Sam Csire jumped and attempted to crush a spike down the left sideline against Minnesota Saturday. Gophers outside hitter Lydia Grote sent the shot back in a flash — hitting the floor and sealing Maryland volleyball’s defeat.
Wisconsin and Minnesota out-blocked the Terps by 12 and 17 respectively, during a two-game skid. Maryland has faced major challenges at the net as competition surges in Big Ten play.
Sydney Bryant, one of the team’s biggest offensive contributors, played a limited role last season as a freshman, recording double-digit kills just once. The outside hitter is third on the team this year in kills per set behind veterans Samantha Schnitta and Csire.
Bryant recorded double-digit kills in three consecutive conference matchups before the loss to Wisconsin, including a career-high 24 against Iowa. The Badgers held her to just five kills on 23 attempts.
The sophomore looked to get back on track against Minnesota. On the match’s fifth point, Bryant attempted to drill the ball across the court. Minnesota middle blocker Phoebe Awoleye denied the shot. No Terp could get to the ball, giving the Gophers an early lead they took advantage of.
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“She’s not hitting balls wildly out of bounds. She’s getting blocked against some of the better blockers in the country,” coach Adam Hughes said. “She doesn’t have to do anything physical with her arm, she just has to find different areas. I think she’s kept a great mindset towards that.”
Bryant’s hitting percentage dipped below zero in back-to-back matches for the first time in her career. She hit -.130 and -.211, respectively, in the losses. As a team, Maryland hit just .043 and .119 in the losses.
“It’s a healthy balance. If we roll balls in play and don’t take enough pressure, you just end up having a ton of offense thrown back at you. It’s hard though,” Hughes said. “We’re finding the block fine, we’re just not finding the edges that we want.”
On the defensive side,Maryland ranks in the bottom half of the Big Ten in blocks.It had just three total blocks in the losses.
Eva Rohrbach led Maryland in blocksas a freshman. This year, she’s stepped into an even larger role as fellow middle blocker Anastasia Russ missed matches with an ankle injury.
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But Rohrbach recorded just one block in the back-to-back defeats. Both teams hit .333 or higher against the Terps, taking advantage of their defensive woes.
The middle blocker has faced defensive difficulties lately — both Minnesota and Wisconsin thrived when attacking the Terps. Rohrbach and Maryland were frequently late or out of position when opponents spiked.
Bryant and Rohrbach will be key as the Terps seek their first ranked win this season against No. 16 USC.
“We knew this was going to be the tough stretch.” Hughes said. “We knew that these three weeks [are] gonna be really challenging. I think so far, they’ve handled it again pretty well.”
