HOUSTON – The Prairie View A&M volleyball team faced Louisiana Tech on Friday and both Lamar and host team Houston Baptist on Saturday dropping all three contest during the Houston Marriott Westchase Invitational at HBU.

"We have to remain discipline and locked in for three full sets," said head PVAMU volleyball coach TaCho Tyler. 

Game 1 (Friday, Sept. 3) vs. La. Tech
With their first match of the weekend, the Lady Panthers dropped a 3-0 decision to the La Tech Bulldogs by the scores of 25-22, 25-17, 25-23.

The Lady Panthers offense was led by senior right side hitter Thaynara Godoi with five kills on 12 swings, hitting a career high at a .417 clip.  Outside hitter sophomore Malia Viernes also recorded five kills on 13 swings, posting one assist, and seven digs.  Junior right side hitter Autumn Dowell also had a season high of five kills on 10 swings.  Dowell added one assist and one dig on the evening.

Libero junior Skyla Childs turned in an 11 dig performance and also handed out six of PV's 28 assist. 

The Bulldogs opened up with a 6-2 run early in set one.  From there it was a back-and-forth efforts from both teams.  The Lady Panthers struck a short run before the La. Tech knotted the game at 15 all.  At this point it could have been anyone's set, but it was the Bulldogs who came out on top with a 25-22 win.

Set two saw the Bulldogs take a quick 4-0 lead before the Lady Panthers could answer.  After several back-and forth rallies La Tech took the final lead at 17-12 to win the set 25-17.

Set three looked very similar to set one.  The Lady Panthers looked like a different team after a hectic second set.  PVAMU scored points off of La. Tech's miscues going on a 5-0 run.  The Bulldogs took an offensive 5-0 run, but still trailed 14-13.  The back-and-forth rally started from there, but it was La Tech who came out on top with a 25-23 final and match.

Game 2 (Saturday, Sept. 4) vs. Lamar
Rematch was the name of this game.  Less than a week ago the Lady Panthers faced off with the Lamar Cardinals falling 3-0.  This match the sets were a lot closer, but not close enough as PVAMU fell by the scores of 25-21, 25-16, 25-22.

Dowell led the charge on the offense for the Lady Panthers tying her career high of 10 kills on 14 swings.  She also had two block assist in the game.  Viernes had five kills, and led the team with a career high of 12 digs, she also posted one service ace along with one block assist.  Both Childs and freshman setter Amina Attra contributed 10 digs a piece.  Attra also added eight assist. Junior setter Jakarta Hope dished out 14 assist to lead PVAMU.

The Lady Panthers came out the gate swinging, but the advantage was short-lived, as Lamar managed to take the upper hand.  A continuous back and forth rally of points ended with a late surge from the Cardinals to ultimately halt PVAMU's comeback attempt.

Facing a 7-2 deficit to begin set two, PV just was never able to find their rhythm as Lamar had an 11 point advantage (21-10).  The Cardinals closed out the set 25-16.
PVAMU struck first to open set three, again the points traded back-and-forth until Lamar took a 6-0 advantage to increase their lead 19-14.  The Lady Panthers rallied back to get within two, but it was too late as the Cardinals closed out the frame with a 25-22 set and match victory.

Game 3 vs HBU
In the final contest of the day, the Lady Panthers faced a different dog, the Huskies of Houston Baptist.  The host of the Houston Marriott Westchase Invitational were coming off a 3-1 win over La Tech, and used the momentum from the win to surge to a 3-0 victory. Set scores for HBU were 25-13, 25-16, 25-15.
PVAMU were led by Kimira Coffee and Tiffiney Booe who each had four.  Childs turned up 12 digs.

Hope was named to the all-tournament squad after dishing out 26 assist over the two day tournament.

The Lady Panthers will return to the court on Monday at 6 p.m. as they host Eastern Washington at the William J. Nicks Building. 

Keep up with all the latest news and information for PVAMU athletics by following pvpanthers.com as well as through Twitter via the PVAMU general sports account (@PVAMUPanthers). You can also follow along on Instagram.com/pvamupanthers.