The High Point University volleyball team's hopes of playing at home in HPU's Millis Center for the Big South Conference Tournament "Final Four" came up short in a hard fought 3-0 (30-24, 30-16, 30-27) loss at Birmingham-Southern in quarterfinal action on Tuesday night.

The loss ends High Point's season at 10-22 and marks the third consecutive season that HPU has played its final match in a Big South quarterfinal match at Birmingham's Bill Battle Coliseum. BSC improves to 12-16 and advances to a semifinal meeting with top-seeded Winthrop on Friday.

High Point struggled offensively hitting just .049 as a team for the match, while Birmingham-Southern connected at a .217 pace.

Sophomore Lindsay Raus was the lone HPU Panther to reach double digits in kills finishing with a team-best 10 kills and hitting at a .471 clip. Senior Sabrina Wahid ended her High Point career with a match-leading five blocks allowing her to leave as the program's all-time career leader in blocks.

Defensively, sophomore libero Lauren Hatch and freshman Audie Gonzalez both topped the team with 15 digs apiece. All-Big South junior Jamie Kaufman posted 10 digs and eight kills in the season finale.

Birmingham-Southern was led by 13 kills from Morgan Anderson and 21 digs by Alex Norten.

"We played really hard tonight," said HPU head coach Chad Esposito. "But my hat goes off to Birmingham-Southern, because they have really pulled together as a team and are playing very well. It was tough for us to get going offensively, and their blocking took us out of synch and BSC stepped up and made some great plays. It's always a good battle with them, but unfortunately we came out on the losing end this time."

High Point grabbed the early momentum taking an 18-15 advantage in game one. BSC rallied to tie the score at 22 and then outscored HPU, 8-2, down the stretch to earn the early lead.

Birmingham-Southern jetted ahead 10-4 to start game two and eventually pushed in front by double-digits at 19-8. BSC maintained their margin en route to a 30-16 victory.

HPU fell behind 15-9 in the third stanza before battling back with a 7-1 run to pull to within a single point at 16-15. Birmingham moved back in front by a 28-22 count, but High Point refused to go away scoring five straight points before finally falling by a final score of 30-27.

Despite the disappointing loss, the High Point Panthers had a successful season posting a program best Big South win total as well as securing a third straight season of double-digit victories. Kaufman also became the first HPU player to earn first-team All-Conference honors.

Birmingham-Southern faces Winthrop in the first semifinal on Friday at 4:30 at the Millis Center followed by a second semifinal pitting UNC Asheville against Coastal Carolina at 7 p.m. The Big South Championship match is slated for 4 p.m. on Saturday in High Point.