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The 12th ranked Drury Panthers volleyball team knew coming into this season one key to success would be playing good teams early and often.
Now the Panthers think those experiences will help them as they approach the most important part of their season.
“We’ve played five set matches against nationally ranked opponents. Learning how to compete for two and a half hours and come out with a victory is huge at this level,” said Head Coach Jenifer Bahner.
The Panthers faced six ranked opponents in the first eight days of the season.
They won four of those matches and have beaten six ranked teams overall.
“We strategically set our schedule so that we’d be playing nationally ranked opponents to see what does that next level look like and what do we need to do to be at that level too,” said Bahner.
It’s something the Panthers players embraced entering 2018.
“We’ve made it a focus that ‘hey we want to come out on top, and we can’t move up in the national rankings unless we play nationally ranked teams,'” said senior Bentley Mara.
Powered by nine juniors and seniors, Drury has won 13 of its last 14 matches overall.
Now, the Panthers say it’s time to focus on what’s ahead.
“It doesn’t really matter what we do in the middle of the season, it matters what happens at the end,” said Mara.
For those seniors in particular, the end is coming quickly.
Which means the time is now for the Panthers to play their best.
“Our mentality is a just a lot different than last year. We were a little younger, and it’s just like we have a race to finish, and we don’t have much time left… just need to push to the end,” said Mara.
This coming weekend the Panthers will play in the Mizuno Midwest Region Crossover Tournament, where they will see a few more difficult teams including the 5th ranked Ferris State Bulldogs, a team Drury already beat one time earlier in the season.
