After falling behind 0-2, the High Point University volleyball team staged a furious comeback to knot the match at 2-2 before dropping a hard-fought 15-12 decision in the final game at UNC Greensboro on Tuesday night.

The Panthers, who slipped to 1-4 on the year, got career high kill performances from senior Sabrina Wahid (11) and freshman Audie Gonzalez (17) in the match but could not overcome the match-leading 27 kill performance by UNCG's Theresa Hart. The Spartans moved to 7-2 with the victory.

"I was proud of our effort and fight tonight," said HPU head coach Chad Esposito. "We played with a lot of heart after falling behind 0-2 to start the match. It was good to see this young team regroup and put themselves into position to win the match. Unfortunately, we made a few costly errors in the fifth game and we can't do that and expect to get a win against a good team. We continue to make strides and improvements in every match."

High Point struggled passing the ball with any consistency in the opening two games. The Panthers dropped game one by a 30-19 count before falling 30-24 in game two. HPU hit just .026 on offense in the opening frame while UNCG clicked at a match-high .312 pace.

The Panthers settled down in game three and opened up a five-point advantage midway through the stanza. The Spartans made a late surge but HPU was able to hold them off for the 30-27 victory. After UNCG scored the first four points of the fourth game, High Point again found a flow and cruised to a 30-23 win to force a deciding fifth game.

After trading several points to start the fifth, the Spartans ran off seven straight points to take an 11-4 lead. HPU refused to go away easy eventually pulling to within two points twice before UNC Greensboro was able to record the final point.

In addition to Gonzalez and Wahid's double-digit kill outings, HPU also got 16 kills from junior Jamie Kaufman. Gonzalez posted a stellar defensive performance against the Spartans as well finishing with a career best 23 digs followed by 20 from Kaufman and 19 by libero Whitney Kaltenegger. Sophomore Lindsay Raus and freshman Megan Kaminskas shared team honors with four blocks each.

UNC Greensboro had a quartet of passers with double-digit digs including libero Catherine Hanners, who led all players with 34 in the contest.

High Point will continue its current nine-match road swing as the head to the Great Northwest this weekend to play in the Nike-Portland (Ore.) Invitational. Action begins at the event hosted by the University of Portland on Friday morning.