ARLINGTON, Texas --- The UT Arlington volleyball team (11-5, 3-1 WAC) got a great performance from the duo of Brianna Ford and Briana Brown, but it wasn't enough as the Mavericks had a nine-match winning streak snapped in a 29-27, 13-25, 25-18, 25-18 loss to California Baptist (7-8, 2-2) inside the College Park Center on Thursday.
 
"We never totally got in gear tonight," UT Arlington head coach J.T. Wenger said. "A lot of the success that we've had the past few weeks ... we just weren't able to find with the same recipe. We tried mixing up some things and, unfortunately, we just weren't really able to ever find that rhythm."
 
UTA will be back in action on Saturday at noon against Grand Canyon inside the CPC.
 
The Mavs were led offensively by Ford, who notched match-highs in kills (19) and digs (16) along with two aces, two blocks and an assist. It was her ninth double-double of the season and the 20th of her career. Brown chipped in 13 kills at a .265 clip along with one block and a dig. That duo combined for 32 of the team's 49 digs at a .329 clip while the rest of the team combined for 17 kills at a .042 rate.
 
Sophie Skinner, who had 30 of her team-high 42 assists through the first two sets, notched the fifth 40-plus assist effort of her young career while contributing seven digs. Another freshman, Jalie Tritt, tallied seven kills, six digs and three blocks, which happened to tie yet another rookie, Ava Burroughs, for the team-high.
 
Defensively, Alli Wells (15) and Alyssa Duran (8) combined for 23 digs while Brooke Townsend added three kills, four digs and two blocks.
 
The opening set of the match proved pivotal. California Baptist opened up a 16-11 lead and had a pair of set points (24-22), but UT Arlington got a kill from Ford, who then teamed with Burroughs for a double-block to knot things up. The teams then exchanged the next six points, capped by a kill from Brown that helped the Mavs fight off a fourth set point. The visiting Lancers, however, scored the set's final two points to take the early lead.
 
In the next frame, UTA seemed to gain some momentum back, jumping out to a 14-6 lead, a spurt that was highlighted by a 7-0 run. California Baptist got within six (19-13) before the Mavericks scored the final six points of the set to tie things at one apiece.
 
From there, however, UT Arlington couldn't seem to find a groove. CBU jumped out several seven-point leads in the third set before pushing the margin to 17-8. The deficit was trimmed to as few as six on an ace from Duran, but it wasn't enough in the end. In the fourth set, the early play of Townsend, who tallied a pair of blocks to help the Mavs take an 10-9 lead, gave UTA hope. However, the Lancers reeled off five straight points from there, pushed the lead to eight and eventually claimed the victory.
 
NOTES
Townsend pushed her career kill total to 1,195 on Thursday, moving her within 51 of passing Fannie Burton (1,245, 1991-94) for 11th place on the program's all-time list.
 
Similarly, Wells continued her climb up one of the program's career lists, as she now has 1,444 digs, which puts her just three shy of surpassing Dani Johnson (1,446, 2004-07) for 10th place all-time.
 
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