Maryland volleyball drops another match in 3-1 loss to No. 3 Penn State

Photo courtesy of Dylan Davies/Maryland Athletics

Samantha Schnitta soared through the air, batting the ball down for her third kill within the first few minutes of Thursday night’s match. Down 12-7, that point began an 18-10 run for the Terps, winning them the first set in State College. 

However, it was all downhill for the Terps after then. Despite fierce competition in the next three sets, Maryland Volleyball (9-5, 0-3 Big Ten) fell on the road to No. 3 Penn State (13-1, 3-0 Big Ten). The Nittany Lions extended their win streak against the Terps to 31 consecutive matches. 

The Terps entered the match in need of a massive upset after losing consecutive five set games at home to Northwestern and Iowa to open conference play. Although Maryland kept it close for the majority of the match, they couldn’t keep up with one of the best teams in the country. 

“One of the goals was to be as consistent and steady as possible,” coach Adam Hughes said. “We put a lot of competitive effort in and just came up a little bit short.”

Hughes, a native of State College and graduate of Penn State, was happy to be back home, but feels a sense of unfulfillment against his alma mater. 

“It’s always fun to come back here, and it was a good battle,” Hughes said. “But it’s a place I still want to get my win at. I’m glad we cracked it a little bit, wish we would have been able to pull it off, but I thought it was a pretty good effort.”

Penn State ranked second in the country on assists per set coming into the match, and continued to establish their dominance with 51 assists against the Terps. Freshman Izzy Starck, who is ranked fifth in the country with just over 11 assists per set, notched 39 of Penn State’s 51 assists.

Maryland was also plagued with errors. The Terps had 21 attack errors and 10 service errors, accounting for approximately 32% of Penn State’s points. They also had just a .188 hitting percentage, which has been a negative theme in their past three matches. 

In total, Maryland have led their opponents in hitting percentage when up or down by two plus points .256 to .135, and .217 to .195 when either up or down by one point or tied. In their losses to Northwestern and Iowa, that number fell to their opponents favor, .184 to .201.

Maryland needs to clean their play up a bit if they want a shot at the Big Ten tournament, especially as they enter the thick of conference play. They’ll look to turn things around on October 5th, as they head back to the Xfinity Center to take on the Rutgers Scarlet Knights.