The High Point University volleyball team served up 10 aces en route to a 3-1 (30-28, 30-19, 19-30, 30-26) victory over long-time rival Elon on Tuesday night at the Millis Athletic Center.

The Panthers, who improved to 9-5 on the year, extended their win streak against in-state opponent to six matches with the win over the Phoenix (7-9). Junior setter Kristina Taylor led the attack from the service line for HPU finishing with four aces on the night.

Audie Gonzalez posted a double-double with 11 kills and 19 digs to pace the Panther's balanced performance. Senior Jamie Kaufman led all players with 19 kills in the contest while freshman libero Julie Hershkowitz tallied 30 digs to top the HPU defense. Taylor also recorded a double-double against Elon finishing with 44 assists and 14 digs. Ashley Mellott added 10 kills for the Panthers while Lauren Hatch chipped in 16 digs.

Mandy Wilson led the Phoenix on offense with 13 kills followed by a trio of players with 10. Kelley Blakewood posted a team-best 19 digs and Emily Lucci narrowly missed a triple-double after tallying 10 kills, 11 digs and eight blocks. Elon out-blocked the Panthers at the net 11-3.

"The key for us tonight was our ability to play fundamentally sound defense," said HPU head coach Chad Esposito. "I thought we did a good job at the service line and also were pretty solid in our serve receive with the exception of a small lull during game three. I was proud of how we regrouped in the fourth game and closed out the match. It is always nice to earn a victory against an old rival. This was a good win for our team."

Game one was a seesaw battle that featured 16 ties and seven lead changes and saw neither team lead by more than three points at any time during play. The Panthers broke a tie at 27 with back-to-back points off Elon miscues and then held on for the two-point win. In the second frame, Taylor rattled off 12 straight points from the service line including all four of her aces in pushing HPU from a one-point lead (17-16) to game point.

Coming out of the break, Elon seized back the momentum scoring the first six points of the third stanza. High Point would close the deficit to one before the Phoenix used a pair of scoring runs (seven and five points) to open up a double-digit lead on their way to the comfortable win.

The two squads went back-and-forth early in the fourth game. High Point slowly built a lead that would get as large as six points midway through the frame. HPU's lead shrunk to three points late in the frame, but the Phoenix were unable to overtake the Panthers in the end falling by a 30-26 count in the deciding game.

High Point continues its current home stand with a pair of Big South Conference matches this weekend. The Panthers host Liberty on Friday at 7 p.m., in their league home opener and then welcome Radford on Saturday at 2 p.m.