You may not have payed attention to what went on off 290 this year, but Prairie View A&M University women’s soccer team assembled a group of young ladies looking to make a long run for years to come. The Lady Panthers set a record for most wins in a single season at 13 and brought home the first Southwestern Athletic Conference Women’s Soccer Tournament Championship with a 1-0 victory over Howard.

Unfortunately, they watched their great season come to an end with a first round loss to the No. 1 seeded Stanford Lady Cardinals in the First Round of the 2019 NCAA Women’s Soccer Tournament. It was the second time in school history that the Lady Panthers made the tournament. The first was back in 2014 in a loss to Texas Tech.

"This is an exciting moment for our student-athletes, our soccer program and our entire department of athletics," PVAMU Athletics Director Alicia Pete said in an interview with pvpanthers.com after the SWAC Tournament. "Coach Curvelo was a great hire for the Prairie View A&M Athletics Department. We knew she was the right choice to lead our soccer program to the next level. It's wonderful to see that confidence rewarded with a championship, and I'm confident that this is only the beginning for our soccer program."

Prairie View knew exactly who they were getting to lead the Lady Panthers soccer team when they hired Sonia Curvelo in August 2018. The former SWAC Coach of the Year in 2012 spent five seasons at Mississippi Valley State leading them to the SWAC Tournament each year she was there.

Before working as the Regional Manager for Player Development at the Ontario Soccer Association in Canada in 2017 she was at Cleveland State as the head coach of their women’s soccer team guiding them to the Horizon League Tournament twice in three years. For as fierce as she is guiding her young ladies to victories during matches, Curvelo uses that same tenacity to preach the importance of maintaining a good grade point average in the classroom.

The Lady Panthers put together a season for the ages in 2019. Outside of winning their first SWAC tournament, they also set a program record for conference wins at nine. They displayed dominance in the conference by putting together a winning streak of 10 or more matches led by a group of seniors who made the best of their last year on the team.

Even with the loss of four seniors, the team returns 2019 SWAC Tournament MVP, midfielder Kalia Brown and all-tournament center back, Andrea Nugent. Combine those players with

first team All-Conference forwards Ashley Chala and Jojo Bernal, along with goalkeeper Quinn Josiah who nabbed second team honors and coach Curvelo has a team ready to make a trip right back to the NCAA Tournament.

The sports department at Houston Style Magazine would like to congratulate the Lady Panthers on a great season.