SPRINGFIELD, Mo.- Drury fell twice as Missouri Western and seventh-ranked Northern State both picked up 3-0 wins over the Panthers at the DU Invitational in the O'Reilly Family Event Center on Friday.
 
The Panthers could not recover from a slow start in their 3-0 loss to the Griffons in their first match of the day. Drury lost the opening set 25-13 but looked like they had recovered when they built an 18-12 lead in the second. Missouri Western rallied, however, and won the set by two, 25-23 and closed out a tightly contested third set 26-24.
 
Makina Wratten led Drury with 11 kills, Reba Thomsen had 16 assists, and Paige Perry had 16 digs in the loss. The Panthers lost Julia McCown, the team leader in kills, in the opening set to a leg injury.
 
"Having Julia go down in the first set messed with our dynamic a bit," said Drury head coach Jenifer Bahner. "We're already a young team that's still struggling to find our consistency and our ability to play together. So having that disruption was hard for us."
 
Seventh-ranked Northern State bounced back from a loss earlier in the day to 18th ranked Northwest Missouri State to sweep past Drury 25-13, 25-8, and 25-18 to wrap up the first full day of competition at the tournament. The Wolves hit .421 in the match and were led by Sally Gaul's 15 kills in the three-set win.
 
Reba Thomsen had 17 assists and nine digs for the Panthers.
 
"Northern State is a very good and have they have more a veteran presence on the court that we're still trying to develop," said Bahner. "We were excited about hosting this tournament and having such high-quality teams come in here. We knew that meant it was going to be some challenging matches for us, but I'd rather take those challenges on now and have us learn how we're going to respond to these moments." 
 
The Drury Invitational continues on Saturday with five matches starting at 9 a.m. as Colorado Mesa will face Missouri Western. The Panthers play the 1 p.m. contest on Saturday against 18th ranked Northwest Missouri State at 1 p.m.
 
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