Friday the 13th started off sluggishly for the High Point University volleyball team but the Panthers eventually got things on track in handing the Radford Highlanders a 3-1 (23-30, 30-22, 30-28, 30-25) loss at the Millis Center.

The win, which was the team's second straight Big South Conference home victory, upped HPU's record to 6-14 overall and 4-2 in the league. Radford slipped to 6-12, 2-4.

Junior Jamie Kaufman finished with her sixth consecutive double-double in the match including 16 digs and a team-high 28 kills. Freshman Audie Gonzalez also recorded a double-double finishing with 10 kills and a career best 35 digs.

Junior Ashley Johnson chipped in a season best 17 kills and hit at a team leading .333 clip. Sophomore setter Kristina Taylor posted a personal best 58 assists in setting the Panthers to the win.

A pair of Highlander attackers shared team offensive honors as Lindsey Wheeler and Lindsey Poole each tallied 12 kills on the night. Libero Rachel Newton was the defensive backrow standout digging out 36 balls and Wheeler led the frontline with six blocks.

"This was a very big conference win for us," said HPU head coach Chad Esposito. "We knew the importance of this weekend as it relates to our goal of creating some separation between us and some other teams. We needed to start things off with a win and tonight we had a total team effort and accomplished our plan. I was proud of the way we rallied after starting a little flat, but some of that was due to the fine play of Radford. I thought we made a few adjustments and really picked up our defensive effort and that seemed to turn things in our favor. Another huge key for us tonight was the play of Ashley Johnson in the middle."

Radford charged out of the gate at the start of the match taking an early 12-4 lead in game one. High Point eventually settled down and trimmed their deficit to just two points, 24-22, before the Highlanders regrouped and closed out the frame scoring six of the final seven points.

Game two started off as a back-and-forth affair until the Panthers were finally able to open up a slight lead, 19-15, midway through the frames thanks to some aggressive serving from Gonzalez. HPU continued to build on their momentum and evened the match at one with a strong closing push.

High Point carried their solid play over into the third stanza building an 18-10 advantage. Radford refused to quit and came charging back to tie the score at 28 on a kill by Wheeler. After an untimely service error gave HPU a chance at game point, the Panthers then forced a hitting error to capture the victory.

In the fourth game, HPU used an 8-2 spurt to surge ahead from a tie at nine and never looked back. RU made a late challenge battling off four match points before finally giving up the final point on a kill by Lindsay Raus.

For the match, High Point out-hit the Highlanders 71-54 in kills but RU won the battle at the net owning an 11-6 advantage in team blocks. HPU finished with 101 digs, marking their third 100+ dig performance this season, to edge the Highlanders (98) in digs.

HPU closes out their Big South weekend doubleheader on Saturday at 2 p.m. against Liberty in the Millis Center. Radford concludes their road trip at Winthrop tomorrow at 2 p.m.