PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas — The Prairie View A&M volleyball team hosted it's first purple and gold game Saturday, with Gold claiming a 3-0 victory over Purple 

With fans in attendance and nearly the entire roster seeing action, the scrimmage provided the Panthers with their first opportunity to compete in a game-like setting on their home court under the lights. Only three players did not participate as the coaching staff continued evaluating the roster ahead of the 2026 season.

Head coach Dottie Hampton was encouraged by what she saw from her team, particularly after two weeks of preseason preparation.

"For the most part, they looked pretty good," Hampton said. "There are some little kinks and situations that we need to straighten out, but for the first time on this court, playing on the game court with the lights on and a few people in the gym, I think they looked pretty good."

While Gold controlled the scrimmage, Hampton said the strongest takeaway was the Panthers' collective defensive effort.

"I think our defense stood out," Hampton said. "Not one individual person, but our defense stood out. I think that our blocking stood out pretty well. We served aggressively, I think, after that first set."

The scrimmage also gave the coaching staff an opportunity to evaluate communication and offensive execution between the two groups. Hampton felt PV2 communicated more effectively and operated more smoothly offensively than PV1.

"PV2 communicated better than PV1," Hampton said. "Their offense ran a little bit smoother. That's something else we have to work with — that setter and being able to run a smooth offense and put players in positions to score what they can do best and then create points that way."

Despite areas still needing improvement, Hampton saw a competitive edge that could become a defining characteristic of the 2026 Panthers.

"We are scrappy," Hampton said. "We don't let balls die, and we got bodies going after balls all over the place. I think that's going to keep us in a lot of games."

Saturday's scrimmage served as an important checkpoint following the Panthers' first two weeks of preseason training. With the players now able to see their preparation translate to a competitive environment, Hampton believes the team is beginning to understand how the pieces are coming together.

"What we were doing is coming together," Hampton said. "It's not there yet. It's coming together. The two weeks of preseason that we've had so far and the things that we've been doing, I think they can see it within this game setting."

The Panthers will continue preseason preparations as they work toward the start of the 2026 season, using the lessons from Saturday's scrimmage to sharpen communication, offensive execution, serving, blocking and their aggressive defensive identity.

With Gold earning the first bragging rights of the preseason, the Panthers now turn their attention to continuing the process of building a team capable of competing when the regular season arrives.

The Ladies will return back to action for another scrimmage when they host UT Arlington on August 22, 2026 for a noon kickoff inside the Baby Dome.