For The Diamondback
By Tanner George
Maryland volleyball entered its Big Ten opener riding a seven-game winning streak. Early on, it looked primed to extend that.
The Terps won two of the first three sets but narrowly fell in the fourth. Northwestern scored eight of the final 12 points in the final set to beat Maryland, 3-2, Thursday night. The Terps’ (9-3, 0-1 Big Ten) loss was their first home defeat of the season.
“[I was] obviously disappointed that we weren’t able to get the win tonight,” coach Adam Hughes said. “But I thought the group was resilient. I thought they battled. We had more kills, more points, [we] just didn’t do them in the right times.”
Maryland opened strong, snatching the first four points of the opening set. The team sustained itself in the first set for a 25-19 victory, but Maryland couldn’t recover once the Wildcats gained momentum.
[Maryland volleyball’s excellent stretch has allowed young players to shine]
An abundance of service errors, point deficits and mental lapses led to a devastating loss in the second set. Maryland was ahead late but Northwestern won seven of the last nine points to even the score at one apiece.
Despite her best efforts with 17 kills and a career-high six aces, pin hitter Samantha Schnitta couldn’t hold off the Wildcats’ drive. 14 service errors dragged the Terps behind, alongside a 19.8 hit percentage.
“It’s definitely disappointing, but it’s the risk and reward we kind of take,” Hughes said. “If we don’t serve too tough, we’re gonna find ourselves playing teams that are gonna be really good offensively.”
Hughes said he and the team were confident heading into conference play after a stellar performance against UCF. And while the Terps out-killed and outscored the Wildcats, that proved futile.
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Seven errors pulled the Terps away from a pair of early kills from Sam Csire. The Terps took back the third set by seven points and surrendered the fourth set by just two.
In a loud, intense final set, Northwestern dominated after a 7-7 standstill.
Csire and Schnitta led the way for the Terps — they notched 15.5 and 24 points, respectively. But the Terps fumbled its attack and kill lead to a devastating first loss in its first conference game.
Maryland will host Iowa (7-6, 1-0 Big Ten) on Saturday as it looks for its first win.
“Northwestern is probably a pretty scrappy group,” Hughes said. “Iowa is more offensive-based, but they’ll present their own challenges doing a very different offense.”
