Box Score                    Season Stats

STEPHENVILLE - Tarleton dominated its Lone Star Conference opener Friday night as the TexAnns (6-3, 1-0) swept the Midwestern State Mustangs (2-7, 0-1) in front of a packed crowd at Wisdom Gym.

After MSU scored the first point of the match, Tarleton wasted little time getting the lead and extending it with a quick 5-1 run - highlighted by kills from Nikki McNorton, Kelsey Raglin and Danielle Barker.

Leading 7-4 in the first set, another quick 4-1 push, started by a kill from Katie Covell, extended the TexAnn lead to 11-5.

Tarleton maintained a four-point lead until the 12-8 mark when Stacie Murrah landed a kill to start a 5-2 Tarleton run to extend the lead to a game-high seven points at 17-10.

Midwestern brought the score back to three at 20-17, forcing Tarleton to call a timeout, but following the break Tarleton took advantage of four MSU miscues and a McNorton kill to take the first set 25-18.

After a Midwestern service error started the second set, Kelsey Raglin served up nine straight points on the strength of four Tarleton kills and five Mustang errors to give the TexAnns an early 10-1 lead.

The TexAnns didn't slow down, answering right back with a 10-4 run to extend their lead to 20-5.

MSU got back in the game with a 12-4 run to force a Tarleton timeout at 24-17, but Covell landed the set's final kill shot to give the TexAnns the win and a 2-0 advantage.

Tarleton played from behind early in the third set as MSU jumped out to a quick lead and maintained, at least, a tied score until 16-16.

After an attack error gave Tarleton its first lead of the set at 17-16, Tarleton extended the lead to 20-18 before McNorton, Covell and Murrah put the game out of reach with three straight kills.

The TexAnns ended the match with an ace from Megan Rodriguez and a kill from Murrah to take the conference opener in three.

Covell led the team with 13 kills while McNorton and Murrah also cracked double figures with 10 kills each. Barker led the team in hitting percentage at .375 with four kills and one error on eight attempts.

Barker led the team with 36 assists. Raglin led the team with 18 digs while Emily Klein (14), Murrah (11) and Barker (10) also had double figures.

This marks the first time since the 2009 season that Tarleton has won its conference opener. The TexAnns host Cameron at 12 p.m. Saturday.