Playing in their second match in less than 24 hours, High Point dropped a tough 3-1 (30-26, 18-30, 22-30, 23-30) decision at in-state rival UNC Asheville on Sunday afternoon at the Justice Center.

The Panthers (6-18, 4-5 Big South), who suffered a five-game loss at Birmingham-Southern on Saturday then traveled on a bus for nearly eight hours to get to UNCA for today's early afternoon start, battled all day but just could not score the key points to earn their first ever victory over the Bulldogs (9-14, 7-2 Big South).

"This weekend was a really tough road trip," said HPU head coach Chad Esposito. "I was proud of our effort and thought that we played hard. Unfortunately we had some costly errors that allowed our opponents to get the win. Our defense was wonderful again today and our offense was explosive at times. We just need to find a way to get our offense clicking on a more consistent basis if we expect to win tight matches. We continue to improve and we will just keep working to get things rolling as we near the end of the regular season."

High Point was led by junior Jamie Kaufman who had 13 kills and 10 digs and freshman Audie Gonzalez who chipped in 11 kills and 13 digs. Libero Lauren Hatch again topped the Panther defense finishing with a match-best 28 digs. Sophomore setter Kristina Taylor posted her second consecutive double-double handing out 39 assists while notching 11 digs. Senior Sabrina Wahid tallied a career-best 11 blocks, including nine block assists, to pace the HPU frontline.
 
Elif Unlu led three UNC Asheville attackers in double figures with 21 kills. Unlu who had 24 kills against Winthrop on Friday had 21 kills and added 18 digs for her 15th double-double of the season on Sunday. Alysha Greer had 11 kills and Emily Palma had a career-high 10 kills for the Bulldogs.
 
The Panthers had four of their 11 team blocks in game one as they hit .114 in the opener to hold off Asheville 30-26. There were 14 ties and seven lead changes in the first game. HPU had game-point at 29-23, before Asheville ran off three straight points. After a timeout, Gonzalez put down game point to give the Panthers win.
 
Asheville's offense came alive in the second game as Unlu had 10 kills in game two alone. The Bulldogs earned a sideout 84 percent of the time in the second game on way to a 30-18 victory to tie the match at a game apiece.
 
High Point struggled offensively in both games three and four as Asheville capitalized on a variety of HPU miscues. The Bulldogs hit .170 in the match to just .069 for the Panthers. Asheville out dug High Point 96-78 as Bulldog libero Raquel Miotto had 28 digs. HPU was also hindered at the service line netting three aces while committing 14 service errors in the match.
 
HPU returns to action next weekend as the Panthers open up a three-match home stand with a pair of important Big South contests. High Point hosts Charleston Southern on Friday night before meeting Coastal Carolina on Saturday afternoon.