PRAIRIE VIEW -   The Prairie View A&M softball team will open play in the 2022 Southwestern Athletic gathering Tuesday, May 10 beginning at 12 p.m. at the Gulfport Sportsplex in Gulfport, Miss.
 
The Lady Panthers will enter the tournament as the #2 seed after going 16-8 in conference play and are 16-27 overall.  This will be a young team heading to Gulfport to represent Prairie View A&M next week.   Vernon Bland's 2022 team consist of one graduate student, three seniors, six returners from last year's team and 10 new faces will have their first opportunity to play in the SWAC tournament.
 
Only two players were position players (Natalie McLennan and Mya Hall) from last year's tournament team.  Five members from this year's team, Aniya Spangler, Brandi Juarez, Madison Parker, Destinee Smith and Deja Tapia played in the tournament, but their participation was limited to pinch-running, and hitting roles.
 
This will be the first time that the Lady Panthers will face the # 3 seeded Rattlers on the Eastern Division.  The contest features the top four teams from the western and eastern divisions.   
 
PVAMU has been led this season by sophomore catcher Biviana Figueroa who is hitting a team-best .470.  She has started and played in 38 games and leads the team with runs scored 26 and 54 hits.  She also ranks first in doubles and second in home runs.
 
Third baseman sophomore Jaylyn Davis a transfer from Lamar is next at the plate with a .318 average.  Davis leads the team with nine home runs on the season.  She has the second highest hits with 35 and short one of the 34 RBI's her teammate Figueroa has. 
 
Sophomore designated hitter Maddison Parker has three home runs, 15 hits and seven runs scored, bringing in 18 runners, hitting a .263.  Sophomore second baseman and sophomore catcher Karina Cisneros both have two home runs apiece.
 
Inside the circle, freshman Cailin Massey is 8-10 with a team-best 5.50 earned run average and 90 strikeouts. 
 
The tournament will be played as a double-elimination format with action set to start at 9:00 a.m. CST on Tuesday, May 10^th with games slated to run through May 13^th. If necessary the final tournament championship game has been scheduled for Saturday, May 14^th.  All tournament games will be available live on the SWAC Digital Network.  Please click here to purchase tickets for the event.
 
The tournament winner receives the league's automatic trip to the NCAA Tournament.
 
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.