The Maryland volleyball lost, 3-2, to No. 24 Illinois on Sunday to mark its fifth straight defeat, but the players said they were proud to have taken a ranked opponent to five sets.
Earlier in the season, the Terps failed to earn a set victory in matches against No. 1 Minnesota, No. 2 Wisconsin, No. 6 Kansas, No. 8 Washington and then-No. 21 Southern California.
So after winning two sets against the Fighting Illini — and holding match point in the decisive fifth frame — the players gained confidence in their ability to compete with top teams. The Terps hope that self-belief will help them take another step forward this weekend in difficult road matchups with No. 21 Michigan State and No. 23 Michigan.
“We just needed to get back in our own groove,” outside hitter Gia Milana said. “After that last game, we all feel really good going into this weekend knowing we can play at this level.”
The Terps’ upcoming matches in East Lansing and Ann Arbor hold added meaning for Milana because she grew up in Romeo, Michigan. She guided Romeo High School to its first-ever Class A volleyball state championship in 2014 and was named the 2015 Michigan Gatorade Player of the Year.
This weekend, her family, boyfriend and high school friends will be at the Jenison Field House — where she attended matches as a kid — to watch her play against Michigan State. She said her high school volleyball coach made it mandatory that her former team attend that contest.
“Every game is special to me, but because I’m going home it definitely makes it more exciting to play,” Milana said. “It’s just going to be really cool for me to be home because I’ve watched so many games in both of those gyms. It’ll be really surreal to be actually playing in them.”
Though Milana leads Maryland (8-8, 0-4 Big Ten) with 3.71 kills per set, she failed to reach 10 kills in two of the Terps’ first three Big Ten matches. Against Illinois last weekend, coach Steve Aird started outside hitter Liz Twilley alongside her to provide more offensive balance.
With less pressure to handle the offensive workload on her own, Milana thrived. The touted freshman posted a team-high 16 kills and a .229 hit percentage.
Meanwhile, Twilley, who ranks second on the Terps in kills despite coming off the bench for most of the season, notched 15 kills against the Fighting Illini. Aird said he might start her again in the future to bolster his squad’s attack.
“My job is to keep tweaking the lineup as we go forward to keep finding ways to have success,” Aird said. “When [Twilley] is in the match, it’s because we want to set her, and the more offense we can bring to the table the better.”
Aird knows Maryland must be at its best offensively to compete with Michigan (13-3, 2-2 Big Ten) and Michigan State (13-3, 2-2), which he said have “great histories and a lot of talent.” If players struggle to move the ball against those teams, he warned, the squad could “get smoked.”
Still, the Terps have a positive mindset entering their weekend road trip. Libero Kelsey Wicinski, who recorded a career-high six service aces against Illinois, said the Terps’ competitive match with the Fighting Illini could be a turning point for the season.
“We all knew we just needed that one game … to get the team’s confidence back,” Wicinski said. “Even though we lost this past weekend, I think we are one step closer to where we want to be as a program.”
