SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - Drury opened Great Lakes Valley Conference play with a 3-1 victory over undefeated UMSL on Friday at the O'Reilly Family Event Center.
 
After Drury dropped their opening set to the Tritons 25-15, the Panthers battled past UMSL for back-to-back 27-25 wins in sets two and three to take a 2-1 lead.  The Panthers finished off UMSL with a resounding 25-17 victory in the fourth set.  
 
Reba Thomsen, a junior from Burlington, Wisconsin, led the Panthers with 42 assists.  Three Drury players reached double-figures in kills as Julia McCown had 16, Makina Wratten added 14 and Regan Dennis had 10.  The Panthers finished the match with a .325 hitting percentage in the final set.   UMSL was led by Charlotte Richards who posted 15 kills.

"Julia had a great night attacking for us on the outside and was a go to for us which was great to see her embracing that role," said Drury Head Coach Jenifer Bahner.  "Paige had a good defensive night for us and continues to give us great stability in the backcourt which has proven to be contagious for the rest of our team. I am very proud of our team, we had a game plan going into the night and after struggling in the opening set, we talked about how to slow them down going into the second set and we stuck to that plan which worked in sets 2-4 for us.  By sticking to our game plan we were able to shift the energy level to our side and close the match out.  We have very balanced attacking in sets 2-4 and with three double figure kill players we did a nice job of spreading out our offense and making it harder to defend against.  We talked about what conference play means to us and how it's a fresh start and tonight was a chance to show who we wanted to be from here on out.  We have done a nice job setting the tone and we have taken the first step going the direction we would like to go in as a team."
 
Drury improved to 7-7, 1-0 GLVC while Missouri-St. Louis fell to 12-1, 0-1 GLVC.
 
Drury will face Lindenwood tomorrow at the O'Reilly Family Event Center in a GLVC match.  First serve is scheduled for 3 p.m.