By: Nolan DeMott

On Friday night, the University of Maryland Terrapins volleyball team took on the Minnesota Golden Gopher’s in what turned out to be a rude reminder of what it takes to compete with the very best. The Gophers, ranked #2 in the country, thoroughly outplayed Maryland from start to finish, winning in straight sets (25-13, 25-14, 25-12). With the loss the Terps fall to 8-5 on the season while Minnesota improves to 9-1.

While the Terps have already faced stiff competition this season when they fought #4 Kansas two weeks ago and #5 Washington last weekend, those matches were a lot tighter near the end of sets. On this occasion, Maryland was not able to get anything going offensively, posting nearly as many errors as they did kills. Gia Milana, who had been scoring 15-20 kills consistently, was stymied by the Gopher defense, only recording five kills with nine of the team’s 23 errors. In fact, it was the first time Milana had been held under 10 kills all season.

In addition, while an easy assumption would be that Minnesota had a size advantage, this was simply not true. Maryland actually ended up out blocking the Gophers four to three. On the other hand, a main key to Minnesota’s rout was their solid and well-rounded defensive play. Four of the Gophers’ players had at least eight digs, whereas Maryland’s digs primarily come from only two sources: Gia Milana (13 digs) and Kelsey Wicinski (11 digs). No other player on the Terps had more than six.

While Maryland was beat resoundingly by a superior Minnesota squad, the Terps now have a measurement of what it takes to compete against the very best. Considering that their next match is on Saturday vs. No. 3 Wisconsin,  they have the luxury of another immediate challenge to prove how good they can be.