STEPHENVILLE – Tarleton fans poured into Wisdom Gym Tuesday night and were treated to a dominating performance by the TexAnns, who improved to 5-0 with their third straight sweep.
 
"I've been here 16 years and it was the biggest crowd I have ever seen," said head coach Mary Schindler. "It was absolutely incredible to have this kind of support and hopefully it continues to grow. Howard Payne is a disciplined team and they work really hard, but we took care of business and executed really well."
 
In front of a sellout crowd, Tarleton opened the night on a 7-0 run, served by Kenya Alexander. Hailey Roberts got Tarleton on the board with the opening point and Alexander served up six straight with kills from Meg Umbel, Roberts, and Chandler Gow, as well as a service ace from the 6-4 middle, to force a Howard Payne timeout.
 
After the teams split the next 10 points to bring the game to 12-5, Tarleton's Kelsey Raglin blasted a kill shot to start the game-clinching 13-3 TexAnn run. Roberts finished what she started with the game-ending kill shot in a 25-8 win.
 
Howard Payne took one of its few leads of the night by starting the second set with a kill, but Tarleton put a quick end to that with a kill from Roberts and seven straight points served up from Alexander on an ace and kills from Umbel, Gow, and Roberts.
 
Just like the opening set, Howard Payne pulled things to 12-5 but an attack error ultimately ended the set there as Tarleton responded with another 13-3 run to clinch the game 25-8. The set ended on a Howard Payne ball-handling error.
 
The third set was tight through the opening 12 points, but a block from Xzache Mathis and Kenya Alexander gave Tarleton its final lead of the set and started a 19-7 Tarleton run over the rest of the set to send the TexAnns, and Wisdom faithful, home happy. Tarleton never trailed by more than one point at any point in the match.
 
Roberts powered home 13 kills with a .556 hitting percentage while Alexander landed eight kills. Chandler Gow led the team with 22 assists while Adrianna Knutson was the leader with nine digs.
 
Tarleton will head to Colorado this weekend to take part in the Steel and Silver Classic, lasting two days in two different cities, beginning Friday at 9 a.m. against Missouri Western in Colorado Springs and wrapping up Saturday at 7 p.m. against Colorado State-Pueblo in Pueblo.