LAKE CHARLES, La. – The Prairie View A&M women's soccer will open the 2015-16 sports season today when the Lady Panthers visit McNeese State. Opening kickoff is scheduled for 6 p.m. The match was rescheduled after rains in southern Louisiana postponed its original start time Friday.
 
The Lady Panthers are coming off their most successful season in program history, which saw the team participate in the NCAA Division I Women's Soccer Tournament. Prairie View A&M claimed the automatic bid after advancing to the Southwestern Athletic Conference championship match.
 
Prairie View A&M went 11-9-1 during the 2014 season, marking the first time in their history in which the Lady Panthers have reached double-digits in the win column. After finishing 8-1-1 in SWAC play, the Lady Panthers reached the SWAC final, losing to Howard 2-1. As part of its agreement to join the SWAC in women's soccer, Howard was ineligible to take the conference's automatic bid to the NCAAs in its first season, and PVAMU's record-breaking season continued.
 
Though the Lady Panthers lost 12 letterwinners and seven starters from the 2014 squad, the 2015 edition has plenty of weapons to be a competitive team in the SWAC this season. Prairie View A&M returns Breanna Powell – the league's preseason Defensive Player of the Year – and Alicia Cooper, who ranked fifth in the conference with 10 goals scored in 2014.
 
The Cowgirls (8-10-1) finished 6-5 in Southland Conference play in 2014 and advanced to the conference tournament. McNeese State returns its top scorer, Savannah LaRicci, from last year's squad. The junior from Sugar Land, Texas, scored six goals for the Cowgirls in 2014.
 
Tuesday's match at McNeese State will mark the fifth time the Lady Panthers have faced the Cowgirls. McNeese State has won the previous four meetings in a series that dates back to 2003. The Cowgirls defeated Prairie View A&M 1-0 in last season's opener.
 
Live stats for Tuesday's match can be found at www.sidearmstats.com/mcneese/wsoc/. In-game updates and weather information can be found on Prairie View A&M's Twitter page at www.twitter.com/PVAMUPanthers.