Site: Harrisonburg, Va. (Sinclair Gymnasium)
Score: James Madison 3, High Point 2 (25-22, 25-23, 16-25, 24-26, 13-15)
Records: JMU 1-0, HPU 0-1
Next HPU Event: Saturday, August 28, 2021 — vs. Illinois State (Harrisonburg, Va.) 2:30 p.m.
HARRISONBURG, Va. – The High Point University volleyball team dropped a hard-fought, five-set match against James Madison University in the season-opener on Friday (Aug. 27).
The match was tightly contested from almost start to finish, with four of the five sets decided by three points or fewer. High Point came out strong in the beginning of the match, taking the first two sets 25-22 and 25-23. James Madison responded by winning the third set 25-16 before taking the fourth 26-24 and then completing the comeback with a 15-13 win in the fifth and final set.
“We learned tonight how hard you need to compete to win against a good team on the road,” head coach Ryan Meek said after the match. “Give all the credit to James Madison. They played great and attacked our weak spots all night. We flat out did not adjust fast enough or play with the competitive effort necessary to win a match like this.”
Sophomore transfer Dylan Maberry had a strong start to her Panther career with a team-leading 17 kills and four blocks in the match. Junior Sopheea Mink and senior Gabrielle Idlebird joined Maberry in double digits with 14 and 13 kills, respectively, with Mink’s being a career-best.
Junior setter Maria Miggins notched the fourth double-double of her career with 28 assists and 20 digs – leading the team in both categories. Fellow setter Mackenzi Thornburg narrowly missed out on joining her as the senior ended with 26 assists and nine digs. Freshman libero Jenny Wessling was the only other member of the Purple and White with double-digit digs, totaling 15 in her collegiate debut.
The first two sets saw a combined five lead changes and 16 tied scores as the teams felt each other out after a short offseason in front of a large and loud crowd dressed mostly in purple. A 10-1 HPU run over the middle of the first set was the turning point in the opener, with the run capped off by an emphatic block from newcomers Maberry and Jackie Joyce after a great defensive sequence by Miggins, Maberry, and Wessling to keep the point alive right before the block. That run gave the Panthers a 20-13 lead in the set but the hosts fought back to tie the frame at 21 and 22 before HPU rattled off three in a row to take the set with a kill from Idlebird.
High Point had its best set statistically in the second stanza, firing off 18 kills and hitting .286 while also picking up 20 digs on the backend. The Dukes led early in the set and didn’t trail for the majority of it, forcing HPU to fight for the frame. High Point trailed by three, 16-19, before a 6-2 run gave the Panthers their first lead of the set. JMU tied it up twice more at 22 and 23-all but the Purple and White picked up the final two points they needed to take the set by two and open up a 2-0 lead in the match.
James Madison wasn’t going down on its home court without a fight and took control of the third set early on the way to a 25-16 win. HPU was held to hitting just .167 in the frame – the lowest of the match for High Point. The Dukes looked like they were going to run away with the fourth frame as well with a 17-13 lead late in the set but HPU stormed back to tie it up at 17-17. JMU retook the lead shortly after and made it to set-point with a three-point advantage. High Point kept battling back and won the next three to knot it up at 24 before the Dukes took the next two points to force the fifth set.
The fifth set was similar to the fourth as JMU took an early lead and extended it up to five, 10-5 before the Panthers came storming back. A timeout at the 10-5 point kicked off a 6-1 run for HPU to tie the set up at 11. The momentum didn’t last as James Madison took a timeout of its own and took the next three to get to match-point. Maberry put home back-to-back kills to keep the Panthers in the match but she was stuffed on the next point to give JMU the match.
HPU will look to build on the positives from the first two sets of the season in the remainder of the JMU Invitational this weekend. The Panthers face Illinois State on Saturday (Aug. 28) at 2:30 p.m. before ending the tournament with a match against VCU on Sunday (Aug. 29) at 1 p.m.