Prairie View A&M avenged TSU's sweep on Friday night with a sweep of its own on Sunday evening inside the Health & Physical Education Arena.
The Lady Panthers claimed the match by scores of 25-19, 25-20 and 25-20 to improve to 7-16 overall and 7-3 in conference play. Texas Southern fell to 7-15 overall and 6-4 in SWAC.
Texas Southern opened the match with an aggressive offensive attack, scoring four of the first five points to establish an early 4-1 advantage. Keldri Young recorded the Tigers' first kill off an assist from Kadence Davison before combining with Morgynne McQueen for a block that extended the early lead to 3-1. A Prairie View attack error pushed the advantage to three points.
Gracie Lee helped Texas Southern maintain its momentum with a pair of kills as the Tigers extended their lead to 6-3. Battle followed with a kill to make it 7-4. Prairie View responded with four consecutive points, including two kills from Jade Smith and a service ace by Valencia Wilder, to take its first lead at 8-7. Texas Southern quickly regained control behind Spencer, whose service ace gave the Tigers a 9-8 advantage. Battle followed with another kill to extend the lead to 10-8.
The teams continued exchanging points through the middle of the set, with neither side able to establish a comfortable advantage. After Prairie View tied the score at 12, Battle delivered consecutive kills, and Spencer added another successful attack to give Texas Southern a 15-12 advantage.
However, the Lady Panthers responded with an eight-point scoring run that changed the complexion of the opening set as they used to momentum to win 25-19.
Prairie View carried its momentum into the second set, scoring the first two points behind a kill from Iyonna Sherwood and a service ace from Kenedy Massie. Texas Southern answered immediately as Lee, Battle and Aaliyah Brown recorded consecutive kills to give the Tigers a 3-2 advantage.
The Lady Panthers responded with three straight points to regain the lead at 5-3, but Texas Southern continued to challenge offensively.
Battle added another kill, while Ava Houston and Brown contributed points to keep the Tigers within striking distance. Trailing 9-7, Texas Southern received a block from Morgynne McQueen and Ava Houston to trim the deficit to one point. Prairie View eventually extended its lead to 14-10 behind the offensive production of Middleton, Sherwood and Smith.
TSU would manage to knot the contest at 16-all but the Lady Panthers scored three consecutive points to move ahead 19-16. Young answered with a kill, and McQueen later added another successful attack to keep the Tigers within two points at 20-18. Prairie View maintained its advantage during the closing stages, extending its lead to 24-19 before a service error gave Texas Southern another point.
Sherwood delivered the final kill to secure the 25-20 victory and give Prairie View a two-set advantage.
With TSU ahead 16-15, Prairie View responded with the decisive scoring run of the third set as they secured the match with a 7-0 run en route to the 3-0 sweep.
Lauren Battle led Texas Southern offensively with eight kills and 11 digs, while Keldri Young contributed five kills, 11 digs and a service ace. Aliyah Spencer added five kills on nine attempts without an attack error, finishing with a team-best .556 hitting percentage. Morgynne McQueen recorded five kills and three block assists, while Gracie Lee contributed four kills and six digs. Kadence Davison directed the Texas Southern offense with 20 assists and one service ace. Kennedi Walker added nine assists and nine digs.
TSU is back in action on Friday at Southern for a 6 p.m. start in Baton Rouge, La.
