ABILENE, Texas --- The UT Arlington volleyball team (10-4, 2-0) stayed atop the Western Athletic Conference standings with a 25-23, 21-25, 25-18, 25-19 win over Abilene Christian (4-10, 1-1) on the road inside the Moody Coliseum on Thursday.
 
With the victory, the Mavericks have now won eight straight, which is not only tied for the seventh longest current streak in the nation but this year's squad joins the 2014 team for the longest streak in the program over the past 20 years behind the 2002 team that won 17 straight.
 
Looking ahead, UT Arlington will stay on the road to face Tarleton at 1 p.m. on Saturday. With a win, the Mavs can tie the 1985 and 1987 teams for the 15th longest streak in program history.
 
"This was another great team win over a very strong opponent on the road," UT Arlington head coach J.T. Wenger said. "We were a little out of sorts at times, but we got our game together and executed in crunch time. Our serving picked up, as did our defense, at critical moments that allowed us to pick up the victory."
 
Offensively, Brooke Townsend led UT Arlington by matching her season-high with 16 kills at a .333 clip while adding four digs and tying for the team-high in blocks with three. She is now just 10 kills shy of becoming the 12th player in program history with 1,200 in a career.
 
Meanwhile, Meredith Fisher produced the set-clinching kills in the first, third and fourth sets en route to a career-best 13 for the match while hitting .545. She added a pair of digs and blocks. Brianna Ford and Briana Brown each tacked on seven kills, and Ford finished with 14 digs, which was her 10th match with 10-plus digs this year.

Sophie Skinner led all players with 41 assists in what was her fourth match this year with at least 40 while finishing just four shy of matching her season-high. She tacked on nine digs, four kills and one block.
 
Defensively, Alli Wells totaled team-highs in digs (20) and aces (4). It was her second straight match with at least 20 to open conference play, and she jumped Chris Rudiger (1,413, 1986-89) for the 11th-most digs in program history on Thursday with 1,421.
 
At the net, Kortney Puckett tied Townsend for the team lead in blocks with three. Three others had two apiece, including Simara Peyton. Alyssa Duran matched Skinner with nine digs, which was third-best on the team. Jalie Tritt and Kaylen Beaty each chipped in six digs, and Mollie Blank finished with three assists off the bench. Devon Martinka also contributed to the win with a pair of kills.

After the two teams split the first two sets, the turning point in the match came in the third set with UT Arlington trailing 14-11. Townsend slammed home three successful attacks during a 4-0 run. The spurt continued as the Mavs reeled off 14 of the set's final 18 points to claim the 2-1 lead. Then, despite dropping the first four points in the final set, UTA got a pair of aces from Wells over a 5-0 run for a 7-5 lead. Although the hosts got within one late, Fisher tallied a pair of kills and a block as the visitors scored six of the final seven points to win the match.

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.