Site: High Point, N.C. (Millis Athletic and Convocation Center)
Score: Florida State 3, High Point 2 (25-18, 22-25, 25-22, 24-26, 15-10)
Records: FSU: 16-6, HPU: 17-10
Next HPU Event: Friday, Nov. 8 -- at Campbell (Buies Creek, N.C.), 6 p.m.
 
HIGH POINT, N.C. -- Four different Panthers had double-digit kills but it wasn't enough to get the High Point University volleyball team past Florida State University in a five-set thriller in front of a rowdy crowd at the Millis Center on Saturday, Nov. 2. High Point had 67 kills total on the day, the second-most this year, finishing just behind the 73 picked up in the five-set comeback victory over Radford. It was the first time the Panthers have hosted a Power 5 school at the Millis Center since N.C. State visited in 2017 as part of the High Point Tournament.
 
"I thought we played really hard," head coach Ryan Meek said of the team's performance. "We did so many good things. Florida State is a great team, well trained, one of the premier programs in the country and to come out and be in five with them and play as well as we did shows a lot about the future of the program. We've done a lot of great things as a program but this is the proudest I've ever been of a High Point team."
 
Florida State controlled the beginning of the opening set, taking a 6-3 lead. High Point cut the deficit to one twice but the Seminoles were able to answer both times, extending their lead out to five points at 15-10. An 8-2 run for FSU shortly after that opened the set up for Florida State and despite a small comeback from the Panthers the Seminoles took the opening set with the largest margin of victory in the match, 25-18.
 
FSU looked like it might run away with the match early in the second set after taking the first three points but High Point answered back. A 6-1 run gave the Panthers the lead, coming from a pair of Seminole attack errors and two kills each from freshman Megan Kratzer and sophomore Gabrielle Idlebird. The teams traded three-point runs until HPU rattled off five of six points to force Florida State to take its second timeout of the set at 15-10. Freshmen Kaley Rammelsberg and Maggie Salley picked up all five of the points for the Purple and White on the run, with Rammelsberg grabbing three and Salley two.
 
High Point extended its lead to seven points at 19-12 and the teams traded sideouts right after to keep the lead at seven. The Seminoles went on a 6-2 run to cut the lead to three points and forced Meek to call a timeout with his team only needing two more points to draw level in the match. The Panthers got the two points it needed, with Rammelsberg notching her set-high sixth kill of the set for the 24th point, setting up Kratzer to deliver the final kill two points later to give HPU the set, 25-22.
 
Both teams hit well in the second set, with the Panthers just edging the Seminoles, .400 to .318. The teams combined for only five total attack errors in the second stanza. Junior libero Abby Bottomley stayed busy on the backend for the Panthers, finishing the set with 13 of her 43 digs, the most in any set of the match for her.
 
High Pont led early in the third set before a service error turned serve over to Florida State, who followed that up with four-straight points to take the lead 10-7, forcing the Panthers to call a timeout. The Seminoles held onto the lead the rest of the set, but it only got as large as four points. HPU reduced the lead to just two points late in the set but the teams then traded points to give Florida State the set at 25-22 and a 2-1 lead in the match.
 
Kratzer connected for all three of her kills in the fourth set early, helping the Panthers establish a 6-3 lead. FSU took a timeout with the score 7-3 in HPU's favor and proceeded to go on a 7-2 run to take the lead at 10-9, forcing a timeout from the home bench. The team responded well to the timeout as a sideout kill from Rammelsberg turned the set over to the Macy Miller show as the freshman rattled off three service aces in a row to retake the lead, 13-10.
 
The Seminoles tied the set up at 14 and 15 all before going on a four-point run to take a 19-17 lead off two attack errors from Salley. Salley made up for it shortly after with a kill to bring the set level again and then three straight kills to retake the lead. FSU tied it up twice after that to make it 12 times the score was level in the fourth set, before the Seminoles committed two attack errors, one being a block from Rammelsberg and fellow freshman Sopheea Mink, with the score even at 24 to force a fifth set in front of the raucous crowd at the Millis Center.
 
The fifth set did not have the ties and lead changes that the exciting fourth set had, with Florida State taking the set's first two points and not looking back. After the Seminoles took a 5-2 lead, two points was as close as the Panthers came, as FSU hit .500 to take the fifth set 15-10 and seal the match.
 
Salley and Kratzer each had two kills in the final set to bring their totals to 16 each, tied for the team lead. Idlebird and Rammelsberg joined them in double digits, with 14 and 13, respectively. The Panthers reached the 60-kill plateau for the third-straight match, the first time that's happened since the 2014 season when it happened twice.
 
Bottomley's 43 digs are her second-most this season, just one behind her 44-mark against Radford earlier in the year. That pushes her season total to 535 digs, 10th-most in a single season in school history, putting her in the top-10 all three seasons she's played. She currently sits fourth in school history for most career digs with 1,681, only 45 away from third place. Bottomley averages 5.57 digs per set this season, which would be the second-best in school history behind Annemarie Chin's average of 5.61 in 2015.
 
HPU hits the road for its final two regular-season road matches next weekend. The Panthers travel to Campbell on Friday night (Nov. 8) for a 5:30 p.m. match with the Fighting Camels before Saturday's 2 p.m. showdown with the Hampton Pirates.