PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas – The Alabama State University women's volleyball team took the Prairie View A&M Panthers to five sets on Sunday afternoon, but fell short once again in a 3-2 match in a Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) matchup inside the William J. Nicks Building.
The Hornets (2-16, 0-5 SWAC) had some strong moments on the day, including notable comebacks to win the second and fourth sets of the match, but the Panthers (4-15, 4-2 SWAC) stay in the midst of a strong middle group of teams in the conference as competition moves into the final 30 days before postseason play.
The Panthers claimed the opening set, although Bama State controlled most of the frame before a three-point swing gave Prairie View the upper hand, 20-17. Four out of the next five points knotted things up at 22-all, but three straight Panther kills put the Hornets behind.
ASU got off to a strong start in the second set, in large part thanks to back-to-back-to-back aces from
Mirra Riddle. Prairie View turned around and scored eight of the next ten points for a 13-8 lead. Undeterred,
Alexis Williams led a strong comeback from the Hornets, landing two consecutive kills, assisting a successful
Kamrynn Clay attack, and receiving a Clay assist as the team ran off a 17-7 spree and claimed the second set.
That momentum was evident in ASU winning each of the first four points in the third frame, with the Clay-to-Williams pairing scoring two of the points for an early lead. After the home team stole the next five points, the Hornets got back into things with kills from Williams,
Amaya Robinson and
Nadiyyah Northern, and the team followed by exchanging points while staying within two scores all the way until the 20-point threshold, where the Panthers were able to pull far enough away to secure a three-point win.
Not much went the Hornets' way in the early part of the fourth set, as Prairie View put ASU's backs against the wall with a five-point lead. The Hornets weren't phased, as five kills and an opposing error trimmed the deficit to two, and another late run that featured three Robinson kills gave the visitors a one-point edge. With the game going back and forth down to the final points, a Williams kill, a
Mirra Riddle ace and a
Mikalah Davis strike lifted the visitors to a fourth-set win.
The match reached a fifth set, a point the two teams combined to reach just three times in 2026, with neither picking up the deciding frame in any of those contests. It didn't seem to be much of a problem for PVAMU, who jumped out to a 6-1 lead and held on despite multiple threats of a Hornet comeback, with the 15-12 score giving them its fourth win in five contests.
Williams' big day saw her collect 21 kills on a 40 percent success rate, adding four block assists and three aces. Robinson also reached double-digit kills, pairing her 10-kill day with a team-best five block assists.
Kamrynn Clay had 43 set assists, ten digs, two kills and an ace, while libero
Mirra Riddle had 24 digs, seven service aces and six assists for a strong all-around day.
The Hornets had more kills (58-57) and assists (55-52) than the Panthers, who marginally led the game in aces (13-11), blocks (15-11) and digs (67-66).
The Lady Hornets return to Montgomery for a trio of home contests, starting with a Thursday night meeting with the Mississippi Valley State Delta Devils on Oct. 15 at 6 p.m. inside the Joe L. Reed Dunn-Oliver Acadome, and again inside the Acadome the following Sunday, Oct. 18 at noon against Jackson State. It moves into Lockhart Gymnasium on Wednesday, Oct. 21, for a 6 p.m. battle against Alabama A&M to close out the homestand.
