MATCH INFO

Friday, September 17 -- vs. Kennesaw State (Greenville, S.C.), 1 p.m.
Live Stats | Match Notes
 
Friday, September 17 -- at Furman (Greenville, S.C.), 7 p.m.
Live Stats | Watch | Match Notes
 
Saturday, September 18 -- at South Carolina (Columbia, S.C.), 4 p.m.
Live Stats | Watch | Match Notes
 
The High Point University volleyball team (6-4) has a swing through South Carolina this weekend with three matches in the Palmetto State to finish out its non-conference schedule. HPU starts the weekend off with matches against Kennesaw State (5-4) and Furman (5-3) on Furman's campus on Friday (Sept. 17) at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m., respectively. The Panthers then travel down to the state's capital for a match on Saturday (Sept. 18) with SEC-foe South Carolina (6-2) at 4 p.m.
 

Kennesaw State Preview

Matchup History

• High Point and Kennesaw State have played each other three times in the past, with the Owls coming away victorious in the most recent two meetings.
• HPU won the first matchup between the two back in 2007 but Kennesaw got the better of the Panthers in five sets in 2018 as part of the ASUN/Big South Challenge and then swept the Purple and White in 2019.

 

Across the Bench

• Kennesaw State heads to Greenville with a 5-4 record on the season. The Owls are in action Thursday night (Sept. 16) when they play Furman before meeting the Panthers on Friday.
• The Owls are one of the top serving teams in the country, entering Thursday 20th in the nation with a 2.03 aces per set mark.
• KSU has a total of 71 aces on the year, putting it 17th in all of Division I volleyball teams.
• Kennesaw's offense is led by Emma Schurfranz with a 3.40 kills per set clip, with Lauren Chastang close behind at 2.83 K/S.
• Chastang is the top server on the team with 18 aces so far this season, tied for the 18th-most in the country.
• Jasmine Brown is the only Owl hitting over .300 with the minimum number of required attacks and enters Thursday with a .337 hitting percentage.
• Defensively, Bri Becerra is the only Kennesaw player to average 3.0 digs per set or better with a 3.43 D/S averaged while Claire Parsons leads the net-front defense with an average of 0.94 blocks per set.

 

Furman Preview

Matchup History

• Friday will be the fifth meeting between High Point and Furman, with the first four split evenly at two wins apiece.
• It will also be the first time the two sides have met in Greenville, S.C. as HPU has hosted the Paladins once and played Furman at a neutral site three different times
• The Panthers have a two-match winning streak in the series, with the last match coming in the 2019 season - a 3-0 win for High Point.

 

Across the Bench

• Furman is 5-3 heading into Thursday's match with Kennesaw State and is coming off a 2-1 weekend at the Dolphin Classic in Jacksonville, Fla.
• The Paladins have played one Big South opponent already, beating Presbyterian in four sets.
• Finishing last season 5-11 in SoCon action, Furman was picked to finish sixth in the conference in the SoCon Preseason Coaches Poll.
• Preseason All-Conference selection Neci Harris leads Furman's offense with an average of 3.10 kills per set and a .378 hitting percentage.
• Her hitting percentage is the best in the SoCon and puts her 68th in the country.
• Bella Tolone is 17 kills behind Harris and enters Thursday second on the team with a 2.89 K/S mark.
• Andrea Aceveda is the only Paladin to average over 3.0 digs per set with a rate of 4.16, good for fifth-best in the SoCon.
• Harris also leads the defensive efforts at the net for Furman with a 0.71 blocks per set average.

 

South Carolina Preview

Matchup History

• High Point and South Carolina have played each other twice before, with the Gamecocks coming away victorious in both.
• The teams most recently met in 2019 when USC won in four sets.
• HPU's last win against a Power-5 team was against an SEC school, a conference the Panthers are 1-6 against in their Division I history.

 

Across the Bench

• South Carolina enters the week 6-2 and plays fellow Big South school Winthrop on Thursday night (Sept. 16).
• The Gamecocks are led by former HPU bench boss Tom Mendoza, now in his fourth year in Columbia with a 58-34 record leading USC.
• South Carolina played Pitt in the opening weekend of the season and lost to the then-No. 9-ranked Panthers in straight sets and recently beat HPU's first opponent this weekend, Kennesaw State, in straight sets last Thursday (Sept. 9).
• South Carolina's offense is led by graduate student Kyla Manning with an average of 3.38 kills per set and a .270 hitting percentage.
• Mikayla Robinson has the best hitting percentage on the Gamecocks with a .333 clip and is third on the team with a rate of 2.38 K/S.
• Robinson is also South Carolina's lead defender at the net, blocking an average of 1.17 attempts per set to sit ninth in the SEC.
• Morgan Carter paces USC's backcourt defense with 3.72 digs per set and Lauren McCutcheon is one of the top servers in the SEC with 13 total service aces to sit in third place in the conference.

 

Panther Notes

 

Last Time Out

High Point had its toughest weekend of the season last week, facing off with three NCAA Tournament teams from Omaha in the spring season at Pitt's Panther Challenge. HPU was swept in two competitive matches against No. 4 Pitt and No. 12 BYU and defeated Bowling Green in four sets in the middle match of the tournament.
 

Double-Double Delight

Three different Panthers recorded double-doubles against Bowling Green on Saturday (Sept. 11). Freshman Sydney Palazzolo notched her fourth double-double of the season with 11 kills and 12 digs while senior Mackenzi Thornburg picked up the team-leading 12th double-double of her career with 24 assists and 10 digs. Connelly Renfrow finished the match with 20 digs and 10 assists for the first double-double of the sophomore's career.
 

Next Panther Up

Renfrow wore the libero jersey in both matches on Saturday after usual libero Jenny Wessling went down with an injury. Renfrow shined in the role with a career-best 20 digs to lead the team and added 12 later that day against No. 12 BYU for the first two double-digit dig matches of her career.
 

Two Big South Awards x2

For the second time this season, High Point had two players recognized with weekly awards from the Big South Conference. Senior middle blocker Gabrielle Idlebird earned the second 'Player of the Week' award of her career and Palazzolo was named the conference's 'Freshman of the Week'. Idlebird picked up double-digit kills in two of the three matches and hit .563 against No. 12 BYU. She totaled 15 blocks in the 10 sets for an average of 1.5 B/S and had seven against the Cougars to match the most any Panther has had in a single match this season. Palazzolo had double-digit kills in both of the matches she played in and put up 16 against No. 4 Pitt with only one error for a career-best .500 hitting percentage against the Panthers.
 

Road Warriors

Including the exhibition match at UNC, High Point begins its 2021 season with 18 matches away from home, including the entirety of its non-conference schedule. HPU doesn't play in front of the Millis Faithful until Oct. 8, against Campbell, the first of eight home matches on the schedule.
 

Iron Sharpens Iron

The 13 teams the Purple and White face in non-conference action this year have combined for 13 NCAA Tournament appearances in the last two years with five teams (Army, Bowling Green, BYU, Illinois State, Pitt) joining HPU in last year's 48-team field in Omaha. The Panthers' non-conference opponents combined for a 148-54 record (.733 winning percentage) during the 2020-21 campaign, with only the Ivy League's Columbia not competing at all during the year.
 

Let Me Help You With That

Led by the setters combo of junior Maria Miggins and Thornburg, High Point currently leads the Big South and ranks 33rd in the country in assists per set at 12.60.
 

Conference Leaders

Not only does HPU lead the Big South in assists per set, the Panthers also lead the way in hitting percentage (.234), kills per set (13.31), total assists (441), total digs (511), and total kills (466). Palazzolo leads the conference in kills per set (3.67) and points per set (4.26), while Dylan Maberry leads the way in total points (127.0) and total kills (119).
 

Power Play

Having already played Pitt, the Panthers are facing their second Power-5 team of the season this weekend at South Carolina. HPU entered the season 7-36 against teams in a Power-5 conference, with the last win coming against Georgia in 2017 on the same day that the Purple and White also beat Oklahoma in straight sets.
 
 

UP NEXT

Next weekend marks the start of Big South play and the end of High Point's long road stretch to start the season. The Panthers open the conference portion of their schedule on Friday (Sept. 24) at USC Upstate before heading over to UNC Asheville on Saturday (Sept. 25).