After taking second place in the Southern Invitational, the Lady Panthers volleyball team invited Houston Baptist and SWAC foe Southern University to join them in the homecoming festivities. They first took on the Lady Huskies of Houston Baptist on Tuesday, live in the Baby Dome, losing in five sets.
The first set started off a little rocky, handing the lead to the Huskies. They regained the momentum after a huge block from LaToya Taylor and Shaun Williams. After the game-changing block, everything seemed to fall into place. There were big blocks, great passes, and plenty of kills. The game was tied at 16-16 and the Panthers took control from there to win the game 25-23. They continued their exceptional play in the second set with Sapphire Reid leading in kills and Sharonda Marshall sealing the deal with a game-winning kill, ending the game 29-27. Set three marked the fall of the Lady Panthers.
They started off with Reid making a series of big serves, but that just wasn’t enough to pull out the victory.
Unfortunaely, the Lady Panthers couldn’t close out the match. Jasmine Hale let ball after ball fall right in front of her as the Huskies were killing the Panthers by using their right-side hitter as bait. The Huskies took the last three sets winning 16-25, 20-25 and 9-15.
Setter Erin Fondel felt that the loss to the Lady Huskies was a huge disappointment. “After being up two games and losing three straight,” she said, “We have to learn how to finish or else winning SWAC will be very difficult.”
The Panthers took that loss and used it only to strengthen themselves for play against the Lady Jaguars of Southern University. After being down 0-4 in the first set, the Lady Panthers started a point winning series. Williams approached for a tip and all of the Jaguars gathered around, but no one picked it up. The Lady Panthers continued to beat up on the Lady Jaguars with their defensive blocks and offensive hits. The Lady Jags’ defense just couldn’t take the heat. In game two, Williams once again went up for the hit and after a Jaguar player shanked it, the ball hit the Jaguars’ assistant coach on the sideline. This moment gave the Lady Panthers confidence as they would go on to win the match in three straight games, 25-14, 25-13, 25-16.
Right side Keandra Pickett said that they gained this victory because “we played together as a team and came out on top.”
The Lady Panthers will now travel to Grambling, La. to take on the Lady Tigers on Wednesday, Oct. 21. The win against Southern brings the Lady Panthers record to 3-1 in SWAC play.