After weeks of searching for an identity, Terrapin volleyball coach Janice Kruger is starting to find her team.

The Terps lost a close match Friday night, falling 3-2 (30-25, 29-31, 30-26, 19-30, 10-15) to Wake Forest in Winston-Salem, N.C. The loss was the Terps (8-10, 1-8 ACC) third straight, but Kruger believes she may have found a rhythm for her team.

“We found a little more passion in our play,” Kruger said. “We feel right now that we have something that we’re going to build and work on.”

The Terps came out firing for a dominant offensive performance in game one. The team put together 18 kills for a .361 attack percentage, their highest single game attack percentage since the Oct. 6 against Georgia Tech.

However, with a 29-26 lead in game two, the Terps allowed five unanswered points to drop the game. In game three, the Terps took advantage of 12 Wake Forest errors to win the game, before being embarrassed in game four and then falling in game five to lose the match.

“Wake just got a little momentum,” Kruger said. “Our offense probably still needs to play better at critical times.”

Middle blockers Kathleen Wilson and Katie Usher combined for 19 kills and 18 blocks. Kruger and assistant coach Felix Hou had worked with them all week, trying to stabilize the block and generate offensive balance. The performance from the two young players was encouraging.

“Both middles worked extremely hard,” Kruger said. “This is the sort of standard we want them to be on.”

Freshman Ashley Hogan and senior Tina Aramburu played key roles for the Terps. Kruger decided to keep normal starting outside hitter Mary Beth Brown on the bench in favor of Hogan and Aramburu. Hogan had a career-high eight kills while Aramburu posted four kills, 12 digs and five blocks.

The two hitters helped take some pressure off star outside hitter Jade Brown, who led the Terps in kills with 14, but also committed 14 errors. Brown’s .000 attack percentage was one of her lowest of the season, as was her total of five digs.

“I think that sometimes she puts a little too much pressure on herself,” Kruger said. “We’re trying to take a little load off of her.”

Junior outside hitter Beth Gillming led the Terps with 16 digs.

Despite losing nine of their last 10 matches, Kruger and the Terps feel this match was telling of where the team could be headed. Holding close, only to come up short, exposed weaknesses and strengths – and now Kruger believes her team sees its direction.

“It was a nice battle here tonight,” Kruger said. “We’re going to build on what we’ve just experienced here.”

Contact reporter Adi Joseph at ajosephdbk@gmail.com.