High Point opened the season with a 3-0 (25-13, 25-15, 25-19) win over Howard on the first day of volleyball action at the East Carolina Classic in Greenville, N.C.
Audie Gonzalez led the Panthers (1-0) with 14 kills and four aces. Kristina Taylor notched 21 assists while Lauren Hatch had 11 digs.
"Our team was great today," said head coach Chad Esposito. "It is always great to open up the season with a win. We were so in system consistently today and we were really able to take control early in the first two sets. It was nice that we were able to get some freshmen in the mix on the third set and get them some playing time and experience."
The Bison were led by Gazelle D'Artois with eight kills and eight digs. Grace Demiachelis had 15 assists.
In set one High Point got out to an 11-6 lead behind the serving of Gonzalez who had seven consecutive serves, recording two of her four aces in the span. Howard pulled to within three (11-8), but the Panthers closed the set with a 14-5 run.
The Panthers opened up the second set with an 11-4 lead fueled by five kills from Gonzalez. Howard broke the double digit barrier at 10-19, but HPU had already taken control of the lead and was able to cruise to the win.
Howard kept the third set close and tied the set up at 13 all, but the Panthers rallied behind the serving of Lindsay Raus and Hatch who combined for eight serves as High Point jumped out to a 19-15 lead. The Bison pulled within two (17-19), but the Panthers closed the set with a 6-2 run to secure the match.
" It was nice to be able to play against someone other than ourselves to see what we can do against other competition," Esposito said. "We played very well coming out in the first match of the season. Hopefully it's a good sign for what we will be able to put together for the rest of the season. Tomorrow will be a little tougher of a day. We're going to get things ready and see what we can do to try to win this tournament."
The Panthers will face East Tennessee State at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday before playing host team ECU at 7:00 p.m. that evening.
