Ashleigh Crutcher
Adreene Elliott rarely gets nervous before matches.
Why would she? The sophomore Terrapins volleyball middle blocker was named to the ACC All-Freshman Team last year and earned MVP honors in two of the team’s four nonconference tournaments. If the season ended today, her .403 hitting percentage this year would be the highest single-season mark in school history.
Yet before Friday’s match at Duke and Saturday’s contest at Wake Forest, Elliott will be a bit more on edge than usual.
“My parents are going [to the Wake Forest game], girls that I played volleyball with, coaches, trainer, boyfriend and his family, all that,” said Elliott, who grew up in Winston-Salem, N.C., the Demon Deacons’ hometown. “I know that if I allow it to make me nervous, it would be the worst thing for me.”
She’ll have to fight off butterflies even before Saturday’s trip to Wake Forest. Elliott, who was born in Panama and moved to Winston-Salem during the second grade, spurned offers from the Blue Devils and Demon Deacons her coming out of Winston-Salem’s Mount Tabor High School.
In the end, Elliott chose the Terps (10-6, 2-3 ACC) because the school’s proximity to Washington would help her pursue a career as a foreign officer.
A year and a half later, she’s heading back home looking to raise the Terps’ ACC record to above .500 for the first time this year. Elliott’s versatility will be vital to this effort, particularly with injuries sidelining outside hitters Mary Cushman and Kamrin Gold.
“They both contribute critical points for our team,” Elliott said. “But I know that I can increase the amount of points I earn by blocking more and that’s been a focus for awhile and especially this week.”
Elliott’s 1.14 blocks per set rank eighth in the ACC and should give the team an advantage this weekend against two teams that rank in the bottom half of the league in hitting percentage.
But Elliott won’t be able to handle the Blue Devils (9-7, 0-4) and Demon Deacons (6-10, 0-4) alone. The squad will likely need outside hitter Ashleigh Crutcher — who notched 44 kills through two games last weekend — to continue her recent hot streak, as well as a group of younger players that showed promise filling in for Cushman and Gold last week.
“We’re very cohesive when we’re playing. It doesn’t matter if we’re younger players or older players,” defensive specialist Dani Bozzini said. “When coach makes changes, I think we do a good job of adjusting and not going down.”
Those adjustments have helped a young squad rebound from a 4-16 ACC record last season.
“We always expect to win, but last year was rough,” coach Tim Horsmon said. “I think [the players] probably are enjoying being more competitive right now.”
To be competitive this weekend, the Terps will need their star middle blocker to remain focused. That means not dwelling on the fact she’ll play just minutes away from her childhood home.
“There are so many people that know me and are going to attend the [Wake Forest] game,” she said. “That could be a distraction so I try to treat it like any other game.”
kasinitz@umdbk.com
