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BATON ROUGE, La. - The Prairie View A&M Lady Panther volleyball team hit a roadblock this past weekend with a pair of losses at the Southern University Volleyball Invitational. The Lady Panthers dropped a pair of 3-0 matches to Alabama State on Friday and Jackson State on Saturday.

ALABAMA STATE 3, PRAIRIE VIEW 0
In the opener on Friday, Alabama State used a late surge in two of the three games played as the Lady Hornets claimed a 3-0 win over Prairie View A&M.

In game one, ASU jumped out to a 5-1 lead before PV drew to within two points at 10-8 after solid play from senior Breanna McNeil. However, ASU got hot on the offensive end and increased its lead to as as much as eight points (22-14) en route to claiming the opener 25-17.

Game two was opposite of the first as the Lady Panthers led early on before an ASU rally turned the tide of the game in a 25-20 defeat. Holding an early 5-1 lead which led to an ASU timeout, the Lady Panthers came out flat after the short break as ASU rallied to claim a 10-9 lead after a long run. The contest went back-and-forth from that point until ASU pulled away once the game was tied at 17-all.

Game three was tight from start to finish as 14 ties were recorded. With the game tied at 19-all , ASU jumped ahead 23-19 and withstood a late PV rally to capture the match.

Junior Kelsey Espinsoa led the way with 28 assists and seven digs while Rachel Owens added a team-high 11 kills. Shanice Faison led the team with nine digs defensively.

JACKSON STATE 3, PRAIRIE VIEW 0
The Lady Panthers closed out tourney play with a 3-0 loss to Jackson State on Saturday afternoon.

The Lady Panthers came out flat to open the match as JSU jumped ahead 4-0 due to a pair of attack and service errors from PV. Prairie View regrouped and drew to within 7-4 but struggled to keep up from that point as the Lady Tigers cruised to a 25-15 margin.

In game two, the Lady Panthers were the aggressor early on as they led on several occasions throughout the match. However, the team struggled towards the end and saw a 20-18 lead turn into a 25-21 loss due to several costly errors at the end.

Once again, the Lady Panthers established control early in game three after jumping out to a 10-3 advantage. Unfortunately, the early momentum faded away as JSU bounced back with a 10-0 run and never looked back en route to a 25-18 clincher.

Junior Amelia Velez tallied 10 kills, three aces and a block while Espinsosa added 23 assists, Faison added 18 digs on the defensive end.

The Lady Panthers return to action on Monday versus Southern at 7 p.m. in Baton Rouge, La.