Braves Come Up Short at Prairie View A&M

PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas – Despite double-digit kills from Makayla Wardlaw and Alaina Armstrong, Alcorn Volleyball suffered a 3-1 Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) defeat at the hands of Prairie View A&M on Monday night inside the Baby Dome. Prairie View took the match on set scores of 18-25, 25-12, 25-21, 25-18.
 
Alcorn (5-24, 4-12 SWAC) began the match hot, as the visiting Braves gathered 12 kills and three service aces en route to the 25-18 opening set victory.
 
Kills from Alaina Armstrong and Makayla Wardlaw preceded a service ace from Preseason All-SWAC Second Team member Mikenzie Young-Mullins to give the visitors an early 4-0 lead. The Purple and Gold advantage would stretch to 7-2 following a Wardlaw kill off the set of freshman Ramona Pulu. Fellow freshman setter Alissa Williams would set up a Young-Mullins kill to put the lead at 13-8, before back-to-back attack errors were charged to Prairie View A&M (8-24, 6-10 SWAC).
 
The Alcorn lead grew to 19-10 off consecutive kills from Wardlaw. However, it would be a kill from Young-Mullins off the set of Armstrong to close the set for the Braves.
 
The hosts would bounce back to hit .560 as a unit in the second set, producing 14 kills against just two errors on 25 swings. Counter to this, the Panthers held Alcorn to just .032 hitting in the set.
 
Leila Smalls registered a match-high 23 kills on the evening, adding three digs to lead the Panthers to the victory.
 
Meanwhile, three Panthers achieved double figures in digs, paced by Skyla Childs (18), followed by Kylee Owens (17) and Jakarta Hope (10). Makinzie Taplin had 21 assists, while teammate Hope produced 18 assists in the two-setter system.
 
In the loss, Alcorn was charged by Wardlaw with her team-high 11 kills and nine digs. Armstrong provided 10 kills and nine digs of her own. Pulu put up 20 assists and 14 digs for her third double-double of the campaign. Libero Emma Price added eight digs.
 
Alcorn closes the 2022 campaign at 5-24 overall, while capturing a 4-12 record in SWAC play.
 
The SWAC Tournament gets underway November 18, in Houston, Texas, with the event hosted by Texas Southern.
 
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