Box Score Lindsey Pickens had a season-high 24 kills on a .327 hitting percentage and Michelle Feiser provided 57 assists and 15 digs to lead High Point past Liberty, 3-2, Friday night in Big South Conference volleyball action in the Millis Center (30-28, 28-30, 30-19, 24-30, 15-9).

The Panthers (12-9, 3-2 Big South) have won four straight and nine of their last 11 matches overall, and beat the Lady Flames for the first time in school history. Liberty drops to 2-15 (1-5 in Big South play).

"This is a landmark win for our program," HPU head coach Chad Esposito said. "It's our first time to beat Liberty, which has won several Big South championships, including last year's regular-season title -- when we were eighth out of eight teams. To turn the tables this quickly within a year's time is a tremendous step forward for us."

Pickens was joined in double-figures by Jamie Kaufman (19 kills, .295) and Ashley Johnson (13 kills, .267). Kim Anderson led the Panthers with 18 digs and reached double-digits defensively for the 27th-straight match.

Jennifer Belk (18 kills, 16 digs) recorded a double-double to lead the Lady Flames, who got 13 kills from Mary Alice Pike, 10 kills from Becky Rudnick and a match-high 22 digs from Lara Bartolomeo.

The teams split games one and two by identical 30-28 scores, and the Panthers went up 2-1 on the strength of a .353 hitting percentage in game three. HPU jumped out to a 17-6 lead and tallied 16 kills against just four errors to surge in front.

But the Lady Flames fought back and built a 12-point advantage at 19-7 in game four. Pike had a kill to put Liberty up 29-17 before the Panthers dug in and rallied for seven straight points to pull within 29-24 and gather some momentum for the decisive fifth game, which began following Rudnick's kill to give Liberty a 30-24 win in game four.

The Panthers won 12 of the first 17 points of the final game to take control, and clinched the match on Pickens' 24th kill of the night.

"I thought we did a good job of shutting down their offense, and at the same time we were very efficient when we attacked the ball," Esposito said. "Lindsey and Jamie had outstanding games, but more importantly, Ashley gave us a huge presence in the middle at critical times in games 3, 4 and 5 to help balance our attack.

"Michelle played a fantastic game as well, and made very good decisions with her ball distribution."

Jenelle Stouffer (13 digs) and Whitney Kaltenegger (11 digs) also reached double-digits on defense for the Panthers. Autum Poorman and Janell Migeot each recorded eight total blocks for Liberty.

"Tonight we played aggressively through the entire match, including the fifth game," Esposito said. "For a young team to not tighten up in crunchtime shows the total transformation our program has gone through, and that we're figuring out what it takes to win."

The Panthers welcome Radford and Savannah State to the Millis Center Saturday (2:00 pm and 7:00 pm) for a tri-match.

"We've had a bunch of matches this week, but we've been able to continue to build momentum," Esposito said. "To be able to accomplish that with such a young team is going to pay dividends for us by the end of the season."