Maryland volleyball downs FAU, FGCU on second day of Hilton Garden Inn Classic

Maryland volleyball (10-2) had a busy Saturday at the Hilton Garden Inn FGCU Classic. The day started with a 3-0 win over FAU (8-5) and another 3-2 win just a few hours later against FGCU (7-5).

Outside hitter Sam Csire cemented herself in Maryland history, becoming the 15th player to reach 1,000 career kills.

After her day off yesterday, Csire was back in the lineup and continued her strong season. Coming into today, Csire needed 14 kills to get to the 1,000 career kills mark. She collected a near double-double with nine kills and nine digs in the first match of the day.

Senior Laila Ricks was a bright spot for the team yesterday and continued that into today. Ricks finished the match vs. FAU with seven kills and added eight more against FGCU.

The first set against FAU started back and forth, with both teams committing a service error and collecting a couple of kills. A kill from freshman middle blocker Eva Rohrbach gave Maryland a slim 6-5 lead.

With the score even at 11, kills from Csire and Ricks gave Maryland their largest lead at 13-11. At this point, both teams had settled in and played a clean game with limited errors. Each side was hitting well and getting their points off kills.

“[Our] pursuit was really good and we started blocking some serious balls,” coach Adam Hughes said. “We were pretty disciplined too, it wasn’t like we were out of position, we were just taking good swings.”

The Owls started to falter from the clean-hitting, committing three straight errors to give Maryland an 18-16 lead. This would be the last lead change of the set. Two kills from Csire and another from Rohrbach gave the Terps a 25-22 victory.

As a team, the Terps played an extremely clean second set, hitting .324 with 16 kills and four blocks. They also did not commit an error until the midway point of the set after an attack error made it a 13-9 game.

The Terps began to run away with the set after a kill from sophomore Laila Ivey gave them a 20-11 lead. They would close out the set and get the 25-17 win after an FAU service error. 

The third set started with another back-and-forth match. Two straight kills from Csire started to pull the Terps ahead. Junior middle blocker Ellie Watson collected a pair of kills of her own to put the lead at 14-11.

FAU would fight its way back, going on a 3-0 run fueled by a kill and a pair of Maryland attack errors. The run would continue after a Maryland timeout and swing the lead to 22-19 FAU.

The Terps went on a 3-0 run of their own to tie the game at 22. Maryland kept fighting following an FAU timeout. Three straight Maryland blocks ended the third set and the match with a 25-22 final score.

“It was really hype,” Ivey said. “Nothing really compares to just blocking someone four times in a row, that’s probably the best feeling. It was pure excitement.”

The excitement was put on hold, however, as Maryland had a quick turnaround at 7 p.m. against the host, FGCU.

Neither team was able to build a lead in the beginning of the first set. Back-and-forth kills and service errors had the score tied at 14 headed into a media timeout. Out of the timeout, Ricks delivered back-to-back kills to help Maryland to a 17-15 advantage. They continued to grow their lead until Ivey ended the set with back-to-back kills, giving Maryland the 25-20 win.

The Eagles started the second set off hot. Two kills, a block and a service ace sparked a 4-0 run that gave them a 5-1 lead. Maryland answered with its own 5-0 scoring run, started by Ricks picking up two more kills. It would go on to win the set 25-16.

Csire’s two kills to start the third set put her over the 1,000 kill threshold. She is just the 15th player in program history to accomplish this feat. This also put the Terps on the board first.

“[Maryland’s bench] was acting a little more energetic and I saw the fans were going a little bit more crazy but at that point I was struggling offensively so I tried to not let it get to me,” Csire said. “It’s a checkmark off my box but I had to keep my mind focused on the game.”

FGCU started to find its offense to start the third set. After three straight kills and two attack errors from Csire, the Eagles held a 7-3 lead. From here it was all FGCU. As a team it hit over .500 with a trio of blocks. On the other hand, Maryland looked sloppy, committing seven attack errors and hitting .067. The Eagles would go on to win set three 25-15.

The Eagles picked up right where they left off to start the fourth set. Three kills and three service aces sparked an 8-0 run that gave them a 12-6 lead, forcing a Maryland timeout. The Terps were able to stay an arms length away after a 3-0 run of their own to make it a 14-11 game.

Back-to-back Ivey kills and a pair of FGCU attack errors would tie up the game at 16. But this would be the end of the fourth set positives for Maryland. Ultimately, it was errors that ruined the Terps’ comeback hopes, committing five errors in the final ten FGCU points. The Eagles ended the set 25-17 on three straight service aces.

“We couldn’t get anything going, I thought they were serving really well,” Hughes said. “Good teams are gonna respond so kudos to them, they found a way to get a spark.”

Ivey once again came up clutch to start the fifth set with back-to-back kills. Maryland would continue to hold a slim lead until a 3-0 scoring run put it up 11-7, silencing the raucous FGCU crowd. A Maryland block followed by an Anastasia Russ kill gave Maryland the win, 15-12.

Saturday’s doubleheader concludes the non-conference schedule for Maryland. The Terps begin Big Ten play next Friday against Purdue in College Park.