The High Point University volleyball team battled through a slow start but came up just short in a hard-fought 3-1 (19-30, 30-28, 37-39, 22-30) loss to UNC Asheville on Saturday afternoon in the Millis Athletic Center.

The Panthers (10-8, 2-2 Big South) were making their first appearance at home in over a month after playing their last 12 matches on the road. The loss was the squad's second this week and also snapped a two-match winning streak in Big South Conference play. Asheville improved to 14-3 (3-1 Big South) with the win.

"This was a tough, highly competitive volleyball match," said HPU head coach Chad Esposito. "It was exactly the type of match we've come to expect against UNC Asheville. They do a great job of playing team defense and today they were able to make a few clutch plays that ended up deciding the match. Untimely mental errors continue to prove costly for us especially in a match that was a closely contested as this one. I was proud of how we responded and played down the stretch. We just need to get that kind of effort and focus from the first serve."

Sophomore Jamie Kaufman led HPU finishing with a match-high 24 kills and 14 digs for her 10th double-double this year. Freshman Ashley Mellott (17) and junior Sabrina Wahid (10) posted double digit kill performances against UNCA. Senior libero Jenelle Stouffer topped the HPU back row with 16 digs while freshman Lindsay Raus paced the net defenders with six blocks. Senior Michelle Feiser handed out 36 assists for the match and just missed her league-leading seventh triple-double after recording nine kills and nine digs in the contest.

The Bulldogs' Elif Unlu led a quartet of UNCA attackers in double figures with 19 kills. The junior also had 10 digs to finish the match with a double-double. Ashley Wrightenberry (12), Allison Lambert (11) and Rose Butler (10) joined her in double digits. Libero Krysti Havens led all players with 22 digs with Lambert and Wrightenberry sharing team honors with five blocks each.

For the match, Asheville held a lead in hitting efficiency (.286 to .209) and also out-blocked the Panthers, 11-7. Both squads finished with eight service aces but HPU suffered 15 costly service errors. High Point did earn a slight 73-65 edge in total kills for the match.

UNC Asheville got out of the blocks quickly in game one scoring 12 of the first 14 points to take a double-digit lead at 12-2. The Bulldogs continued to connect on all cylinders offensively posting a .562 hitting performance en route to a comfortable 30-19 victory. UNCA had 18 kills with no hitting errors in the opening stanza.

The next two games were much more evenly played as the two teams battled back-and-forth through 21 ties and eight lead changes. In the second frame, neither team held a lead larger than three points with HPU maintaining a slight advantage for much of the game.

Game three saw the Bulldogs open up a seven-point lead at 20-13 before the Panthers began clawing their way back into play. Trailing 27-22, High Point made a final surge fighting off three game point opportunities by UNCA at 29-26 to eventually knot the score at 29. From that point, the game turned into a classic sideout battle with both teams having chances to grab the win. HPU served for the victory four times while UNC Asheville had five chances before finally gaining the 39-37 win.

The Bulldogs carried the momentum into the early part of the fourth game grabbing an early 7-0 advantage. High Point continued to fight closing the deficit to three points several times, but could get no closer as UNCA was able to hold off a Panther charge to earn the deciding game victory.

High Point has little time to regroup as the Panthers welcome Big South foe Birmingham-Southern to town on Sunday at 1 p.m.