Box Score The High Point volleyball team put up a fight but in the end the Big South regular season champion Winthrop Eagles proved too strong defeating HPU, 3-0 (30-23, 30-28, 30-25), in the regular season finale for both squads at the Millis Athletic Center.
The Panthers end the regular season at 16-16 and 5-9 in the Big South Conference while Winthrop improves to 25-4, 14-0 in league play with the victory. Both teams now turn their attention to Big South tournament action with the quarterfinals scheduled for Tuesday night at the top four seeds arenas.
Jamie Kaufman paced the HPU offense with 11 kills senior Michelle Feiser chipping in nine and junior Sabrina Wahid finishing with eight. Feiser also added 18 assists and eight digs in her final home match at High Point. Fellow senior Jenelle Stouffer led the Panther back row tallying 11 digs in her finale.
Mary Hock (13 kills) and Tori Grafeman (10 kills) both reached double digit kills for the Eagles. Freshman setter Chandra Ginest handed out 29 assists and libero Beth Waggoner recorded a match-high 12 digs for WU.
"I was pleased with our effort in the match," said HPU head coach Chad Esposito. "We had several solid stretches tonight and had some chances to even win game two but we just failed to capitalize on our opportunities. It was good to see us getting back to a more consistent level of play. I thought we played well together and hopefully we can use that as momentum as we head into the Big South Tournament."
High Point fell behind 8-4 early in the opening stanza before clawing their way back to get to within a single point three times. Winthrop then used a 9-2 run to gain an advantage they wouldn't relinquish as they pushed on to the 30-23 win.
The Eagles carried that winning momentum into game two scoring the first six points of the stanza. The Panthers settled down and began chipping away at the deficit before finally knotting the score at 13. Several strong service rotations by HPU allowed them to move ahead by as many as six points, 25-19. Winthrop then rallied with aggressive serving of its own. The Eagles scored six consecutive points late in the frame to regain the lead 29-27 and then held on for the 30-28 victory.
Game three went back-and-forth with both teams taking turns with the lead. Winthrop used a 7-3 spurt midway through the stanza to grab a slight edge, 20-13, and fended off a final HPU surge to capture the match with a 30-25 decision.
Both teams will return to competition on Tuesday night as part of the Big South Conference Tournament. High Point, the fifth seed, will travel to Birmingham-Southern to face the other Panthers in the league. Winthrop will play host to Radford in Rock Hill, S.C. The semifinals and finals of the event will be held Nov. 19-20 at Coastal Carolina.
