Barnes Leads HPU Volleyball Panthers Past Bucs In Three Sets

• Sophomore Haley Barnes registered her 12th double-double of the year with a 14-kill, 12-dig performance.
• Redshirt-junior Savannah Angel had two crucial blocks in the third set to lead the Panthers’ comeback in the frame.
• High Point continues his 6-match road trip at Campbell on Friday at 7:00 p.m.

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. – The High Point University volleyball team received a great performance from sophomore Haley Barnes to earn a 3-0 sweep of Charleston Southern in the Buc Dome on Tuesday.

The Panthers (16-7, 6-1) opened the night by cruising to victories in the first two sets (25-19 and 25-17). However, the Bucs (6-18, 1-6) grabbed a commanding 16-8 lead in the third set only to see the Panthers storm back for a 25-23 triumph.

The 6-1 start in Big South play is the program’s best start since 2010 when HPU opened league action 7-1.

“For the first road match in three weeks, I think the team responded really well,” head coach Jason Oliver said. “It was a hostile crowd and they gave us a razzing, which was good for us to experience with young players and we came out with the result that we wanted. We hope this is a good launching point as we go play a very solid Campbell team on Friday.”

Barnes tallied 14 kills and 12 digs to post her 12th double-double of the season. Meanwhile, senior Annemarie Chin continued her defensive dominance with 20 digs as HPU held the Bucs to a .054 attack percentage.

Senior Gabi Mirand racked up 25 assists and two of HPU’s 10 service aces in the match. On the attack, sophomore Camryn Freiberg and freshman Molly Livingston tallied seven kills apiece while combining for seven total blocks. In the middle, redshirt-junior Savannah Angel came up huge in the third set with three of her floor blocks in the midst of the Panthers’ comeback.

The Purple & White earned a 38-24 edge in kills while posting a 60-56 advantage in digs.

After a back and forth start to the set, the Panthers went on a 6-1 run to build a 10-5 advantage. However, a 6-1 run from the home team brought the Bucs back within one point at 11-10. Livingston, then, turned the tide back in HPU’s favor with a thunderous kill that sparked 7-1 run spurred on by two aces from freshman Abby Broadstreet (18-11). This time, CSU had no answer as the Purple & White cruised to a 25-19 win in the frame behind five kills from Barnes.

The Panthers jumped out to a 10-5 lead in the second set behind kills from five different players. The Bucs wouldn’t go quietly and slowly fought back to within one (14-13). But once again, Livingston came up with a clutch play to give HPU momentum. First the freshman combined with Broadstreet for a block before adding a solo block to ignite a 5-0 run (19-13). From there, CSU couldn’t get any closer than five as the Panthers closed out the frame with an ace from Mirand (25-17).

The home team came out of the break hot and built a commanding 16-8 advantage in the third frame. Behind two kills from Barnes, HPU fought to within three points at 17-14, but CSU halted the run with consecutive points of its own (19-14).

However, the Panthers were undeterred and knotted the score at 19-all on back-to-back blocks by Angel. Neither team was able to pull ahead by more than a point until Freiberg posted the team’s 10th ace of the match to put the team up 23-21. From there, the Panthers wrapped up the huge comeback with consecutive kills from Livingston and Barnes to complete the sweep (25-23).

The Purple & White will continue their 6-match road trip at Campbell on Friday night where they will look to finish off a season sweep of the Camels.