BATON ROUGE, La.  – The 2015 Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) Volleyball Tournament is upon us as Alabama State, the two-time defending conference champions, will seek a third consecutive title run under head coach Penny Lucas-White. 

The Lady Hornets (18-13, 6-2 SWAC) will have a different journey to the championship if they are to do so as it enters as the No. 2 seed in the SWAC's East Division.

In its two prior runs, ASU entered as the No. 1 seed in the East. 

Alabama State will be paired up with the West's No. 3 seed Prairie View A&M (8-23, 4-4 SWAC), whom the Lady Hornets faced just one time this season.

The teams will meet on Friday at 11 a.m. on court 2 in the Horace Moody Intramural Center. 

The double-elimination tournament will run through Sunday night and will also hold matches at the Cliford Seymour Gymnasium on the campus of Southern University. 

The top four teams in each division (eight total) have qualified for the tournament based on conference records. 

In their last meeting on Oct. 16 during the SWAC Round-Up in Jackson, Miss., the Lady Hornets dispatched of the young Lady Panthers in straight sets 3-0 (25-13, 25-11, 25-14).

Amber Bennett and Myla Marshall each had big performances for the Lady Hornets in that match up. 

Am. Bennett had a team-high 10 kills to go with seven blocks while Marshall notched a career-best 11 total blocks and seven kills as ASU hit a shiny .372 hitting percentage as a team.

MoKeyshia Shanklin had 10 kills on a .333 hitting percentage for Prairie View. 

However, much of the team struggled offensively as the team hit a negative hitting percentage as a team.

After losing its first 17 matches, Prairie View has turned it around to go 8-6 over its past 14 matches since Oct. 9. 

The Lady Panthers are coming off a tight five-set loss to Southern on Nov. 5 and a straight sets loss at Texas Southern on Nov. 10. 

As for the Lady Hornets, it has won 12 of their last 13 matches including four of their last five in head-to-head meetings with Prairie View.

If ASU wins, it will advance to a quarterfinal match on Friday at 5 p.m. against the winner of West No. 1 Texas Southern (13-17, 7-1 SWAC) and East No. 4 Alcorn State (12-20, 2-6 SWAC). 

A loss would send the team to the loser's bracket where it would face the loser of that match between TSU and Alcorn St. on Friday at 3 p.m. 

Since 2013, ASU has lost two of its last three matches against TSU, but defeated the Lady Tigers in a five-set thriller earlier this season in the SWAC Round-Up.

The Lady Hornets are 6-0 with all sweeps against Alcorn State since 2013. 

LEADERS

Alabama State: Rachel Smith 231 kills (2.06 per set), Kori Kutsch 577 assists (5.15 assists per set), Myla Marshall 129 total blocks (1.14 blocks per set), Smith 30 aces (0.27 aces per set), Scout Wonsang 315 digs (2.89 digs per set).

Prairie View A&M: Randi Hunter (191 kills), MoKeysha Shanklin (2.10 kills per set), Ana Kiso 682 assists (6.96 assists per set), Hunter 61 total blocks (0.65 blocks per set), Tisharra Thompson 25 aces (0.30 aces per set), Paige Chuidian 244 digs (2.60 digs per set). 

LIVE STATS

http://www.swac.org/liveStats/liveStats.dbml?&SPID=93273&DB_OEM_ID=27400&LIST_SPORT__VOLLEYBALL

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