PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas –After two consecutive weeks of pre-season camp, the Prairie View A&M University women's soccer team will now turn to its opening weekend of the regular season.
 
Roger 'Abe' Garcia enters his 10^th season at the helm for the Lady Panthers.  They will look to start their campaign towards the Southwestern Athletic Conference tournament crown.
 
The Lady Panthers return 12 players with most of them being starters from last season's team.  Among the returners is SWAC first team midfielder junior Mila Bustos along with sophomore defender Blair Lane.  Lane led the team in goals scored last season.  In addition, senior goalie Clarissa Ledesma who posted 89 saves for PV will be back in action.  
 
"The ladies and I are excited to get the season on the way," said Garcia.  "It's a big excitement for us since last year we were always on the road and now we final have a place that we can call home.  So the consistency of being able to practice and play on your own field is big.  Overall, we are just excited to see our team succeed and do well.  I think our girls have been putting a lot of effort and hard work as well as the coaching staff.  It's like having butterflies and your antsy, because your ready just to get out on the field to get started playing."
 
On Friday the Lady Panthers will open the regular season at the University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley in Edinburg, Texas for a 7 p.m. kick and continue on the road for a Sunday match against Cal-Bakersfield, which will also be played in Edinburg. Fans can watch the UTRGV game as well as get live updates by going to www.pvpanthers.com/women's soccer schedule page.
 
"UTRGV is a tough opponent and we hosted them here last season," said Garcia.  "The result wasn't quite what we wanted.  However,  this is a new year so we are ready to get on the field with them and give them some competition.  They are a well-coached team as well as organized.  It's definitely going to be a battle.
 
"We play Cal-Bakersfield on Sunday and we really don't know much about them, seeing that this will be our first time competing against them.  The expectations are that they are a really good team, so this will give us the opportunity to play two good teams.  We are going to slowly work on our kinks and slowly work our way in to conference play to where we are playing well and we have that chemistry going between ourselves and our team."