High Point, N.C. – The High Point University women's volleyball team's comeback fell just short against Campbell, 2-3 on Thursday night. After going down two sets, the Panthers fought back to a fifth set rally, taking it extra points before a winner was declared.
Sydney Palazzolo set a new career-high with 25 kills to go along with a tied team-high 19 digs with
Jenny Wessling.
Site: Millis Center
Score: High Point 2 (16, 21, 25, 25, 19), Campbell 3 (25, 25, 17, 15, 21)
Records: High Point (18-9, 11-2), Campbell (16-9, 12-1)
To start the match, High Point struggled to get the ball rolling, dropping the first two sets, 16-25 and 22-25 respectively.
Kathryn Wesolich kicked off set one with a solo block from the middle to tie the game at three all.
HPU fell by five but cut the Camels lead back to one at 10-11. Campbell leaked out on their own run but in the mix of it, Palazzolo glided from the back row to knock one in off an
Ally Van Eekeren set. HPU had no answer for the Camels in set one and fell 16-25.
Set two was a close set throughout as both teams exchanged leads back and forth. Midway through the set,
Maria Miggins sent a shot over from the right-side, beaming the Camel defense in the chest to make it 11-10 Panthers.
After tying the game at 22 all from a
Dylan Maberry kill, Campbell went on to tag three straight points and close out the set 22-25.
Hight Point did not mess around in set three, earning kill after kill to make a stance in the game. Maberry showed a big presence in set three, tallying five of her 14 hits from the outside.
Sopheea Mink had a solid showing from the middle, sliding a quick shot past the Camel defense to make it 17-11 in the third set. A combination of hits from Miggins and Wesolich helped make it 24-15 before a final kill from Palazzolo would give the Panthers their first win of the night.
High Point dominated in set four, as the team advanced on an 8-4 lead after Miggins found an open hole on the serve. Multiple errors by Campbell gave way to a 14-8 lead, giving the Panthers their largest lead of the night.
Palazzolo launched from the back row to hammer down a shot, tagging her 17th kill of the night before registering her 20
th kill from an over pass at the net by the Camels. The excitement in Millis was through the roof, especially following a shot from the middle by Mink to make it 23-14.
The fourth set win by the Panthers called for a fifth set tiebreaker to determine a winner. After being down 3-1 early, the Panthers tied the game at 4-4 before taking a 6-4 lead from another kill by Mink. From there, HPU led for majority of the set, taking a 13-10 advantage to force Campbell to call a timeout.
The game got interesting after two mistakes by High Point to sinch the lead to only one. From that point on it was a back-and-forth affair between the two teams as the game went well into extra points.
Palazzolo kept the game alive with a hit across the court to make it 19 all, but Campbell walked away with the final two points of the game to win 21-19 over the Panthers.
Up Next: HPU remains at home on Friday, November 4th as the team welcomes Radford to the Millis Center for a Big South matchup at 6pm.
