SPRINGFIELD, Mo.— The host Drury University Panthers swept a 3-settle battle of teams receiving votes in the latest AVCA Division II Coaches' Poll who both made the second round of last year's NCAA Division II Tournament.
The Panthers (2-3) hit .297 as a team in the 25-14, 25-18, 25-16 win over the Mavericks (3-2) in the first of 12 weekend matches of the Drury Invitational on Thursday evening here at the O'Reilly Family Event Center. CMU was held to a .093 attack percentage and committed nine service and 19 attacking errors throughout the evening.
Julia McCown had 13 kills and hit .550 for the Panthers. Meanwhile, Making Wratten had seven kills and four blocks while Taylor Forth, Maddie Baumer and Regan Dennis all recorded six kills in a balanced effort for DU. Reba Thomsen spread the wealth and finished with 31 assists and nine digs.
Kasie Gilfert paced the Mavs with nine kills.
Camille Smith had six kills and was involved in both of CMU's blocks.
Maddi Foutz had seven digs.
The Panthers used a 6-0 run and opened an 8-2 lead in the opening set and would go on to extend the lead to 13-4 as they hit an impressive .636 without an hitting error to take the 11-point win in the opening frame.
The Mavericks fared better in the opening stages of the second set and were down just 10-9 before a 4-1 Panther run gave them a 14-10 lead. CMU would remain close and trailed just 17-16 before a McCown kills, two Maverick hitting errors and a service ace highlighted a 5-0 Panther run that proved to be too much for CMU to overcome.
The Mavericks would get out to a 3-0 lead in the third and final set but fell behind 6-5. The Panthers then gradually build 15-10 and 20-11 leads before closing out the match.
CMU will be back on the court twice on Friday taking on Truman State early at 9 a.m. CDT (8 a.m. Mountain) before facing No. 18 and undefeated Northwest Missouri State at 5 p.m. CDT (4 p.m. Mountain).
