The High Point University volleyball team fell to Big South rival Liberty, 3-0 (27-25, 25-20, 25-21) on Tuesday evening in the Millis Center. HPU and Liberty are now tied for first place in the Big South with both teams holding a 12-3 conference record.

"Hats off to Liberty, they played an unbelievable match," said HPU head coach Chad Esposito. "Not that we didn't play well, they just played better. They played great defense and dug up some balls that we thought we had terminated. They changed their line-up some from last time, we need to go in and see where we need to make adjustments."

Leading the Panthers (24-6) was Ashley Mellott with 12 kills. Audie Gonzalez added nine kills while Lindsay Raus and Stephanie Wallin both had eight. Kristina Taylor tallied 34 assists. Gonzalez led the team on defense with 20 digs and Julie Hershkowitz had 17.  

For the Lady Flames (21-8) Nicki Scripko led the attack with 12 kills while Karyl Bacon had 11. Kallie Corbin recorded a double-double with 38 assists and 18 digs. Kelly Haseman had a match-high 22 digs.

In the opening set Liberty took an early lead and was up by as many as six at 16-10, but the Panthers battled back with a 9-3 run to tie the set at 19 off a kill from Mellott. The two teams tied four more times and were tied at 25, but back-to-back attack errors by the Panthers gave Liberty the final points needed to take the first set.

High Point came out strong in the second set, going up 12-8. The Lady Flames responded with a 4-0 run to tie the set at 12. HPU and LU traded points over the next several rallies and were tied again at 17 before Liberty broke open the scoring with a 6-0 run to go on top 23-17. HPU looked to rally and closed the gap to 19-23, but the deficit was too much as Liberty took the 2-0 set advantage.

Liberty continued its run into the third set, opening with an 8-3 run. The Lady Flames held a six point lead at 20-14, but HPU battled back to close the game to three (22-19) off a kill from Raus, but that is as close as the Panthers would come as the Lady Flames put together three straight kills to take the match.

"We had three opportunities to win in the first set," Esposito said. "Liberty found ways to hold us off. If we had won the momentum may have swung our way. We have to close when we have the opportunities."

HPU and LU played in front of a record crowd tonight with 1,127 in attendance.

"I'm disappointed with the loss, but the crowd tonight was unbelievable. We had a great volleyball atmosphere in here tonight. This is a great venue to play in, there are not many places like this. It was really great to see our fans turn out in full force tonight."

The Panthers will back in action on Saturday, Nov. 15 when they host Gardner-Webb in the final regular season game of the 2008 season. High Point will honor seniors Mellott, Raus, Taylor and Lauren Hatch. Match time is set for 2:00 p.m.