Nearing the end of a two-week road stretch, the High Point volleyball suffered a disappointing 3-0 (32-30, 30-26, 30-20) Big South Conference loss at Birmingham-Southern on Sunday afternoon.

High Point drops to 13-12 overall and 3-6 in the league while BSC advances to 10-12 overall and 3-6 in the Big South.

"We missed out on some chances in key situations," said HPU head coach Chad Esposito. "We had some struggles in our passing game and also hurt ourselves with a few untimely hitting errors. I felt like we played hard but just couldn't get it done. We will look to regroup and finish our road trip. We are definitely looking forward to finally getting home and playing some important matches."

Freshman Ashley Mellott led High Point with 13 kills and hit .385 for the match, while sophomore Jamie Kaufman recorded her 16th double-double with 11 kills and 14 digs. Freshman setter Lauren Hatch also had a double-double with 17 digs and 14 assists, while Jenelle Stouffer posted 15 digs and Michelle Feiser tallied 27 assists.

In game one, the teams played to an 8-7 High Point advantage in Bill Battle Coliseum before lighting problems forced the match to be moved to the Striplin Center, BSC volleyball's home prior to the 2004 season. The game was back-and-forth after that point, with the teams playing to five ties before HPU was able to build a lead, going up 20-16. BSC then rattled off four straight points for another tie, and the game was tied five more times before Birmingham-Southern won, 32-30.

Game two was also very close, with the two teams trading points and tying 15 times until the 21-21 mark, after which BSC started to pull ahead. BSC used a 6-2 run to build a 27-23 advantage before eventually winning, 30-26, to take a 2-0 lead in the match.

In the third game, Birmingham-Southern put together a 9-4 run after the 5-5 mark to go up, 14-9, and never looked back, going up by as much as 10 at both 26-16 and 28-18 before winning, 30-20.

BSC's Lillian Henderson tallied 15 kills and no errors and senior Jana Smelley posted a double-double in helping Birmingham-Southern to their first home conference win of the season.

BSC out-hit HPU, .299 to .150, and racked up 10 total blocks while High Point tallied four. Both teams finished the match with 51 kills.

The Panthers conclude their six-match road swing on Wednesday night at East Tennessee State before coming home for an important weekend of Big South Conference play against Liberty (Friday) and Radford (Saturday). Following the ETSU match, High Point plays five of its final six contests at home.