HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – Alabama A&M (4-16, 3-2 SWAC) delivered a 3-0 victory by scores of 25-20, 25-17, 27-25 in their Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) Round Up opener over Prairie View (3-17, 1-3 SWAC) in an NCAA Division I women's volleyball match on Sunday, October 9.
PVAMU would come out of the gate strong, scoring eight of the first 11 points before a 12-6 run by the Bulldogs flipped the script and put them up 15-14. Back-to-back kills by Kiersten Atkinson and Keila Smalls put the Panthers back up by one but it would be short lived as A&M scored four straight as part of a set-ending 9-4 run that gave them a 25-20 victory and 1-0 match lead.
The teams would be separated by no more than three points in the early going as Alabama A&M held a narrow 5-4 advantage. From there they would steadily build their lead, using a 10-5 stretch to go up 15-9. Consecutive scores by Prairie View cut it to a four-point deficit but once again the Bulldogs would score four in a row, this time as part of a 10-6 run to close out the 25-17 victory and go up by two sets.
Game 3 would be a game of runs and end being a more tightly contested affair between the teams as PVAMU took the early 7-3 lead before A&M bounced back with 10 of the next 17 points to cut it to 14-13. Once again, a pair of scores stemmed the tide for the Panthers but only briefly. With the score at 16-13, the Bulldogs used a 7-2 run to pull ahead 20-18.
A pair of Bulldog attack errors then knotted it up at 20-20 before a 4-2 stretch put Alabama A&M within one, 24-22, of taking the set and the match. Prairie View would not go quietly, however, as a service error and kill by Skylynn Wynn deadlocked the clubs at 24-24.
Freshman outside hitter
Bailey Duckett (Huntsville, Ala.) then drilled a kill to retake the lead only to see an attack error make it 25-25. At that point, A&M would power through with a kill by freshman middle blocker
Madison Reagins (Duncanville, Texas) and freshman setter
Grace Tapscott (Hartselle, Ala.) and freshman middle blocker
Ra'Niya Brown (Desoto, Texas) would then go up for a match-ending block to earn the 27-25 victory and 3-0 sweep.
Duckett led the way for the Bulldogs with 12 kills and six digs while freshman outside hitter
Caitlin Shaw (Desoto, Texas) finished with 12 kills and four digs. Freshman middle blocker
Kemora Coachman (Harvest, Ala.) just missed a double-double with eight kills and seven digs, Tapscott anchored the defense with eight digs and had a match-high 41 assists and Reagins added seven kills and four digs to round out the top performers.
Smalls led PVAMU with nine kills and five digs while MaKinzie Taplin dished out 24 assists. Skyla Childs came away with 14 digs and Taylor Roberts added seven kills. Wynn and Atkinson each added six kills to close out the top performances.
Alabama A&M is right back in action this evening as they take on Grambling at 7 p.m. to close out Day 1 of the SWAC Round Up.
