Lady Panthers Pick Up Road Win at Huston-Tillotson

Wednesday, October 28, 2009 02:07 PM

Austin, Texas - After coming off a road trip to Louisiana playing two matches against Grambling State and Southern, the Prairie View A&M Lady Panthers headed to Austin, Texas on Tuesday night for a non-conference match-up at Huston-Tillotson University.  Behind outside-hitter Cheri Lindsay and middle-blocker Sharonda Marshall who combined to rack up a total of 22 kills, the Lady Panthers were able to pull off a 3-1 (25-21,22-25,25-14,25-17) hard-fought win.

The Lady Panthers came out strong in set one capitalizing off of every opportunity, going on an early 3-0 run.  They didn't let up with two big kills from Shaun Williams claiming their dominance early in the match.  Prairie View finally closed out Huston-Tillotson 25-21 in the set.

Going into set two with confidence, Prairie View was unable to hold onto a 3-1 early lead. Behind April Newcomb's 6 kills in the set, Huston-Tillotson was able to crawl themselves back into the match.

Losing set two 22-25, the Lady Panthers got their act together and held Huston-Tillotson off in the following two sets holding them to 14 points in set three and 17 points in set four.  The Lady Panthers were able to collect a total of 10 defensive blocks throughout the match, with middle blocker Shaun Williams leading the way with six blocks while also contributing six kills and one dig.

 "They played as a team and we ran a different offense for the first time that we weren't used to running as we made adjustments real well," said 11^th-year head coach Alicia Pete.  "I think they're communicating much better, reacting to the ball faster and making necessary changes on the court to be successful come tournament time."

Erin Fondel led the team with 35 assists and 11 digs while Sapphire Reid also added 7 kills to go along with 7 digs.  Libero Jasmine Hale was able to record 10 digs to go along with one kill.

The Lady Panthers continue their road trip as they're set to take on divisional foe Texas Southern on Friday evening in Houston.