DENTON, TX - The Drury Panthers continued their winning ways with another strong day and a pair of victories in the 2010 Texas Woman's University Holiday Inn Express Classic, defeating host Texas Woman's University 3-1 in the opener and knocking off Texas International, 3-0 in the nightcap.
The Panthers took the first match winning by game scores of 25-17, 25-21,15-25 and 25-19. They held Texas Woman's University to just a .136 attack average, while knocking down 41 kills, 54 digs and eight blocks.
Kyrie Hopkins had 13 kills and .360 attack average while
Alex Smith had 12 kills and two block assists.
Kayla Hellebusch led DU with 13 digs followed by
Ali Rook who had 11 digs and five serving aces, while
Austin Warren dished out 29 assists and racked up 10 digs and three kills.
Michelle O'Dell had nine digs in the match.
"I was very pleased with how we handled TWU," said Head Coach Ashleigh Shear Fitzgerald. "They are a very talented and powerful team offensively, but we found a way to win by limiting our own mistakes, playing solid defense and blocking fairly well.
In the nightcap, The Panthers won games by scores of 25-15,25-17 and 25-18 over Texas A&M International and DU had a .259 hitting percentage for the match while A&M hit just .087.
Rook led DU with eight kills and a team high 12 digs with Hellebusch matching Rook with eight kills and five serving aces. Hopkins had another good match with seven kills and Smith added six kills.
Riley Citron had 11 digs with her sister
Elly Citron adding five kills for the Panthers. Warren dished out 33 assists and had eight digs.
The Panthers had 38 kills as a team, while dishing out 35 assists and posting 45 digs and five blocks.
Texas Woman's University fell to 2-1 and Texas A&M International now sits 0-4.
"We played four teams with four different styles this weekend but we found a way to be successful every match, said coach Shear Fitzgerald. "This was a great way to rebound from last weekend and our serve/pass game appeared much improved."
After going 4-0 at the Texas Woman's University Holiday Inn Express Classic, Drury will take a 5-3 record into the In the Middle of Everywhere Classic hosted by Missouri S&T next Friday and Saturday. The Panthers will open on Friday, September 10 vs. Missouri Western at 12 p.m. and wrap up Friday action vs. Upper Iowa at 6 p.m. On Saturday Drury will face the University of Mary at 1 p.m. and wrap up the tournament vs. Southeastern Oklahoma State at 5 p.m.
Texas Woman's Box
Texas A&M International Box