SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – Drury won their home opener and improved to 9-2 with a 3-0 win over Missouri Southern State on Tuesday at the O'Reilly Family Event Center. The Panthers pulled away to win the first set 25-20, took the second 25-22 and held off a late run by the Lions to win the third set 25-23. Missouri Southern State fell to 7-6 with the loss.
 
Bentley Mara led the Panthers with 14 kills and posted a .542 hitting percentage. Kendra Sater added 43 assists in the three sets while Paige Perry added another 13 kills.
 
"When we've been on the road for that long, it gave an extra excitement to our girls to finally be in front of our home crowd but I thought we did a good job of not getting too high or too low," said Drury head coach Jenifer Bahner. "We stayed in tune with what our goals were and that was important for us."
 
The Panthers posted a .294 hitting percentage as a team and hit .485 mark in the second set.
 
"Kendra Sater made some good decisions on who she was setting," added Bahner. "Our hitters were seeing the floor well and Bentley Mara had a phenomenal night with 14 kills and just one error."
 
Janelle Brehm led the Lions with 16 kills.    
 
Drury returns to conference play on Friday when they host Maryville. Game time is 7 p.m. in the O'Reilly Family Event Center.
 
 
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