The High Point volleyball team drop a hard-fought 3-0 (30-21, 30-24, 30-20) decision to Big South Conference foe Coastal Carolina on Friday night in the Millis Athletic Center.

The Panthers (15-14, 5-7 Big South) went toe-to-toe with a talented Chanticleer (17-9, 11-1 Big South) squad that remains in the hunt to capture the conference regular season title with the victory.

Reigning Big South Freshman of the Week, Ashley Mellott paced the HPU offense finishing with 11 kills. Senior Michelle Feiser recorded her league leading 20th double-double of the year with 10 kills and 21 assists. Fellow senior Jenelle Stouffer led the Panther defense with 18 digs with sophomore Jamie Kaufman chipping in 17 digs.

Katherine Jensen led all hitters with 17 kills for the Chants and was joined in double digits by teammate Alicia Meyers with 11. Jensen added 14 digs to give herself a double-double on the night with CCU libero Kristin Rinne topping the defensive chart with 15 digs.

"Obviously this is a disappointing loss," said HPU head coach Chad Esposito. "We played hard but we continue to struggle with making the plays we need to make in order to win big games. Our passing was very inconsistent tonight and we can't have that against a talented team like Coastal Carolina. We will need to regroup from this quickly and get ready for a battle on Saturday against Charleston Southern."

The match was evenly played through the opening portion of game one with Coastal able to maintain a slight edge. From a 9-9 tie, CCU outscored High Point 10-3 to grab an advantage they would never relinquish. HPU closed to within four points on one occasion before dropping the first frame by a 30-21 count.

High Point got out of the gate early in game two grabbing a 5-2 advantage. The Chants battled back to knot the score at five as the match settled into a sidout contest over the next several rotations. A 12-4 spurt by Coastal again gave the visitors some breathing room putting them in front 21-13.  Trailing 28-19, the Panthers made a late charge by scoring five of the next six points before CCU recorded the final point for the 30-24 victory.

The two squads traded points early in the third stanza before Coastal Carolina began to slowly build a lead that eventually reached double figures at 26-16. HPU fought off a handful of match point tries for the Chants before finally losing the deciding game, 30-20.