vegas. Texas Southern rallied from a 2-0 deficit and won it in the fifth set by a score of 16-14.
After suffering the 25-20 loss in the first set, Prairie View A&M used a 9-0 run to take a commanding lead and in the second set and hold off the Lady Tigers for their own 25-20 win. Trailing 7-4, the Lady Panthers jumped out to a 13-7 lead as they took advantage of a stretch highlighted by two kills by senior outside hitter Breanna McNeil and a service as by sophomore Shanice Faison. McNeil and senior outside hitter Bruna Menezes combined for 15 kills in just the first two games.
Prairie View A&M couldn't find consistency against its rival. It lost Set 3 due to its inability to get kills. The Lady Panthers had a .037 attack percentage and only tallied seven kills in the 25-19 loss.
However, they bounced back in the fourth set and took charge at the beginning, leading by as much as 13 points. An ace by defensive specialist Skye Terrell gave Prairie View a 21-12 lead in the fourth, and it put the Lady Panthers in position to send the match into a fifth set. Prairie View won 25-12.
Menezes led the Prairie View A&M offense with a career-high 19 kills and a .316 attack percentage. She had an 18 kill performance on Monday in a five-set match at Southern. McNeil added 13 kills and 10 digs, while junior setter Kelsey Espinosa had 44 assists. Sophomore libero LaKeisha Allen had a team-high 18 digs.
The Lady Panthers hit the road for Pine Bluff, Arkansas where they will play Arkansas-Pine Bluff at 6 p.m. on Friday. The game will be streamed on SWAC TV.
