PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas –   The Prairie View A&M University volleyball team will host Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) rival Texas Southern Thursday, Oct. 5 at 6:30 in the William J. Nicks Babydome.

Fans can watch live at pvpanthers.com/sportsnetwork and get live stats at pvpanthers.com.  

The Lady Panthers are looking to build some momentum leading up to the half way mark of the season.  Texas Southern is presently in second place in the West Division while PVAMU is tied for third. 
 
Thursday this is just not about the rivalry, but about competing in the conference for the SWAC tournament championship.
 
"This is a big game for us," said head volleyball coach Tacho Tyler.  "Its just not about the rivalry, but how important this is conference wise.  I've tried to instill in them (the team) what the rivalry mean's between TSU and PV. It's important for us to stay focused and reach our goal.  It means more to win this game against TSU being that they are a cross time rival, so beating them weighs a little bit heavier than this just being a conference game."
 
Both teams enter the contest coming off losses to the same team.  TSU lost in four sets to Southern this past Sunday, and PVAMU also dropped a 3-1 decision to Southern on Monday evening.
 
The Lady Panthers are coming off a short week, after playing on Sunday and Monday, resting Tuesday and a full practice today (Wednesday).
 
"It's always good getting a couple of games in, especially right before a game of this magnitude," Tyler said.  "Coming off the road, having a good practice and a day's rest is really not a bad thing.  I think it helps more then hurts."
 
These teams met on Oct. 27 of last season with the Lady Tigers winning an exciting 3-1 game(25-22,23-25,25-14,27-25) at the William J. Nicks Babydome last season.
 
The Lady Tigers come into the game hitting .130 as a team, which is third in the conference.  They are led offensively by junior Kirby Anderson who is third in the conference hitting a .253 clip and sophomore Alexis Austin who is sixth in hitting .231.
 
Austin has 138 kills on the season, which is third in the league and averages 2.82 kills per set.  Anderson is fourth in the conference averaging 1.0 blocks per set and has 47 on the season.
 
PVAMU is sixth in the conference in hitting at .116 and leads in assists with 11.16 per set.  Prairie View A&M is second in the conference in kills averaging 11.74 per set.  They are third in service aces (1.34 per set) and third in digs averaging 14.79 per set as a team.
 
Senior Taylor Goudeau leads the way for PVAMU hitting .222 which is seventh in the conference.  Sophomore Britny Mitchell is eighth in the SWAC hitting .203.
 
Goudeau also leads the team in kills with 95, she is second in the conference, averaging 2.88 per set, while junior Mykaeli Franklin is sixth in the conference averaging 5.24 assists per set.  Junior Christen Augustine is second in the league averaging 4.34 digs per set.
 
Live stats for the game can be followed on Live stats for the game can be followed on pvpanthers.com or