It was a gutsy move for Prairie View A&M tennis coach John Cochran and assistant Duane Williams to switch up their lineups before the Southwestern Athletic Conference West Challenge started. However, the team responded. They played inspired and with a vigor that had been lacking in previous matches to go 3-0 vs. conference opponents and take over first place in the standings.

The Panthers dominated the opposition and didn't even drop a match during an entire weekend of singles play. They defeated Jackson State 6-0 on Friday afternoon. Alabama State went down 7-0 on Saturday, and the Prairie View A&M put the nail in the coffin on Sunday with a 7-0 win over Alabama A&M. The only match the Panthers lost during the tournament was a close-fought doubles match on Saturday vs. Alabama State. Kristen Powell and Craig Wiltz were defeated 8-6 by the team of Brand and Pierce at the No. 1 spot.

“They came out on fire,” Cochran said. “They played pretty self inspired and tennis. They trained pretty hard the week before, and they were hungry. Especially after the PV Invitational, we had some tough losses that weekend. They were hungry to get wins, and they beat some tough teams this weekend. We moved some people around to get maximum production and they came through.”

Jackson Varney came through and dominated at the No. 1 singles spot to set the pace for the Panthers, and everything else fell into place. Karim Fotso was moved into the No. 2 spot. Craig Wiltz dropped into the No. 3 position, while  Ronald Chidzikwe and Daniel Vasquez held down the No. 4 and 5 slots for the Panthers. At the No. 6, Jonathan Dingle also went 3-0 on the weekend. Fotso is now 5-0 in singles play on the season.

“We felt that the work that Karim put in and the confidence he showed in the PV Invitational would result in production if we moved him up,” Williams said. “It would just work out better for us if we moved Craig and Ronald down because they were playing competitive matches in their previous spots. We felt like it would be guaranteed wins.”

Though the Panthers seemed to have a leg up on the competition, Cochran is doing his best to keep the team grounded and hungry from improvement as a unit before their next matches begin. The Panthers will take on Tennessee State on Saturday, March 2 in Baton Rouge.