BATON ROUGE, La. – The Prairie View A&M University volleyball team earned its first win of the season Friday in the SWAC West Roundup held at Southern.
The Lady Panthers swept Alcorn 3-0 in the final match of the day, after battling tough in losing to Alabama State 3-0 in earlier Friday.
"We competed well against Alabama State," said Prairie View A&M head coach Tacho Tyler. "We just weren't disciplined enough in crucial moments to pull out the win. We played well against Alcorn but not as dominant as we should have been. However, despite being down in the second and third sets, the team rallied for the come-from-behind win."
The Lady Panthers rallied to defeat Alcorn 25-21, 25-22, 28-26.
Jaylan Thomas had a game-high 11 kills to lead the Lady Panthers.
Erica Jimenez (17 assists, 12 digs) and
Joycelyn Nunez (15 assists, 8 digs) combined for 32 assists.
Tamaira Armstrong also added nine digs for PVAMU.
In the opener, the Lady Panthers battled two-time defending champion Alabama State before losing 25-22, 25-20, 25-17.
Victoria Pearson had nine kills to lead Prairie View A&M. Nunez had 13 assists, and Jimenez added 10 and five digs for PVAMU. Armstrong added seven digs for the Lady Panthers.
"I have a brand new team this season," said Tyler of playing the defending champs with her roster that has just two returning players. "So I believe they go into each match with the same level of confidence regardless of the opponent."
PVAMU returns to action Saturday against Mississippi Valley State at 12:30 p.m. and Alabama A&M at 5:30 p.m.
"It is such a relief to get that first win," Tyler said. "Losing consecutive matches can be taxing on a team's confidence and mentality. However, Rome wasn't built in a day, so we just have to stay the course so they can see the results of their hard work as we win more conference matches."
