Purdue’s Chloe Chicoine and Eva Hudson had tormented Maryland volleyball throughout three sets in Saturday’s match in West Lafayette, Indiana.
The Boilermakers’ lethal outside hitters had gashed the Terps for 28 kills as No. 16 Purdue battled Maryland late in the third frame. With the score tied at 25, the duo tagged the Terps one final time.
Hudson bumped the Boilermakers ahead with her 18th kill before Chicoine sealed their two-point win with her 12th putaway to close out No. 16 Purdue’s 3-0 win.
“I thought it was who was going to make one or two more plays down the stretch,” coach Adam Hughes said, “and they were able to find just one or two more points when it mattered most.”
Maryland (16-14, 6-12 Big Ten) lost its final four road matches this season. The Terps finished 4-10 on the road a season after going 9-5 away from College Park.
Hughes’ squad looked confident and aggressive early on against a Boilermakers squad that upset No. 3 Wisconsin in five sets Friday. Eva Rohrbach stifled four Purdue spikes and Erin Morrissey spun an ace that drew a Boilermakers timeout with Maryland ahead 11-5.
“Part of what we were trying to get ready for was to get a jumpstart,” Hughes said. “… We figured it would be a pretty emotional night for them last night after they beat Wisconsin.”
[Maryland volleyball can’t build off win, falls 3-1 to Indiana]
Two of Rohrbach’s rejections came against Hudson, who torched the Badgers for 30 kills on Friday, but the Terps couldn’t hold down the reigning Big Ten Freshman of the Year for long.
Hudson evened the set at 18 apiece with her fifth kill. Then, she parried Morrissey’s ace with a sharp serve of her own that propelled Purdue (19-8, 13-5 Big Ten) ahead.
Maryland then lost control of the Boilermakers’ other sharp outside hitter as Chicoine repeatedly gashed the Terps from the wing to give Purdue four set points to work with.
They needed all of them. Maryland roared back with three straight points and found one final block to knot the frame at 24.
But the Terps couldn’t stave off Purdue’s dangerous duo.
Chicoine and Hudson each tacked on a kill to thwart Maryland’s rally and secure the Boilermakers’ two-point win.
“She’s too good,” Hughes said of Hudson. “Her and Chicoine can score in a variety of ways … every time you get a dig, you want to turn and burn [on offense] and not let her have another opportunity.”
The Terps’ defense masked their pedestrian offense, one with just ten kills, in the first set but couldn’t do the same in the following stanza.
Maryland’s serve receive repeatedly broke down against Raven Colvin, who lined four aces past the Terps in the second set to vault Purdue ahead 20-12.
[Anastasia Russ got a second chance with Maryland volleyball and made the most of it]
“She just has a really good float serve,” libero Lilly Gunter said of Colvin. “… The ball can kind of drop on you really fast. … It’s just a really clean serve.”
Samantha Schnitta represented Maryland’s primary attacking threat — she logged seven of the Terps’ 12 putaways in the frame. Maryland surrendered kills on over 35 percent of the Boilermakers’ spikes, up from 28.6 percent in the opening stanza. Purdue used Hudson’s tenth putaway to seal a four-point win.
Hudson kept rolling in the third set, ripping five more kills past the Terps as the Boilermakers surged ahead by six. Schnitta responded with two more putaways throughout a 9-3 run that tied the frame at 19.
“She was doing a good job just creating for herself,” Hughes said of Schnitta, who finished with a career-high 19 kills. “ … She was in some weird situations and could have easily played it safe and [instead] just said, ‘Hey, I’m gonna go for it [and] see what I can make happen.’”
Both sides exchanged leads and staved off set points. Schnitta tied the score at 25 on her final kill. Hudson and Chicoine then both tacked on their last putaways to clinch a 27-25 win that sealed Maryland’s trying road season with another straight-set loss.
