ABILENE, Texas – Hardin-Simmons won its 29th consecutive match at the Mabee Complex, and the Cowgirls took its 13th out of the last 14 meetings with its cross-town rival McMurry University at home Wednesday night. HSU defeated McMurry 25-15, 25-16, 25-22 to extend its lead in the American Southwest Conference West Division to two games.

The Cowgirls improved to 16-5 overall and moved to 12-2 in league play while McMurry's six-match win streak was snapped, and the team fell to 13-8 overall with a 10-4 mark in conference play.

McMurry hit just .010 as a team while the Cowgirls knocked in a .270 hitting percentage. Madison Reyes and Christine Sas led HSU with 14 and 13 kills respectively. Terah Brown had eight kills and six block assists in the losing effort.

Set one began back-and-forth with McMurry and Hardin-Simmons locked in a 4-4 tie, however, the Cowgirls scored four straight points and then went on to score 10 of the next 13 before McMurry called a timeout trailing 14-7. But, HSU continued to pour it on and took the set 25-15.

HSU led 6-1 in the second set, and McMurry fought back to cut the score to 17-14 in favor of the Cowgirls. But, the home team countered five-straight points to extend the lead to 22-14 over McMurry before closing out the set 25-16.

McMurry jumped out to a 6-2 lead in set three trying to avoid the sweep. However, HSU head coach Sabrina Bingham took an early timeout and halted the momentum. Then, the Cowgirls rallied to take a 14-13 lead before holding on for a deciding 25-22 win in the third set.

McMurry hits the road for two ASC West games in Kerrville against Schreiner Friday and Seguin Saturday against Texas Lutheran.