ARLINGTON, Texas --- The UT Arlington volleyball team (16-8, 8-4) hit .293 in a 25-13, 25-18, 25-22 sweep of Stephen F. Austin (21-4, 9-3) inside the College Park Center on Saturday to secure one of eight spots in the WAC tournament.
 
"This was an excellent performance," UT Arlington head coach J.T. Wenger said. "Our athletes did a fantastic job executing the game plan. We had something pretty specific dialed up, and our athletes were really in tune and did a nice job following through with that."
 
Brianna Ford continued her breakout campaign with a team-high 11 kills at a .360 clip along with nine digs, five blocks (two solo), two assists and one ace. She hit .417 with six kills in a tight third set to help the Mavs win their fourth over the past five outings.
 
Brooke Townsend, who finished second on the team with nine kills, got the match started with kills on two of the first three points. Her fifth kill of the set later spurred a 4-0 run that pushed the margin to 15-8. The Mavs closed with four of the final five points in the 25-13 set victory, highlighted by a pair of kills from Devon Martinka, who finished the match with six while hitting .500.
 
In the second set, UT Arlington jumped out to a 6-3 lead behind a pair of kills from Ford. A short time later, a kill from Mollie Blank and an ace from Alyssa Duran pushed the margin to four. Clinging to a 17-14 lead, the Mavs then took control of the frame with a 5-0 run that featured a pair of kills from Briana Brown. SFA got within five late in the set, but back-to-back terminations from Townsend and Ford propelled UTA to a two-set margin.
 
"We made the most out of every touch," Wenger said. "A couple things went our way for sure, but some of those we helped push our way. We made the most of the opportunities we had, and we created some situations (where) even when we didn't have an edge, we battled back to gain an edge and ultimately win some rallies. There weren't many wasted touches."
 
The visiting Ladyjacks opened the third set strong, scoring six of the first nine points and eventually stretching the lead to 11-8. Brown added one of her five kills, though, to spur a 3-0 run by the Mavs, setting up a back-and-forth stretch that saw SFA holding an 18-16 lead late. From there, UT Arlington snatched the momentum for good with six consecutive points, capped by another kill from Brown for a 22-18 lead. Ford finished the sweep with a kill moments later.
 
Blank, who assisted on the match-winning kill, registered 11 assists, 10 digs and three kills for her third double-double over the past six matches. It was also her seventh straight outing with double-digit assists and her 20th career double-double.
 
Kortney Puckett finished with four monster kills at an efficient .571 clip while leading the team with six blocks. Sophie Skinner contributed a team-best 16 assists. Alli Wells notched a team-best 13 digs while finishing third with five assists.
 
Duran's ace was one of three as a team for the Mavs, who also got one apiece from Blank and Ford, who led the team in solo blocks with two. While Ford and Puckett combined for 11 blocks, Meredith Fisher chipped in four while Townsend and Martinka had three apiece. Brown had the other two of the team's 23 overall stuffs.
 
The Mavs will conclude the regular season next week with matchups against Utah Tech (10-11, 4-8) on Thursday at 6 p.m. and Southern Utah (6-14, 5-6) on Saturday at 11 a.m. The final match will kick off a flurry of events for homecoming weekend inside the CPC that also includes men's and women's basketball games that day.
 
Notes
With her performance Saturday, Wells pushed her career dig total to 1,585, which is 37 shy of surpassing Judith McGill (1,623, 1983-86) for seventh-place all-time in program history. Meanwhile, Townsend bumped her career kill total to 1,277, which puts her 54 shy of Chris Rudiger (1,330, 1986-89) for ninth all-time.
 
Puckett's performance marked her sixth match of the year with at least five blocks. Meanwhile, Fisher registered her fifth straight and 11th match overall this year with at least four.
 
FOLLOW THE MAVS
For the latest news on UTA Volleyball, log on to UTAMavs.com or stay connected to the Mavs on social media. Follow the Mavericks on Twitter @UTAMavsVB, on Instagram @UTAMavsVB and on Facebook at Facebook.com/UTAMavsVB.