HPU Volleyball Panthers Return to Winning Ways in Return Home to Millis

Site: High Point, N.C.
Score: High Point 3, Radford 0 (25-19, 25-18, 25-15)
Records: HPU 20-6 (12-1 Big South), Radford 5-21 (3-10 Big South)
Next HPU Event: Saturday, November 6, 2021 — vs. North Carolina A&T (High Point, N.C.), 5:00 PM

HIGH POINT, N.C. – The High Point University volleyball team picked up its 20th win of the season and stayed undefeated in home play at Millis when they swept Radford 3-0 on Friday afternoon (Nov. 4). This was the Panthers’ 13th sweep of the season and moved then to 12-1 in conference play in the Big South. Dylan Maberry lead the Panthers with 15 kills on the day and had a .389 hitting percentage. Freshman libero Jenny Wessling and freshman outside hitter Sydney Palazzolo had 16 and 15 digs respectively on the day to lead the Panthers. Palazzolo also had eight kills during the match.

Ryan Meek: I thought we responded well to our loss last weekend. We won 27 straight it had been two years since we lost to a conference team, and I think we had a good week at practice but it was not anything to write home about so I was interested to see how we would come out and the cool part about tonight was we played better as the match went on. It wasn’t one of those where you played great then lost interest, I thought each set we just a little bit more improvement, a little more attention to detail. That’s what I learned, we responded well after our lost last weekend.

Panther Particulars

After a back and forth start in the first set with the Highlanders and Panthers trading side-outs, the Panthers begin to take momentum after a 9-9 start. Gabrielle Idlebird took over-serving and led the Panthers on a 6-0 run to give the Panthers a 15-9 lead. Idlebird started the run with a service ace, added another ace, and the run has culminated with back-to-back kills by Maberry. Idlebird helped finish off the set with back-to-back kills to give the Panthers a 23-17 lead. Maberry followed up with a kill two points later and the Panthers closed out the first set 25-19.

The Panthers fell behind 6-3 early in the second set, but a kill by Maberry and an error by the Highlanders brought the score back to 6-5. The Panthers fell behind again 9-6 but used a 4-0 run to take the lead back at 10-9. The run was led by Jenny Wessling serving and included an ace, along with a kill by Maggie Salley. The teams traded points before the Panthers went on a 5-1 run to take a 16-12 lead that they would not relinquish. Maberry and Idlebird each had a kill during this run. Radford cut the lead to 18-16, but the Panthers finished off the Highlanders on a 7-2 run to end the set and win 25-18. This run was led with two kills apiece from Palazzolo and Salley.

The third set was mixed with multiple runs to start the set. The Highlanders got off to a 3-0 lead before the Panthers responded with a 5-0 run led by two kills from Maberry. The teams traded points until they were even at 7-7 before the Panthers went on another 5-0 run to take a 12-7 lead, which was led by two kills from Palazzolo, and a kill apiece from Maberry and Salley. Radford closed the deficit to 10-12 before Palazzolo led a 5-1 Panther run with four kills to extend the Panther lead to 17-11. After two consecutive Radford points, the Panthers went on an 8-2 run to clinch the match at 25-15. Maberry had three kills during this run, along with two service aces, one by Makaya Truman and one by Haley Maeurer to finish off the Highlanders.

The Panthers had a .339 hitting percentage on the afternoon while holding Radford to a .142 hitting percentage. The Panthers also had seven service aces on the day, compared to only one for Radford.

Up Next

High Point will look to continue to defend Millis when they host the North Carolina A&T Aggies tomorrow, Saturday, November 6th. The first serve is set for 5 pm in High Point.