By Christian Andriolas
Maryland Volleyball made its first West Coast road trip in the revamped landscape of the Big Ten Conference.
“I know some of the teams have talked about the late start,” said head coach Adam Hughes. “10:00 our time you’re gonna have to adjust, and you don’t get a lot of time to adjust to the time zone.”
The trip presented another challenge for the Terps. Maryland faced off with two more teams in which they are viewed as the underdog. With the losses in Big Ten play adding up, the team knows not to get too distracted by the record.
“We’d all like to have more wins, but we know where we are right now,” said Hughes. “The only thing we can control is how hard we work and put our best foot forward.”
The Terps took on No. 11 Oregon on Friday and Washington — who just dropped out of the top 25 — on Saturday.
Maryland vs Oregon: Oregon wins, 3-0
Eugene, Oregon – The Terps first took on the Ducks, who came in at 14-3 (6-2 B1G).
Similarly to previous games, the Terps had opportunities to close out sets with late leads. Once again, though; the team struggled to do so and was swept by Oregon in straight sets (25-21, 26-24, 25-17).
Maryland led for most of set one — even jumping out to a 15-10 lead — but the Ducks fought their way back.
After falling down by five, the Ducks outscored the Terps 15-6 the rest of the set.
Set two was tight throughout with neither team able to gain a sizable lead.
The Terps had another late lead – 23-21 – after setter Sydney Dowler served it over and middle blocker Anastasia Russ and pin hitter Samantha Schnitta combined for the block.
With an opportunity to gain some momentum late, Dowler and fifth-year outside hitter Sam Csire committed service errors and the Terps lost another close set.
“We just missed too many serves at really important times,” said Hughes. “We had a 23-22 lead and missed, [and] another one at 24-24.”
After Maryland battled for the first two sets, Oregon played its best of the night.
After being down 4-1, the Ducks went on a nine-point scoring run and Maryland could not recover.
The Terps lost their fifth straight conference match.
Maryland vs Washington: Washington wins, 3-1
Seattle, Washington – Maryland looked to bounce back against Washington on Saturday, with another late start due to time differences.
Despite this being an advantage for the Huskies the Terps jumped out to an early lead in set one, 12-6.
Washington rallied with a 9-1 scoring run to take the lead 15-13.
The teams went back and forth, but Maryland closed out the set with a kill by Schnitta (13) to win the set, 25-21.
“I thought we did a good job of keeping the same mindset,” Hughes said. “The staff went right to work on some situations that were causing us issues.”
Set two was one-sided, with Washington jumping to an early lead, and never letting up.
Csire led the way contributing five of her team leading 14 kills in the set, but the outside hitters for the Huskies dominated and proved too much to handle in the set.
The third set was the most exciting of the night. Washington led 5-0 early, but the Terps did not give up.
Maryland once again had opportunities late in the set, with three chances to win with set point, but couldn’t execute down the stretch, losing 31-29.
In set four, Washington held the lead, but the Terps kept it close. The Huskies could not pull away, as Maryland would bounce back with multiple scoring runs of their own after letting some up.
With the score at 22-19, the Huskies scored the final three points, winning the set 25-19.
With these losses, the Terps fall to 10-11 on the season, and 1-9 in conference play.
Maryland travels back home next weekend where they have been better this season, looking to snap the six-game losing streak.
On Friday, the Terps take on Purdue and then play Indiana on Saturday.
