Maryland volleyball coach Steve Aird said No. 5 Minnesota setter Samantha Seliger-Swenson is a fun player to watch as she spreads out the Golden Gophers’ attack, which entered the match with a .288 hitting percentage.
But she isn’t as much fun to watch, he said, when his squad is lined up opposite the reigning Big Ten setter of the week, an award the junior’s won five times this year.
Against Maryland on Friday, Minnesota squeaked out a straight sets victory over the Terps (23-35, 23-25, 21-25). Seliger-Swenson posted 38 assists despite the Golden Gophers’ .232 hitting percentage.
“She makes the game look really easy,” Aird said Wednesday. “They’re probably not too concerned about us. They’re just wanting to focus on their side and if they play clean, they’ll have success.”
Outside hitters Gia Milana and Erika Pritchard led the Terps with 14 and 10 kills, respectively. Minnesota opposite hitter Stephanie Samedy paced her squad 18 kills and a .471 attacking clip.
Prior to Maryland’s four-match stretch of road matches against top-10 programs, beginning with the Golden Gophers, Aird said the Terps could be swept in an hour if they didn’t play their best. Yet while the Terps were swept, there were positives in the tightly-played contest.
Maryland (16-9, 5-8 Big Ten) limited errors in the first two sets and stayed competitive with Minnesota in the blocking game, finishing with six.
“So much of it when you play a team like [Minnesota], you’ve got to take some risks,” Aird said last week.
The risks were evident from the end line. Aird elected to continue the aggressive serving that helped the Terps upset No. 17 Purdue last Sunday. Twice in the first set against the Golden Gophers, the Terps forced overpasses, which middle blockers Hailey Murray and Jada Gardner dumped home for kills.
Overall, though, the serving tactic didn’t result in the same effectiveness it did against the Boilermakers. Maryland recorded more kills than Minnesota, but 11 service errors, albeit a result of Aird’s game plan, aided the Golden Gophers.
Minnesota (21-2, 11-2) escaped the first frame with a 25-23 win, and did so again in the second frame despite trailing, 22-21, late in the set.
Maryland’s bench erupted after an ace from Milana gave Maryland a two-point edge, 21-19. But, three of the Golden Gophers’ final five points in the set came via Terps miscues, including two attack errors and one ball handling error from setter Samantha Snyder.
“This is the No. 5 team in the country and we’re fighting, so it’s nice to see the young bucks do that,” assistant coach Kristen Carpenter said between the second and third frames in a Big Ten Network interview.
Carpenter wanted her squad to limit its errors, but the Terps began the set with a -.222 hitting percentage before Aird called a timeout, trailing 8-4. Seliger-Swenson dropped to the ground to save a poor first pass midway through set three, and she lifted it for Samedy to kill. The junior setter’s performance opened attacking lanes throughout the match for Minnesota, and aided the Golden Gophers to a 25-21 final set win.
But back-to-back errors from Maryland freshmen capped off a set in which the Terps hit 10 errors, sinking their set hitting percentage to .067 after just nine errors in the first two frames.
