By Joseph Foley

After losing to No.17 Purdue in four sets (22-25, 25-22, 22-25, 15-25) Wednesday night, Maryland head coach Steve Aird still saw positives from his team.

“They feel like they should be able to compete at this level, which shows how far we’ve come,” said Aird.

Maryland (13-16, 3-12) is coming off a week in which they swept No.12 Ohio State in a surprising upset, and also took a set from the No.1 team in the nation, Penn State. Despite tonight’s loss to Purdue (19-7, 10-5), there’s no doubt the team’s confidence is growing. While starting four freshmen and losing two seniors to injury, Maryland is exceeding expectations in one of the nation’s toughest volleyball conferences.

The Terps opened the first set with a 10-7 lead, behind a pair of kills from both freshman opposite Angel Gaskin and senior outside hitter Adrenee Elliott. However, the Boilermakers answered with 8-point run to gain a 15-10 lead. Maryland battled but couldn’t dig out of that hole. Five service errors from the Terps in the first set didn’t help, as Purdue won it 25-22.

The second set was Maryland’s best of the night, as they posted a team hitting percentage of .464. Five players had two or more kills in the set, which featured twelve ties. The Terps pulled away late with help from outside hitter Liz Twilley, who had three of the Terps final four points, as they took the set 25-22.

After intermission another tight set ensued. The Terps fought back from being down 14-18 to tying the set at 20-20. Purdue’s star outside hitter Annie Drews, who came into the match averaging 4.2 kills per set, had a big kill to give her team a 22-21 lead. Purdue maintained the lead from that point on and won the set 25-22, the third consecutive set ending in that score.

The fourth set was a forgettable one for Maryland. Purdue hit at .462, and also had six blocks as a team. The last tie of the set came at 6-6, after Terrapin outside hitter Abigail Bentz recorded an ace. The Boilermakers cruised from then on, going on multiple four-point runs to earn a 25-15 set victory and a 3-1 match victory.

Steve Aird wasn’t happy with his team’s performance to end the match.

“In set four I was a little disappointed we didn’t compete harder. The execution I didn’t think was great,” Aird stated.

Overall, Maryland continues to impress against top-tier Big Ten opponents. The first three sets were all up for grabs, and unfortunately for Maryland they only took one of them. The Terps will not make the NCAA tournament, but they do have the opportunity to play nationally ranked opponents for the rest of the season. Their next challenge is No.8 Nebraska, who visits College Park on Saturday.

When asked about the tough competition, Aird said, “That’s why you want to be in this conference, because you want to play against the best back to back to back.”