Maryland Drops Big Ten Home Opener Against Indiana

By Ifeanyi Uzoukwu

In what was the Terps’ highest attended game since 2006, the Terps dropped their inaugural Big Ten game in program history, losing to the Indiana Hoosiers, (15-25, 16-25, 33-31, 22-25).

1,238 people, including President Wallace Loh as well as men’s basketball head coach Mark Turgeon, came out to see the Terps as they took the court Friday Night. The XFINITY center was loud all night as the Terps fought tooth and nail against the Hoosiers.

Unfortunately for the Terps, the Hoosiers took off early, racing out to an 8-6 lead. Maryland earned two consecutive points to tie the match up at eight. However once Indiana took the lead, they coasted to a 25-15 victory in the first set.

The second set would see Indiana once again jump out to a quick lead, taking four of the first five points. The Hoosiers continued to dominate, driving the lead up to 19-9. Although the Terps scored seven more points before the end of the second set, they could not pull through losing the match 25-16.

The Terps used the electric crowd to their advantage but could not push past Indiana in four sets. (Courtesy of UMTerps.com)

The third set of the match proved to be the best one of the night, as the Terps went back and forth with the Hoosiers. Maryland held the lead for the majority of the set until Indiana came back to take a late 20-18 lead deep in the set. From the moment that Indiana was inching towards the sweep, up 23-22, the Terps began to channel the energy created by the raucous crowd. At a tie score of 24 points each, the Terps and Hoosiers traded 14 straight points until the Terps were able to take the last two points to secure a set victory.

In the fourth set, it seemed as if the Terrapins were going to continue to feed off of the energy at the XFINITY center after racing out to a 6-1 lead. It seemed as if this game was headed towards a deciding fifth set, before Indiana crept back into the set, and eventually took the lead at 20-19. After Maryland’s timeout, Indiana was able to continue on the same pace, winning the fourth set 25-22.

After the game Maryland coach Steve Aird was disappointed with the final result, but very proud of the effort that his players put forth.

“I need to do a better job of preparing my players for these games,” Aird said. “We had three days of preparation before tonight’s game.”

Aird was also very pleased with the crowd that cheered on his Terps on Friday.

“Having this home crowd behind us is such a great advantage, because in a game like that, It’s very easy to roll over once they (Indiana) game out the way they did”, Aird said.

Freshman middle backer Hailey Murray, who had 16 points in total on the stat sheet, as well as 11 kills and 11 blocks said the execution was lacking from the Terps.

“I think we got too comfortable,” Murray said.

With the loss, Maryland is 7-7 (0-3) in the Big Ten. Indiana improves to 11-4, with a 2-1 record in conference play. Maryland hopes to bounce back against Purdue Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m.