ARLINGTON, Texas --- The UT Arlington volleyball team (7-4) pushed its winning streak to five straight – as well as seven of the past eight – on Friday with victories over New Orleans (25-18, 25-22, 25-16) and Prairie View A&M (20-25, 25-17, 25-18, 25-18) as part on the first day of the UTA Invitational inside the College Park Center.
 
The Mavericks will conclude this weekend's action at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday against Lamar (5-5) as part of 90's Night.
 
"It's always good to get two wins," head coach J.T. Wenger said. "I think we played some pretty good volleyball throughout the day, a little hit and miss this evening, but we were still able to gut out a win. We should be proud of that."
 
In the opener, UTA took a stranglehold of the match with a 13-4 run to conclude the second set, rallying from an 18-12 deficit for a 2-0 lead. That came after an opening set in which the Mavs hit .483 as a team with a combined nine kills from Jalie Tritt (5) and Brianna Ford (4). In the final set, UTA jumped out to a 9-2 lead and led by as many as 11 before clinching the match.
 
Ford led all players with 14 kills at a .440 clip while adding six digs and three blocks. Brooke Townsend notched her third double-digit kill performance of the season with 10 to go along with her three digs and two blocks. Tritt added eight kills at a .500 percentage along with a team-high 12 digs and three blocks. Kortney Puckett also hit efficiently (.600) with six kills, three digs and two blocks.
 
As a team, UTA hit .337 with just 11 errors over 95 attempts. In a balanced effort, six different players recorded a kill in each of the first two sets. The critical second set saw Ford and Townsend record five kills apiece, and Ford notched at least four kills in each set.
 
Sophie Skinner had 31 assists as the Mavs registered a kill on 43.1 percent of her sets. Defensively, Alli Wells chipped in nine digs as her 26-match streak of 10-plus digs was snapped. On a related note, Ford had her streak of three straight double-doubles come to an end, as well.
 
Briana Brown, who had four kills and two digs, led all Mavs with four blocks.
 
The sweep represented UTA's first of the season and the 80th win overall of Wenger's career, and nearly half (38) of his wins have come via the three-set variety.
 
In the finale against Prairie View, the Mavs overcame a slow start to topple the Panthers in four. In the opening set, UT Arlington had 10 errors and hit just .049 as Prairie View jumped out to a 14-3 lead. The home team rallied to pull within three (20-17), but the visitors took the opener.
 
Over the next two sets, UTA won comfortably to set up what turned out to be a back-and-forth final set. Clinging to a 14-13 lead, the Mavs scored six of the next seven points to grab control of the set. Nya Blair finished Prairie View off by slamming home an overpass on match point.
 
Blair played a big role in the match off the bench as the fourth-year player notched a season-high eight kills at a .316 clip. Offensively, Townsend (11) and Brown (9) combined for 20 kills to pace UTA's attack while Ford added eight, as well.
 
Skinner finished just two digs shy of a double-double while adding a match-high 43 assists and two key kills. It was her third match with 40-plus assists over the past five outings.
 
The trio of Wells, Ford and Alyssa Duran had two aces apiece. In fact, Duran came within one dig of matching her season high while finishing with 10. Ford tied for the match-best in digs with 16, and Wells added 13. Kaylen Beaty finished fifth in digs with six.
 
Meredith Fisher led all Mavs with four blocks (two solo).
 
With her fourth of 11 kills in the nightcap, Townsend surpassed Shari Parks (1,148, 1984-87) for 13th place on the program's career list. Next up is Amanda Aguilera's 1,164 from 2008-11.
 
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