The Terrapin volleyball team squandered a 2-0 lead in their ACC opener against Boston College on Saturday night and lost a five-game match, 3-2 (17-30, 27-30, 30-23, 32-30, 20-18).

The Terps had two chances to win the match, but a service error by Ashley Hogan and a kill by Boston College derailed the opportunities.

“It was just us not being able to put the ball away,” senior Beth Gillming said. “Long rallies, but we just couldn’t get the kill. They won on an ace; they just kind of dropped it in there.”

The Terps were paced throughout the match by Gillming, Jade Brown, Mary Beth Brown and Katie Usher, all of whom posted double-digit kills, led by Gillming’s 15 kills.

The Terps opened up the match in top form, as they knocked down 14 kills in the first game and 13 in the second game. The early success in the match was undermined by 20 errors in the third and fourth games.

In the first game, the Terps were dominant as they rolled to a 30-17 win. Along with strong offensive kills, the Terps found a groove at the service line.

Brown shrugged off her serving issues from the Hilton Garden Inn Greenbelt Invitational, where she had 11 service errors. Brown hit three service aces and led the Terps on a four-point run in the first game to build the Terps’ lead to 17-8.

The Terps closed out the first game with consistent serving by Haley Hanson, who served seven balls, the first three of which ended in attack errors by Boston College. The 6-0 run gave the Terps a 29-17 lead, and a service error by Boston College gave the Terps the game.

“We came out with a lot of energy to establish ourselves in the first game,” Brown said.

Errors by the Terps in the second game left them in a five-point hole with the score at 25-20. The Terps went on a 10-2 scoring run to take the game at 30-27.

Hanson again closed the game out by knocking in seven serves. The Terps’ offense did the rest as Gillming, Brown and Maggie Schmelze all hit crucial kills.

The Terps were plagued by errors in the third and fourth games, which let Boston College back into the match. Boston College took advantage of the Terrapin errors, and committed few themselves en route to forcing the fifth game.

“It was a combination of both [errors and strong play by Boston College],” Beth Gillming said. “Boston College did not make many errors at all. We couldn’t regain the form we had in the first two games.”

In the fifth-game tiebreaker, the Terps and Boston College traded points, with no team getting ahead by more than two points until the end.

Brown said the team has progressed after being swept in both matches against the Eagles last season.

“We are a completely different team than last year,” Brown said. “We wanted to try to set the tone going into the new ACC season. We almost had it. We just need to feed off what we did well and improve on what we didn’t [do well] to get ready to get our first ACC win next weekend.”

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