Maryland volleyball dominates Lehigh in 3-0 sweep

Photo courtesy of Dylan Davies/Maryland Athletics

Maryland (5-2) opened its weekend on Friday at 6 p.m. with a dominant offensive showing in a 3-0 sweep over Lehigh (4-3).

The first set of the night began with clean offense from both squads. The Terps’ offense was humming the whole set, racking up 16 kills, up from their average of about 12 kills per set this year, while hitting .314. 

The Mountain Hawks held a higher hitting percentage than Maryland for most of the set, but some crucial late errors dropped them to .250. Lehigh rattled off three straight points late in the set to cut the Terps’ lead to one, but consecutive attacking errors from Alysia Fingall sealed the first-set victory for Maryland.

Maryland quickly found themselves down 4-0 in the second set but rallied just as quickly to tie it 7-7. 

The Terps’ offense, led by Samantha Schnitta, shined. Maryland one-upped themselves from set one with 17 kills and hit an absurd .640. 

Schnitta recorded six kills and a service ace from a missile that Lehigh failed to return. The outside hitter capped off the set with her tenth kill of the match, giving Maryland the 25-17 victory.

With her crafty hitting, Schnitta remained the centerpiece of the Terps’ offense, just as she was last weekend.

“[Schnitta] hits us out of some significant challenges,” Coach Adam Hughes said. “There are some bang-bang plays where someone could throw the ball up high and she finds ways to get us out of trouble.”

Set three was more of a team effort. Maryland got offensive production from their vets in Schnitta, Anastasia Russ, and Sam Csire, as well as from their budding sophomores Eva Rohrbach and Sydney Bryant.

Lehigh struggled offensively in the third set, tallying only eight kills and hitting .182. Standout Natalie Luscomb, who entered the season averaging almost three kills a set and hitting .368, was unusually quiet.

Luscomb hit .235 for the match, but recorded only six kills. With Luscomb’s off-night, Lehigh couldn’t find another player to take the reins of the offense. Alysia Fingall led Lehigh with six kills, but the Mountain Hawks had six players with at least four.

These contributions ultimately proved to be too little, as Maryland defeated Lehigh in a 3-0 sweep.

Though Maryland’s offense doesn’t look like it could improve on much after tonight, there were a few holes in the Terps’ game tonight.

Maryland lacked a defensive presence at the net for much of the match, blocking only two attempts in the first two sets. The Terps did have some key defensive stops in the final set, including match point, but they’ve been more aggressive at the net in previous matches.

Though Hughes has expressed that the team can win matches without much blocking.

“Some days we’re gonna have to do it blocking, some days we’re gonna have do it [on] offense,” Hughes said. “To hit .447 with 48 kills, I was happy we were able to do it offensively today.”

Service was also a bit of an issue against the Mountain Hawks. Maryland had a solid seven service aces, but committed 12 service errors as well.

Despite these flaws, Hughes’ squad has been playing phenomenally as conference play nears. The Terps could plausibly win out in their non-conference slate. Maryland only face two more non-conference teams with a winning record — Nevada (5-2) and UCF (4-0). 

The Terps look to extend a four game win streak on Sunday at 3 p.m. against UMBC in the Xfinity Center.