BATON ROUGE, LA. – The Alabama State women's volleyball team held a special practice session Thursday at the LSU volleyball practice facility around the corner from the Pete Maravich Assembly Center. 

Putting in nearly a two-hour practice, the defending SWAC champion Lady Hornets had an intensive session calling out instructions to one another and hustling hard up to a game-speed tempo. 

On Friday, Alabama State (14-17 overall, 8-0 SWAC) will put in one more practice session at Southern University in their final preparations before getting ready to take on fourth-seeded Prairie View A&M (9-17 overall, 4-4 SWAC) of the SWAC West Division on Saturday at 11 a.m. in an opening match of the SWAC Tournament. 

"What can I say except that they are so excited to play," said Lady Hornets head coach Penny Lucas-White.  "They are ready."

The double-elimination tournament will take place Saturday and Sunday at two locations on the campus on Southern University with some games scheduled to take place at Cliford Seymour Gymnasium and others will be played at the Horace H. Moody Student Recreation Center.

Alabama State and Prairie View A&M met once earlier this season on Prairie View's court back on Sept. 25 with the Lady Panthers winning a nail biter in five sets with a 17-15 set win in the fifth-and deciding—set. 

The game featured 19 ties and eight lead changes.  However, the short-handed Lady Hornets were without one of its' key players that day as Tiara Kelley did not play.  It was led by junior Amber Bennett, who had 11 kills on a .429 hitting percentage and five blocks. 

Alabama State also received a huge boost from its newcomers. Freshman Briana Dorsey and junior transfer Lorena Rosario each came through with one of their biggest games of the season.  Dorsey had 10 kills on a .300 hitting percentage with five blocks while Rosario provided another eight kills on a .312 hitting percentage and a block. 
Alabama State led in most categories as well, hitting .187 as a team as compared to Prairie View, who hit just .141.  The Lady Hornets also had a plus five differential in team assists and a plus three differential in team blocks. 

The Lady Hornets will likely have to do a better job of defending Candyce Alexander if they are to win.  Alexander had a game-high 17 kills (.213 hitting percentage) with 10 digs and six blocks in the meeting.  Ana Kiso also had 40 assists to lead all players for the Lady Panthers. 

A win by Alabama State would move them along in the winner's bracket for a game at 3 p.m. against the winner of the Arkansas-Pine Bluff/Jackson State game. 

Alabama State did not play Arkansas-Pine Bluff this season, but defeated them all three times they played them during the 2013 season by beating them in straight sets twice and once in four sets. 

The Lady Hornets went 2-0 against Jackson State this season, beating them in three sets on the road and four sets at home.  Both matches took place in October. 
Alabama State will be seeking its second consecutive SWAC Championship and automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament.  Last season, the Lady Hornets traveled to Seattle, Washington to play against the University of Washington in the NCAA Tournament. 

Live stats of the matches can be found by clicking on this link: http://www.swac.org/liveStats/liveStats.dbml?DB_LANG=C&DB_OEM_ID=27400&LIST_SPORT_KEY=W_VOLLEYBALL

For those who would like to follow the game along on social media, twitter updates throughout the match will be made on https://twitter.com/asubuzz, on facebook at  Alabama State Athletics on Facebook and on Instagram at @ASUbuzz for photos of pre-game warm ups. 

Alabama State team leaders: Myla Marshall (234 kills, 87 blocks), Ellyn Jones (566 assists, 47 aces), Rachel Smith (199 digs); Prairie View A&M team leaders: Candyce Alexander (286 kills), Lenicia Tyson (55 blocks), Ana Kiso (670 assists), LaKeisha Allen (328 digs, 25 aces).

#GOHORNETS#