Candela Alonso-Corcelles stood at the back of Wilkinson Hall needing just one more quality serve to clinch a victory for Indiana. The sophomore bounced the ball on the ground to prepare herself before tossing it over the net for the potential winning point.
Lilly Gunter dove towards the serve but missed. The ball bounced off her face before meeting the floor to end the fourth set and give Maryland volleyball a 3-1 loss.
“The momentum was going both ways,” coach Adam Hughes said. “It was point runs here, point runs there. At this level, this is what Big Ten volleyball looks like. I thought it was a nice toe to toe.”
The defeat secured a losing Big Ten record this season for Maryland (16-13, 6-11). The Terps haven’t finished with a winning conference record since 2005.
In the two teams’ contest one month ago in College Park, Maryland held a lead in each set but was swept. Friday’s match was more tightly contested, but the Terps were ultimately swept after failing to build off their victory in the second set.
Maryland found an early lead in the opening set, scoring two quick points to begin the match. Indiana (19-11, 9-8) fought back and tied the set at 11 apiece and didn’t fall behind again. The Hoosiers scored five unanswered points to force a Hughes timeout to halt the run. The attempt wasn’t successful.
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Indiana’s Morgan Geddes bent her knees and leaped to reach the tap from setter Camryn Haworth, rocketing the ball past a diving Terp to secure the final kill of the set, a 25-21 Hoosiers win.
Geddes did not start for Indiana but the outside hitter finished the match with 15 kills.
The Terps’ lone win came in the second set.
Maryland fell behind early and trailed by as much as eight. A number of misfires gifted points to Indiana and kept the Hoosiers close.
The Terps exploded for three and six-point runs and trimmed their deficit to two. An Indiana service error made it a one-point game before Samantha Schnitta lofted the ball into a weak spot between Hoosiers players to tie the match.
Schnitta added her second straight kill to put Maryland ahead by one. Avry Tatum was blocked at the net and recorded an attack error for the final Terps point to punctuate a 26-24 second set victory.
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“I thought we were able to get a lot more pressure in game two … I’d say the serving is probably the only thing that really made a big difference there in game two,” Hughes said.
Schnitta ended the game with a team-high 16 kills. Seven came in the second set.
Maryland opened to a 5-1 lead over Indiana in the third set but self-inflicted errors marred the Terps’ attempt to build off their win in the previous set. The Hoosiers gained their first lead at 19-18 after back-to-back service errors by Maryland. The Terps also committed five attack errors in the set.
Indiana middle blocker Kaley Rammelsberg clinched a 25-23 set win with a barreling kill straight through the Terps.
The Hoosiers rolled through Maryland in the fourth and final set. The previous three hadn’t been decided by more than four points. Indiana found its highest lead of the night and clinched a victory with a 25-14 win in the last frame.
“The only thing that is disappointing is we couldn’t get off to a good start in game four and built ourselves a pretty big deficit,” Hughes said. “And at this level a big run like that is gonna end it.”
