DENTON, TX - The Drury University volleyball team swept a pair of matches at the Texas Woman's University Holiday Inn Express Classic Friday, defeating both Northwest Nazarene and East Stroudsburg in three sets.
Drury downed Northwest Nazarene 25-16, 25-22 and 31-29 and defeated East Stroudsburg 25-12,25-17 and 25-17.
"It was very good to see us serve aggressively this afternoon,"said DU head coach Ashleigh Shear Fitzgerald. "I am also really excited with how Alex Smith rebounded from last weekend and got off to a great start."
Drury had to fight hard in the final game of the sweep over the Crusaders with a 31-29 victory in game three.
Alex Smith was powerful on the outside with 12 kills and no errors on 23 attacks for a whopping .522 hitting percentage. Kyrie Hopkins was also effective with 12 kills on 28 attacks. Junior libero
Michelle O'Dell led the Panthers with 21 digs and senior outside hitter #Kayla Hellebusch finished with 16 digs. Junior
Ali Rook was right there too with 15 digs.
The Panthers played strong defense against the Crusaders with 72 digs. Senior setter
Austin Warren posted 35 assists and two serving aces.
The Panthers knocked off East Stroudsburg in the night match by controlling the net with 40 kills to ESU's 25 and used 11 serving aces to dominate the match. Hellebusch and O'Dell each had four serving aces. Senior
Jagoda Pstras matched a team high 10 kills along with Smith. Hopkins and Smith continued to be productive in combining for 18 kills in the match and 30 on the day. Hopkins eight kills with no errors vs. ESU was good for a .615 hitting percentage on 13 attempts. Warren posted 17 assists and along with O'Dell had a team high eight digs.
Drury hit .315 against the ESU Warriors who struggled and managed just .094.
"It was good to get another win tonight," said coach Shear Fitzgerald. "Pstras did a nice job offensively, and hopefully we can carry out good play into tomorrow."
Drury improved to 3-3 with their wins on the day while Northwest Nazarene now sits at 0-1 and East Stroudsburg is 0-2.
Drury will face host Texas Woman's University at 12:30 p.m. and Texas A&M International at 5:30 on Saturday.
Northwest Nazarene Box Score
East Stroudsburg Box Score