Megan Kaminskas and Stephanie Wallin combined for 25 kills to lead the High Point University volleyball team over Winston-Salem State, 3-0 (25-17, 25-19, 25-16) on Tuesday evening at the C.E. Gaines Center.
Kaminskas recorded a career-high 13 kills in the match for the Panthers (16-3) and Wallin added 12. Freshman Holly Fong had 37 assists in the match up while Lyndsay Rowley notched 14 digs.
"It was nice to get a lot of our players some playing time that they have not gotten this year," said High Point head coach Chad Esposito. "Winston-Salem State played very well and it allowed some of our reserves to get quality minutes. I was really pleased with the way Megan Kaminskas and Stephanie Wallin played. Holly Fong did a great job of setting and running the offense for the entire match. Definitely gave us a glimpse of what the future holds."
For the Lady Rams (4-13) Annika Barnwell had five kills and Ashley Harris had four. Erica Cole had 10 digs in the match.
High Point jumped out to a quick 17-7 lead in the opening set, but WSSU battled back behind the serving of Valentina Pushkina to cut the lead to five at 19-14. Rowley went on a short service run to extend the Panther lead to 24-16 and a kill from Wallin on the last rally gave High Point the 1-0 set advantage.
In the second set High Point took the lead at 10-9. The Lady Rams kept the score close, and pulled within one at 19-18. That is as close as WSSU came as HPU went on a 5-1 run to close out the set.
The Lady Rams came out strong in the third set and took an 11-8 lead. High Point rallied behind a six serve run from Anna Lott which was highlighted by three kills from Wallin to go up 14-11. The Panthers never looked back as Fong followed Lott's service run with one of her own that featured three kills from Kaminskas to put HPU up 19-12. High Point outscored WSSU 6-3 over the final points to secure the match.
"This was one of those matches that if you're not focused you can really end up struggling," Esposito said. "Luckily we were focused for the most part. We struggled a bit on serve receive, but Winston-Salem had some quality servers who were really able to crank some nice jump serves. We're going to spend the next few days trying to get focused for our 'Dig for the Cure' match against Winthrop on Friday."
High Point will be back on the court on Friday when it hosts Big South rival, Winthrop. Match time is set for 7:00 p.m. in the Millis Center. Friday's match will feature HPU's "Dig for the Cure" campaign for the Susan G. Koman Foundation.
