BATON ROUGE, La. - Entering their first-ever SWAC Round-up as the defending champion, the Prairie View A&M bowling team had the bullseye on their back. After a rough start to the round-up, the Lady Panthers understood what it meant to be the hunted as they finished with a bang.
The Lady Panthers began the event on a sour note last Friday with a 0-4 finish despite having the second-highest total pinfall count. After a bye to open up the round-up, the Lady Panthers dropped their first head-to-head matchup to Alabama State by a margin of 1,057 pins to 1,028 pins. Prairie View A&M dropped another close heartbreaker in round two to Jackson State (875-813) followed by another loss to Southern (878-850) by 28 pins in the third round. The day ended with another defeat to Texas Southern by a slim margin of six pins (969-963).
“This weekend's competition was pretty much what I expected in our conference round-up,” said head coach Glenn White. “This will be a very competitive season in our conference as the field is wide-open because most of the teams are talented and anyone can win at any given time. Being the defending champion makes it tougher on us because everyone is giving us their best effort every match and that's what hit us the first day. We received everyone's best game of the day and did not do what we needed to win the matches. Although we finished strong with the second-highest pin total of the day, we still were 0-4.”
After a rough start to the first day and adjustments by White, the light came on for the Lady Panthers in day two as it began with a rematch of last year's SWAC Tournament Championship versus Alabama A&M. The team continued the success over its SWAC nemesis as they defeated AAMU 949-916 followed by back-to-back wins over Alabama State and Grambling State. The team capped off the day on a down note though with a close loss to Jackson State by only 20 pins.
The final day of the round-up saw Prairie View A&M open up with a big win over Southern by 200-plus pins. Unfortunately, the momentum was halted with a loss to TSU but PV bounced back in its third match with its fourth straight win over Alabama A&M by 32 total pins. The team closed out with a win over Grambling State in the round-up finale but it took a razor-thin margin as they won 767-761.
Despite a less-than-stellar opening day, PV finished the round-up with a 6-6 mark and is only two games out of the top spot in the SWAC. The Lady Panthers also had the third-highest total pinfall (12,582), team bowling average (179.7) and two of the top three highest games as they tallied 1,028 pins and 1,024 pins against Alabama State and Southern, respectively.
“I'm proud of the team and how they stepped up their intensity over the next two days to finish strong,” said White. “We're right in the thick of things and I expect us to be ready for the East Round-up in a few weeks.”
Individually, freshman Ashle Reid ranks amongst the top bowlers in the SWAC as the San Antonio, Texas native posted the second-highest game of the round-up (252) and ranks third overall in high average with 191.08. Reid is also in the running for the SWAC's Freshman of the Year as she has the top average amongst all freshmen bowlers.
The team returns to action next weekend as they'll host the second annual Prairie View A&M Invitational At The ITRC. The tourney begins on Friday, Feb. 1 and concludes on Sunday, Feb. 3 at the International Training and Research Center in Arlington, Texas.
