Maryland volleyball cruises in sweep of Princeton

Maryland volleyball nearly blew a two-set lead on Friday, squeaking out a five-set victory. The Terps put to rest any questions about their ability to close out sets against Princeton on Saturday.

Maryland (6-2) collected another win in the Maryland Tournament, cruising past Princeton (2-4), 3-0.

Princeton came into the match in the midst of a three-game losing streak with losses to UMBC and Coastal Carolina on Friday, hoping to return to its beginning of the season form that featured consecutive sweeps.

Miscues put Maryland in an early hole in the first set. A service error from senior Laila Ricks and an attack error from freshman Eva Rohrbach gave Princeton a 4-1 lead. But the Terps locked in from there. Back-to-back blocks from senior setter Sydney Dowler and kills from Ricks and senior outside hitter Sam Csire swung the lead in Maryland’s direction.

“Give Princeton a lot of credit,” coach Adam Hughes said. “They were very scrappy, and they force you to beat them. They are not gonna let you get it for free.”

Maryland was dominant at the net. After collecting its fourth block of the set, the score stood at 9-7. Dowler was the driving force behind the stellar play up close, accounting for three blocks.

The Tigers kept the score close despite their low .143 hitting percentage, and a kill from freshman setter Sydney Draper knotted up the game at 18. That only halted the Terps for a moment, as a kill from Rohrbach sealed the first set win for Maryland, 25-23. 

Csire led the way for the Terps with six kills, three of which in the final four points of the set. As a unit, Maryland finished the set with five total blocks and 16 kills.

“I’m glad we didn’t have to go five [sets] but [Csire] might have gotten 50 kills tonight if we had,” Hughes said. “She was phenomenal and it wasn’t just the kills too … I thought she stepped up in situations where we’re leaning on ‘how do we get out of trouble here.’”

Ricks opened the second set with two kills, helping Maryland to a 3-0 lead. Neither side found success early on, with both teams hitting sub .175 and collecting a plethora of errors. A block from outside hitter Laila Ivey gave Maryland its largest lead of the set, 15-11.

Maryland started to find its offense as the set went on while Princeton remained stagnant. The Tigers faced an 18-13 deficit after committing their fifth attack error of the set; they appeared to have multiple miscommunications with multiple players diving for the same ball.

The Terps kept their foot on the gas and took the set 25-22 despite a late surge by Princeton. Csire ended the set on a service ace that landed right in between three Tigers.

Maryland was in a similar situation going into the third set; up 2-0 after winning a close second set. Both offenses turned it around at the beginning of the third set in back-and-forth scoring, and a Russ kill gave Maryland an 11-10 lead.

“[Csire] in clutch situations took big hacks when we needed it,” Hughes said. “Our strength as a team is some days it’s gonna be Csire, some days it’s gonna be Laila, or [Schnitta].

The Terps expanded their lead to 17-14 and looked like a different squad offensively. Hitting .611 with 13 kills, the confidence was at an all-time high. Another Russ kill put the Terps up 19-14, forcing Princeton to use a timeout.

The Tigers picked up two-straight kills coming out of the timeout and went on a run of their own and cut the lead to one. But Maryland stayed calm and took the set 25-20 with Russ delivering another clutch kill as the dagger.

“[Russ] has a lot of fire in her and that gets us up,” Csire said,  “that’s what we need on the court [in] situations where it’s a close game and we need to close it out. For her to come up big and clutch, it’s awesome.”

Maryland will look to continue rolling when it makes the short trip to Howard on Sunday.