WICHITA – The Newman Volleyball team held their first home match in 2022 by hosting the Drury University Panthers on Thursday night in front of an energetic crowd. Drury came into the game with a 3-5 record and looked to get closer to the .500 mark as the Jets looked to continue their impressive play early into the season.
 
The Jets and Panthers traded points as kills by Salome Romp, Ozioma Ajekwu, and Riley Daugherty helped keep the first set close early on until an 8-3 run gave Drury enough breathing room to control the rest of the set. Newman was able to cut the deficit down to 2 to make it 19-17 but a 5-0 Panthers run shut down the Jets comeback and was ultimately the deciding factor in set 1.
 
Set 2 saw Drury continuing the momentum gained from set 1 and getting an early 8-3 lead. With no quit in their heart, the Jets were able to claw their way back to make it 22-21 late into the set thanks to a 5-0 run. The Jets run was short lived as Drury was able to get a crucial kill by Salma Lewis to stop another Jets comeback.
 
Set 3 looked to be a repeat of the previous set as Drury jumped out to another 8-3. The game looked to be out of reach as NU saw themselves down by 10 with a score of 17-7, but Newman would not give up no matter the score late into set 3. What was a 21-13 lead was then cut into a 21-17 lead which then turned into a 24-17 Drury advantage. The Jets had one final run which brought the third set to 24-22 before a kill by Chloe Rear ended the set and the match as Drury beat Newman in 3 sets and earned their 3rd consecutive sweep.
 
Riley Daugherty was the lone Jet with double digit kills (10) as Mckinzie Weaver finished the game with 29 assists.
 
Newman (5-4) is back in action as they open conference play against Missouri Southern (5-3) on Friday, September 9th in a match scheduled for 6 PM.