Site: Harrisonburg, Va. (Sinclair Gymnasium)
Score: High Point 3, VCU 1 (19-25, 25-23, 25-17, 25-20)
Records: HPU 2-1, VCU 2-1
Next HPU Event: Friday, September 3, 2021 — vs. Sacred Heart (West Point, N.Y.) 11 a.m.
HARRISONBURG, Va. – Freshman outside hitter Sydney Palazzolo starred in the High Point University volleyball team’s four-set victory over VCU on Sunday afternoon (Aug. 29) in the final match of the JMU Invitational.
“I thought we carried over our intensity from yesterday’s match into today,” head coach Ryan Meek said after the match. “We did a great job executing the game plan and every person we called on today went in and did a great job. We’re looking forward to getting back into the gym the week and preparing for our matches this upcoming weekend.”
The freshman finished the match with a team-high 21 kills and just as many digs for her first career double-double and 20-20 performance. She needed only the first two sets to get her double-double (10 kills, 14 digs) and tacked on 11 more kills and seven digs in the final two sets for good measure, including seven kills in the third set alone.
Three other Panthers joined Palazzolo in double digits in kills, with junior Maggie Salley finishing second on the team with 11 and sophomore Dylan Maberry and junior Maria Miggins each with 10. Miggins also had a double-double in the match and narrowly missed out on a triple-double as she led the team with 31 assists and picked up eight digs. Freshman libero Jenny Wessling led the Panthers in digs for the second match in a row, totaling 23 over the four sets on Sunday.
Both freshmen standouts Palazzolo and Wessling earned spots on the All-Tournament Team at the invitational’s conclusion. Palazzolo led HPU with an average of 4.71 kills per set and a hitting percentage of .358 over the weekend while Wessling averaged 4.75 digs per set.
VCU took an early lead in the first set but the Panthers fought back and took the lead at 15-13 with an 8-1 run. Palazzolo started the run with a kill and it was capped off by back-to-back-to-back kills from Maberry and one more from Palazzolo to give HPU the two-point lead. The lead was short-lived as the Rams countered with their own 7-1 run to retake the lead by three and held on to take the first set by six points, 25-19.
High Point led for the majority of the second set and trailed only briefly early on and for a point in the middle of the frame. A four-point run bookended by kills from Palazzolo flipped the lead back to HPU at 15-12 and the Panthers never trailed in the set again. The Purple and White led by as many as six, 23-17, but the Rams fought back and took the next five to cut the lead down to just one. That was as close as VCU got as Palazzolo picked up her ninth and 10th kills of the match after that to secure the set for HPU. Those two kills also gave Palazzolo her first career double-double after just two sets as she recorded 14 digs in the opening two frames, with 10 of them coming in the first stanza.
The third set was High Point’s from start to finish as the Purple and White never trailed in it. HPU started the set on an 8-2 run and never lost the lead after that point. VCU fought back from that point and cut High Point’s lead to one at 16-15 before the Panthers turned on the jets. High Point only lost two more points after that and closed the set on a 9-2 run to take a 2-1 lead in the match. Palazzolo picked up where she left off at the end of the second frame and put home seven kills in the third set alone.
HPU trailed early in the deciding set but a timeout by Meek turned the Panthers’ fortunes around as the Purple and White went on a 9-2 run coming out of the break to lead 14-10. The lead didn’t last for long as the Rams took the next four points to level the set. HPU took another timeout after the set was tied and won the next three points to take the lead for good. The Panthers extended their lead up to as many as six and won the set 25-20 to head back to High Point with a winning record.
The Panthers head to New York next weekend for the Black Knights Invitational, hosted by Army, for matches with the Black Knights, Sacred Heart, and Columbia, as well as a non-tournament match at Fairfield.