Drury University Athletics

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – Junior setter Jacy Bray turned in her fifth consecutive double-double and reached the 1,000-assist plateau for her collegiate career in leading Drury volleyball past William Jewell (25-19, 25-20, 25-20) to open its Great Lakes Valley Conference home season Friday evening at O'Reilly Family Event Center.  

Bray's 36-assist, 18-dig performance powered a Drury (11-3, 2-1 GLVC) offense that hit .270 for the match in notching its ninth straight-set victory in 14 total contests this season. Gwen Kubik put away a kill off a feed from her fellow Nixa, Mo., product that handed the Panthers a 23-16 first-set lead, giving Bray her 1,000th career assist.

Drury rallied for a 25-19 first-set victory, then outlasted the Cardinals (1-12, 0-2 GLVC) in both the second and third sets to wrap up the win in their first home September contest. Chaney Barth led Drury with a match-high 12 kills while hitting .500, and both Kubik and Skylar Hilton added eight kills for the Panthers, who extended their series win streak versus the Cardinals to 15-straight victories. 

HOW IT HAPPENED

• Drury recovered from an early 5-1 deficit by winning 10 of 11 points to take control of the opening set.
• Barth led the Panthers' comeback with three kills during the key spurt, before Amelia White delivered back-to-back kills as part of a 5-0 run that handed DU a 16-8 cushion.
• DU extended its lead to as many as nine points (20-11), before the Cardinals made a late push to slice the margin to 24-19 with an 8-4 run of their own.
• But Gracie Kimrey closed out the six-point win with a kill off Bray's 13th assist of the set to extinguish Jewell's hopes of a comeback.
• Kubik led the Drury offense with four kills in the set, while Barth hit .429.
• The Panthers wouldn't have to make a comeback in the second stanza, as Drury led nearly the entire way in a 25-20 victory.
• A pair of early blocks by Kubik and Hilton, coupled with two additional Jewell errors staked the Panthers to a 4-1 advantage.
• With DU clinging to a 6-5 lead, the first of Abby Renshaw's three kills in the second sparked an 8-2 run that expanded the lead to 14-7.
• But the Cardinals climbed back into the set with an 11-4 run to pull even at 18-18, with Silvia Fisher leading Jewell's attack with a pair of kills.
• Drury had an answer, however, as Barth came through with three kills during a 6-0 spurt that brought the Panthers to set point.
• Once again, Bray set up the deciding kill from Sydney Walker in the five-point win.
• Barth paced the DU offense with five kills in the second, while limited Jewell to .000 hitting in the set.
• DU built an early 3-0 lead in the third, only to watch the Cardinals roar back with an 11-5 run to seize a three-piont edge of their own.
• That would prove to be their final lead of the night, as Drury won five consecutive points -- thanks in part to a pair of kills by Bray -- before pulling away down the stretch with five unanswered points to grab a 22-16 advantage.
• Kubik's eighth kill of the contest -- once again off of a Bray assist -- sealed the 25-20 win.

• Bray hiked her three-year collegiate assist total to 1,024, as well as her two-year Drury total to 1,001, in the victory; she also extended her personal double-double streak to five consecutive matches, dating back to Sept. 11, and tallied her seventh double overall in 2026.
• Barth recorded her second double-digit kill effort in a row, following a career-high 15 in last Saturday's road setback vs. UMSL; she also added a pair of blocks Friday.
• Kubik surpassed her previous career best for kills with eight, while her two blocks matched a career high as well.
• Hilton added four blocks, raising her career total to 164 in just 45 matches as a Panther to date.
• Kim Quinit added 12 digs, while Renshaw finished with 10 to go along with her five kills.
• The Panthers improved to 31-3 all-time vs. William Jewell with their 15th straight win in the series (dating back to 2016); DU also improved to 13-0 against the Cardinals at O'Reilly Family Event Center (since 2011).

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