The Texas A&M University-Commerce volleyball team extended its winning streak to nine matches with a 25-22, 25-16, 25-23 win over Texas A&M-Kingsville on Thursday night.

A&M-Commerce (13-3, 1-0 LSC) was led by junior Naomi Mays, who had a match-high 14 kills. Freshman Rachel Robertson added seven kills and an impressive .438 hitting percentage. Senior setter Perla Faudoa had 34 assists and reigning co-LSC defensive player of the week; Lauren Flynn had 25 digs to lead the Lions.

Texas A&M-Kingsville (9-4, 0-1 LSC) had a balanced attack with a team-high 12 kills from Tara Grier. The host Javelinas had 18 hitting errors and five service errors in a losing cause.

The Lions managed to hit .283 in the win, including at a .367 clip the second set while making only two errors. In addition, A&M-Commerce continued to play strong on the frontline with eight block assists. Junior Terra Ousley had three block assists to lead the Lions.

In the opening set, TAMUK rallied to take a 14-11 advantage until second-year head coach Mark Pryor inserted freshman defensive specialist Ashleigh Barnett. The rookie from Arlington paid immediate dividends as the Lions closed the gap to 16-15 to prompt a Javelina timeout. After the timeout, the two teams battled back in forth until the Lions capitalized on an attack error and kills by Amy Addison and Faudoa to take the opening set by a 25-22 margin.

In the second set, the two teams were tied all the way until 11-11, a mini three-point run by the Lions paid off as they capitalized on two more TAMUK attack errors and a ball handling error. A&M-Commerce outscored the Javelinas by a 14-5 margin for the remainder of the set to take a two set lead into the intermission. 

The Lions led from start-to-finish in the third set as they won the set by a 25-23 margin to extend the winning streak to nine-consecutive matches.

A&M-Commerce will look for its 10th straight on Saturday afternoon at 2 pm against Tarleton State, who knocked the Lions out of the 2008 LSC Tournament.