When Maryland volleyball blew a 14-4 lead in its first set against Rutgers a week ago, the team seemed to lose all its momentum. After the tough loss, coach Adam Hughes was looking for more resolve from his players.
But Friday against Illinois, the Terps’ inability to close out sets reared its ugly head again. Maryland allowed the Fighting Illini to close out two sets on 8-1 and 13-3 runs, respectively, leading to its 17th straight loss against the program.
“[The players are] hurting a little bit today. They’re hurting after the Penn State game.” Hughes said. “I think our challenge is to stay in the fight and keep battling.”
The match was intense from the jump. Maryland (7-8, 0-5 Big Ten) and Illinois (9-5, 4-1 Big Ten) traded the lead throughout the start of the first set. Ajack Malual leapt up to smash a ball out of reach for her first kill of the game.
Taylor de Boer entered the game as Illinois’ leading scorer, averaging 3.68 kills per set. However, it was Auburn Tomkinson who set the pace for the Fighting Illini’s offense. She racked up eight kills in the initial set.
But the Terps’ defense was prepared.
Maryland’s relentless blocking kept it afloat. Several attacks from the Fighting Illini met an early end with the Terps’ suffocating presence at the net. Eva Rohrbach and Lilly Wagner combined for 5.5 blocks in the first set alone.
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Despite the Terps hitting only .065 throughout the period, their defensive hustle proved the decisive factor in a 26-24 opening-set victory.
“We were pretty good with our assignments today,” Hughes said. “The other side of that, we did a really good job from the service line. We were causing them a lot of pressure.”
The second set picked up where the last one left off, with the two teams refusing to give up any big rallies.
Each point became a bigger struggle for both teams as the match drew on. The Terps and Fighting Illini often strung together several digs in the fight to establish an advantage.
Rohrbach was all over the court for Maryland throughout the period. By the end of the second set, the middle blocker had amassed four kills, three service aces, 3.5 blocks and three digs.
The Terps began to pull away late in the set, building a 22-17 lead. On the brink of establishing a 2-0 lead, prospects for Maryland getting its first Big Ten win seemed higher than ever.
Until they weren’t. In the blink of an eye, the Terps found themselves down 24-22 after a series of attacking errors. Maryland’s hitting percentage had somehow fallen even further in the second set, down to .041.
Maryland’s floundering offense salvaged a point, but a Kenna Phelan kill quickly put the set in the books. What was a sure 2-0 match lead for the Terps evaporated into a tie just like that.
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Initially, Hughes’ players responded well. Despite Tomkinson and the rest of the Fighting Illini keeping the pressure up, Maryland’s offense finally seemed to mount a proper response. Malual and Bryant had nine kills each by the end of the third set.
Entering a timeout with a 15-12 lead, the Terps were in good position with potential to take the match lead back if they could close the set out. They did not do that.
The Terps surrendered another massive run to the Fighting Illini. Alyssa Aguayo lit it up for Illinois with three kills in the rally. She ended the set with three consecutive service aces. Maryland was staring defeat in the face.
“The distance between us and them isn’t as far as some might think,” Hughes said. “Unfortunately, we missed a few opportunities to get ourselves a win today.”
Even after their calamitous last two sets, the Terps didn’t go down without a fight. As she’s done many times this season, Malual took the initiative on offense, logging six kills by Illinois’ first timeout of the set.
Though the two teams were tied at 18, the Terps’ exhaustion was apparent, with the players struggling to keep their defensive pressure up after four grueling sets.
The offense couldn’t provide much pushback. Against an Illinois team that came into the match allowing its opponents to hit .259 on average, Maryland finished with a meager .109.
With the writing on the wall, Illinois took the fourth set and extended Maryland’s losing streak to five matches.
