By Tyler Clifton
Special to PVPanthers.com

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – Prairie View A&M was riding high Friday afternoon after a last-second victory against Jackson State less than 24 hours prior vaulted the Lady Panthers into the championship game of the Southwestern Athletic Conference women's soccer tournament.
 
Unfortunately for Abe Garcia's Lady Panthers, there simply wasn't enough gas left in the proverbial tank, and there was no stopping the tournament's potential Most Valuable Player Ariela Lewis, who tallied a hat trick Friday to lead Alabama State to a 3-0 win at John Hunt Park.
 
Alabama State (9-10-1), who edged the Lady Panthers 3-2 on Oct. 26 in Montgomery, will face Howard in the SWAC Championship match. Howard tied regular-season champion Mississippi Valley State in the other semifinal, but advanced 4-3 on penalty kicks.
 
"She (Lewis) is definitely one of their key players and is very hard to deal with," Garcia said. "Once we got down early, we had to start risking more and paid the price on account of it."
 
Prairie View (9-9-1) just missed tying the game less than one minute into the second half, and the Lady Panther defense aided goalkeeper Dominique Dillon after she was caught out of position. As Mississippi Valley State was in the midst of tying its game with Howard on the opposite field, two A&M offensive players simultaneously slipped on a centering pass at the 63-minute mark. Dillon later made an acrobatic save by picking Lewis' pocket after an Alabama State yellow card and a pair of PVAMU substitutions, but the Lady Hornets was not finished.
 
Lewis found a crease inside the box and banged a shot off the left post past Dillon for an insurance goal and a 2-0 lead in the 78th minute. She had eight shots and scored on half of her six shots on goal. The final goal was assisted by her twin sister Aaliyah.
 
"She is so quick, and they eventually got to us and wore us down," said Prairie View senior midfielder Arianna Rountree, whose corner kick set up the Lady Panthers' game-winning goal in Thursday's quarterfinals. "They wanted it more, and we let ourselves down a bit too."
 
The Lady Hornets outshot PVAMU 18-9 in the match.
 
The Lady Panthers had a breakaway opportunity stopped short in the game's first 20 seconds, when Braelah McGinnis' 30-yard shot was corralled by Alabama State goalkeeper Gianna Guyot, who notched the shutout and had five saves, including one of Mila Bustos early.
 
Lewis broke the scoreless deadlock 12:52 into the game after taking an Emily Fleming pass and finding the right corner of the net after beating an aggressive Dillon to the ball.
 
Though the Lady Panthers were denied a trip to the SWAC championship match for the second consecutive year, the team concluded an otherwise positive season as they advanced to the semifinals for the fifth year in a row. Alabama State and Prairie View A&M have met in the second round of the SWAC tournament in each of the last three seasons.
 
Prairie View A&M has also won 20 matches over the previous two seasons, and the Lady Panthers are eager to continue to build upon their recent success.
 
"We had a lot of young players get some necessary experience, and this gives them something to look forward to next season," Garcia said. "We had a class of seven seniors who did a really good job for us."