GAME INFO

Thursday, February 4 -- at Presbyterian (Clinton, S.C.), 6 p.m.
Live Stats | Watch | Game Notes
 
Friday, February 5 -- at Presbyterian (Clinton, S.C.), 5 p.m.
Live Stats | Watch | Game Notes
 
The High Point University volleyball team is back in action for the first time in 14 months when the Panthers travel to Clinton, S.C. for a two-game series at Presbyterian. HPU will be playing a conference only schedule in 2021, playing each conference opponent twice in back-to-back days for a total of 16 matches. The Big South will not have a tournament this year, with the regular-season champion earning the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
 

Matchup History

• High Point and Presbyterian have met 21 times since the Panthers joined Division I, with HPU holding a commanding 17-4 lead in the series.
• The Panthers had an eight-match winning streak against PC heading into its senior night in 2019 before the Blue Hose upset the Purple and White in straight sets to end the regular season.
• That was the first win Presbyterian had in the series since the 2014 season, with six High Point sweeps starting the eight-game win streak.

 

Across the Bench

• Presbyterian finished 15-15 in 2019 with an 8-6 record in Big South action to finish in fourth place.
• The Blue Hose advanced to the semifinals of the Big South Tournament where they fell to eventual champion Winthrop.
• PC was second in the Big South and 29th in the nation a season ago in aces per set with an average of 1.65, just behind High Point's conference-leading mark of 1.75.
• The Blue Hose are coached by Korrinn Burgess, entering her eighth year leading the PC volleyball team. The 15 wins a season ago marked the fourth straight season that Presbyterian increased its win total and are the most wins the Blue Hose have had with Burgess at the helm.
• Junior Erin Cooke was the leading attacker for Presbyterian in 2019 with an average of 2.78 kills per set and was named to the Preseason All-Conference Team for 2020. Cooke's classmate Trinity Williams was just behind Cooke with an average of 2.61 kills per set and also averaged 2.46 digs per set in 2019, the most among returning Blue Hose players.
• PC does get its top setter back this year as Sierra Jones enters her senior season after having an average of 5.94 assists per set a season ago to put her fifth in the conference.

 

Panther Notes 

Last Season

It's been 13 months since the High Point volleyball team has been in action, with the Panthers' last matches coming in the National Volleyball Invitational Championship. HPU finished 21-13 on the season and went 12-2 in Big South play for a second-place finish in the conference. The Purple and White's quest for back-to-back Big South Tournament championships ended in the semifinals with a five-set loss to Campbell. High Point's season wasn't dead yet, as the Panthers were invited to the NIVC, where HPU defeated Morehead State before falling to Liberty.
 

Postseason Panthers

HPU's 3-1 victory over Morehead State in the first round of the NIVC a season ago marked High Point's first postseason victory since joining Division I in 1999. The Panthers have been to the NCAA Tournament four times in that stretch but have only one a set once, coming in 2017 with a 3-1 loss to Purdue.
 

Picked #1

High Point was predicted to win the Big South this season, making it five years in a row the Panthers have been predicted to finish atop the conference. HPU garnered 77 points and six first-place votes to finish three points ahead of last year's champion Winthrop's 74 points. The Eagles also picked up the remaining three first-place votes.
 

Preseason Honors

Three Panthers were named to the Preseason All-Conference Team: senior Abby Bottomley, and sophomores Annie Sullivan and Kaley Rammelsberg. Winthrop was the only other school with multiple players named to the Preseason All-Conference Team while HPU was the only team to have three representatives on the team.
 

Schedule Format

This season teams will play back-to-back conference matches only against the same opponent at the same site on consecutive days. Each team will finish with 16 Big South contests, with the regular-season champion earning the conference's auto-bid to the NCAA Championship with no Big South Tournament being played this season.
 

All-Decade Dominance

High Point had three players named to the Big South's All-Decade Team this summer for the years 2010-19, tied for the most with Radford. Four-time All-Conference player and 2018 Player of the Year Molly Livingston headlined the list for the Panthers. She was joined by three-time All-Conference selection and 2016 Big South Tournament MVP Haley Barnes and current Panther and three-time All-Conference selection Bottomley.
 

Strength in Numbers

HPU has 22 players on its roster for the 2020 (played in spring 2021) season, making it the largest roster in the Big South. The Panthers narrowly edged out Radford as the Highlanders are carrying 21 players this season.
 

Aced It

High Point led the conference and finished 11th in the country last season with an average of 1.75 service aces per set. Sophomore Megan Kratzer was second in the conference and 52nd in the nation with an average of 0.4 aces per set and tied the school record for aces in a single match with seven against Charleston Southern. Bottomley was second on the team in aces per set with an average of 0.35 but led the team in total aces with 43, good for a share of the lead in the conference.
 

Defense, Defense, Defense

The Panthers had a stout defense in 2019, holding opponents to hitting just 16.1 percent over the season. That led the conference and was 19th in the country.
 

Can You Dig It?

Bottomley was one of the best liberos in the country a season ago, finishing the year in the top 10 in all of Division I in both total digs and digs per set. Her 673 digs were the eighth-most in the country while her average of 5.52 was the ninth-best. She finished 15 digs shy of the High Point single-season record and enters the 2020 season in third on the career digs list and atop the career digs per set leaderboard as the only Panther to average over 5.00 digs per set (5.35).
 

Sophomore Squad

HPU has 10 sophomores on the team for the largest class on the roster. Last year's freshman class played a big role for the Panthers, with three players - Kratzer, Sullivan, and Rammelsberg being named to the All-Freshman team, Rammelsberg earning Second Team All-Conference honors, and Kratzer and Sullivan representing the Purple and White as All-Conference Honorable Mentions
 

Fresh Five

High Point boasts five newcomers for the 2020 season. Donning the Purple and White for the first time this season are Kate Roth, Evy Eckensberger, Haley Maeurer, Connelly Renfrow, and Catherine Waldeck.
 
 
Up Next: High Point is off next weekend before returning to action on the road with a trip to UNC Asheville on Feb. 18-19.