By Christian Andriolas
Maryland traveled to Florida to play in the UCF tournament for its final non-conference matches this season. The Terps entered the weekend winners of their last six, despite a victory on Wednesday that coach Adam Hughes called “sloppy.”
Yet, an unphased Maryland kept up its winning ways after a perfect 2-0 showing in Orlando.
Maryland vs Nevada – Match 1
Maryland started the tournament in impressive fashion on Friday, sweeping Nevada in straight sets (25-15, 25-14, 25-22) to win its seventh match in a row.
In the first set, the Terps kept a comfortable lead and scored the final six points, a rally fueled by three Sam Csire kills. The outside hitter had 12 kills across all three sets.
The second set was more of the same for Maryland. After jumping out to an early lead, graduate pin hitter Samantha Schnitta continued her early season dominance with four kills and two service aces, to win the frame, 25-14.
The third set was the closest of the match.
Nevada led throughout the first half of the set, but the Terps strung together six points in a row to take a three-point lead. The Terps extended that advantage to 21-16, but the Wolfpack scored five of the next six to make the score 22-21.
Maryland scored three of the final four points to win the set and the match.
Maryland vs UCF – Match 2
Maryland faced UCF in Saturday’s matchup, earning what may have been its hardest-fought victory of the season.
“I thought …we got a little bit behind in [set] one,” Hughes said. “I thought we did a good job trying to settle in and actually recovered a little bit.”
The Terps dropped set one 25-20, going down by as much as eight in the set.
Set two was the strongest of the night for the Terps. The score was tied at nine until Maryland sparked a dominant run, scoring 16 of the final 22 total points in the set — including the final six — to close out the frame, 25-15.
Set three was a much different story, as the Terps fell into an insurmountable deficit.
“They came out flying in set three and got a 9-1 lead,” Hughes said. “I thought one of the most important parts of the night is actually when Eva [Roarbach] went back and got a [five] point serving run, switching the momentum back on our side even though we lost.”
The momentum that Hughes mentioned, helped the Terps jump off to a strong start in set four. They held a lead throughout to win the set 25-18.
Maryland jumped out to an early lead in set five, but the Knights climbed within one, late in the set.
Once again, Schnitta came up clutch for the Terps down the stretch. With a 12-11 lead, the graduate pin hitter got two of Maryland’s final three kills to close out a tenacious five-set victory.
Maryland will bring its eight-game winning streak into Big Ten play. The Terps start the conference slate at home against Northwestern, on Thursday night. Christian Andriolas and James Consoli will be on the call for WMUC Sports.
