Maryland volleyball sought a bounce-back performance after a four-set loss to LSU Friday night. Clutch points by New Hampshire impeded that effort.
The Terps struggled to close out sets and struggled on defense. They finished with just ten blocks as a team in a five-set loss to the Wildcats on the last day of the LSU Tournament on Saturday.
Maryland (1-2) started the same lineup as it did on Friday, a veteran-laden group featuring just four underclassmen.
New Hampshire (1-2) came out seeking a stronger performance after losing to LSU and Troy on Friday.
The Wildcats took a commanding 9-4 lead before Maryland coach Adam Hughes called timeout. After that, New Hampshire rapidly won three more points, causing another swift Hughes timeout.
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Maryland responded by rallying off three consecutive points to get the New Hampshire lead down to 14-10. The latter two points were both off of Meredith Hohnbaum attacking errors, who shined for New Hampshire. The junior had three kills out of the team’s first seven points won. She finished with a career-high 18 kills.
The opening set was volatile.
Maryland had a somewhat disastrous start, committing five attacking errors before the Wildcats recorded their first. However, New Hampshire committed the next seven attacking errors of the set as the Terps rallied back into it.
After much back-and-forth, the Wildcats held on to win the set, 25-22, on a kill by Hohnbaum. Both teams wound up with seven attacking errors in this tightly-contested set.
Early in the second set, it was the Sam Csire show.
The fifth-year had kills on all of Maryland’s first three points won. She finished with a game-high 20 kills including four in the second set. The set was highly-contested in spite of her domination, the two teams deadlocked through the first 12 points.
The Wildcats rattled off back-to-back kills with the score tied at 20 to force a Hughes timeout. New Hampshire junior Avery LePore later recorded an ace to seal the set, 25-21.
Maryland, who was eighth in the Big Ten in service aces last season, had just one through the first two sets, compared to four by the Wildcats.
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In the third set, Maryland raced out to a 6-3 lead, causing a New Hampshire timeout. The Terps did not let up as they grabbed an 11-4 lead to take command of the set.
The Wildcats later went on a 7-0 run to take the advantage in the set. An error by Marisa Armer deadlocked the teams at 23. Back-to-back kills by Csire and Eva Rohrbach sealed the set for Maryland, 25-23.
New Hampshire rapidly responded by taking a 5-1 lead in the fourth set, prompting a Hughes timeout. The Terps recovered to even the score at 15, led by senior Zoe Huang’s facilitating.
The setter, who had zero assists in the loss to LSU on Friday, had 29 assists in this one to shatter her previous career-high of 17.
Down 20-16, the Terps stormed back to even the score at 22. Sydney Dowler assisted on four straight Maryland points won and finished second on the team with 20 assists.
With the score deadlocked at 23, Hohnbaum delivered a massive kill before Anastasia Russ delivered a clutch kill of her own to save match point. Sophomore Rachel Grier, who finished with a career-high 15 kills, had a critical error to give Maryland a one-point edge.
After a New Hampshire timeout, Sydney Bryant had a clutch kill off an assist by Huang, to seal the fourth set for Maryland, 26-24.
After five points in the fifth set, New Hampshire led 4-1. Setter Jessica Shattles, who had a game-high 31 assists, assisted on two of those five points for the Wildcats. Hughes called timeout as the momentum seemed to be shifting.
New Hampshire held off a Maryland comeback to win the fifth set, 15-12. Hohnbaum had kills on both of the Wildcats’ last two points to cap a monster performance.
