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• Senior Annemarie Chin tallied 28 digs to finish the weekend with 6.17 digs per set and a spot on the all-tournament team along with freshman Jordan Hefner.
• Junior Megan Kennedy (11 kills, 11 digs) and sophomore Haley Barnes (14 kills and 23 digs) posted double-doubles for HPU.
• The Panthers will be back in action on Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. at UNCG.
 
HIGH POINT, N.C. – The High Point University volleyball team fought hard, but fell to Georgia State in five sets (27-25, 25-23, 20-25, 27-29, 10-15) Saturday evening in the Millis Center.
 
The Panthers (4-3) took the first two sets, but Georgia State (3-3) raced back to win in five sets and take the HPU Classic crown.
 
"It was great to be in the Millis Center for three matches and host a great tournament with three good teams," head coach Jason Oliver said. "We came out today against a really talented team that had a lot of upperclassmen who made a lot of plays for them. I was impressed with the way we competed in every set. We had chances to win it and we will learn from that as a unit."
 
Sophomore Camryn Freiberg and the sophomore Haley Barnes led the Panthers with 14 kills apiece. On the defensive end, senior Annemarie Chin paced the squad with 28 digs while Barnes added 23. Junior Megan Kennedy joined Barnes with a double-double of her own racking up 11 kills and 11 digs.
 
Sophomore Carly Jimenez dished out 37 assists on the afternoon while freshman Jordan Hefner collected 10 kills and six blocks.
 
GSU tallied a +1 margin in both kills (64-63) and digs (93-92) and out-hit the home team .196 to .149 in the closely contested match.
 
Georgia State jumped out to an 11-8 lead in the first set, but the Purple & White responded with a 7-1 run to make it 15-12. From there, HPU was able to hold on to earn a 27-25 win. Chin led HPU with 12 digs as the offense complied 17 kills, with six coming from Kennedy.
 
In the second set, the lead went back and forth early on until Georgia State took an 11-8 edge. However, the Purple & White battled through to defeat the visitor 25-23. Freiberg led High Point with three kills in the set while Chin collected seven of the 17 digs for HPU.
 
High Point battled in the third frame, but couldn't overcome its seven attack errors. GSU took the set by a score of 25-23 despite four kills from Freiberg. The visitor hit .244 in the set while HPU only managed a .150 attack percentage.
 
In the beginning of the fourth set, Georgia State hurdled out to a 9-5 lead. However, junior Greta Griswold sparked HPU by serving up back-to-back aces to make the score 11-8. But the Purple & White could not complete to comeback as the visitors took the set 29-27.
 
In the final set of the match, GSU once again grabbed an early lead (4-1). High Point responded with a 3-0 run to tie the score at 4-all. But, the Purple & White were unable to surge ahead and dropped the set 15-10.
 
The Panthers will be back in action on Tuesday when they travel to UNCG for an intra-Triad battle with the Spartans at 7:00 p.m.
 
Tournament MVP:
Kristina Stinson – Georgia State
 
All-Tournament Team:
Annemarie Chin – High Point
Jordan Hefner – High Point
Gabby Serafin – Georgia State
Kitan Ajanaku – Georgia State
Molly Wertz – Loyola
Kirby Anderson – South Carolina State
 
#GoHPU