High Point fell to host West Virginia, 3-1, on Saturday in the second match of the West Virginia Invitational in Morgantown, W.Va. The Mountaineers took the match by a linescore of 30-21, 27-30, 30-21, 30-27.

Earlier in the day, the Panthers dropped a 3-0 decision to Bowling Green.

Against WVU, Jamie Kaufman recorded 23 kills and six digs while Lindsey Pickens added 11 kills and six digs. 

"We didn't play as well as we could have in the first match against Bowling Green," HPU head coach Chad Esposito said. "But we pulled together and stepped up our defense in the second match against West Virginia."

High Point's strong defensive effort netted the Panthers 89 digs against WVU, led by 29 from Kim Anderson, 22 from Jenelle Stouffer, 12 from Whitney Kaltenegger and nine from Michelle Feiser.

After the Mountaineers won the first game by a 30-21 count, the Panthers (2-6) went on a 10-2 run to take a 17-15 lead and eventually tie the score at 1-1 with a 30-27 victory.

WVU (1-3) won game three to set up the back-and-forth game four. With the game tied at 18-18, the Mountaineers won 11 of the next 16 points to go up 29-23. HPU won the next four to close the gap to 29-27, but WVU blocked a Panther kill attempt to clinch its first win of the season.

Julie Hockenson and Kelly Mullins each had 14 kills to lead West Virginia, which tallied 15.5 team blocks.

The Panthers meet Delaware State and Robert Morris Sunday on the tournament's final day.

"This is a tough tournament and our team is young," Esposito said. "We're a lot like the stock market, and we will come back tomorrow with the bulls running."

NOTE: Statistics were unavailable for the HPU/Bowling Green match. Check back later for a box score.