After an emotional loss to Michigan State on Friday night, Maryland volleyball came into its matchup with No. 13 Michigan looking to salvage the weekend with an upset.
After one set, the Terps looked well on their way to their first ranked win of the season, dispatching the Wolverines with relative ease. But from that point on, the Wolverines came back to life, taking the next three sets to secure a 3-1 win (25-19, 18-25, 22-25, 15-25).
In the first set, Maryland (12-8, 3-5 Big Ten) rushed out to a 5-0 lead and never relinquished control as the team hit .407. Late in the frame, four straight Terps points, including two aces from middle blocker Katie Myers, helped close out the 25-19 set victory.
Outside hitter Erika Pritchard, coming off a career-high 24-kill performance Friday against Michigan State, hit .300 with five kills in the first set. Pritchard continued her dominance throughout the match, registering a double-double before the end of the second set and finishing with 18 kills and 13 digs.
“She’ll be a special player if some of the in-between opportunities she gets, she manages better,” coach Adam Hughes said. “She’s a really high kill right now … a lot of it is just management of those situations where there’s nothing you can do.”
As a team, Maryland hit .429 in the first set while recording four blocks and holding Michigan to a .171 clip. The Terps only recorded two attacking errors in the opening period.
But the Wolverines (17-2, 6-2) recovered after Maryland’s fast start to the match. After the first five points of the second set, the Terps had already made three errors. The ignominious start set the tone for a frame where the Terps played themselves out of it. Despite holding the Wolverines to a .094 hitting percentage, the Terps lost the set, 25-18, due in large part to 11 attacking errors.
“I think Michigan played a little scrappier,” outside hitter Liz Twilley said, “and our serve receive wasn’t as consistent in the final three sets.”
The Wolverines also heated up from the service line in the second set, registering four aces and no errors.
Michigan’s service game was led by the booming serves of outside hitter Paige Jones. Jones had three aces and kept the Terps off-balance all afternoon.
“It’s a serve you don’t see a ton,” Twilley said. “We just have to be ready for it and talk more in serve-receive.”
In the third set, Michigan’s offense came to life, recording 15 kills while swinging to a .238 clip. While the Terps rallied with a late 5-0 run, the Wolverines hung on for the set victory. And Michigan ended the final frame with a 10-4 run to close out the Terps.
Maryland struggled to control Michigan outside hitter Carly Skjodt. Skjodt paced the Wolverines with 21 kills with a .380 hitting percentage while adding 14 digs.
“She just has good vision, and she changes paces just like a pitcher,” Hughes said. “She’s able to throw curveballs and sliders and she makes you have to keep guessing where the ball’s going to be.”
After their decisive first set victory, the Terps did not lead by more than one point for the remainder of the match.
