Maryland volleyball drops second game of weekend trip 3-0 to Michigan State

Photo courtesy of Austin Desisto/Maryland Terrapins

The Terps (13-16, 4-14 Big Ten) come out of their weekend trip up north empty-handed after being swept by Michigan on Thursday and Michigan State (12-17, 5-13) on Saturday.

“Very disappointed,” coach Adam Hughes said. “Just did not play well this weekend.”

Against Maryland, the resurgent Spartans claimed their second 3-0 win in conference play and fourth victory in their last five matches.

Outside hitters Taylor Preston and Akash Anderson combined for 23 of Michigan State’s 45 kills, but another 12 kills came from the bench.

Aliyah Moore, a senior outside hitter rarely featured in the Spartans’ offense, looked like the best player on the court today. Moore recorded a season-high 12 kills on a team-best .750 hitting.

The Spartans’ offense hit over .300 for the match, while the Terps’ front line struggled in the first and third set.

When Maryland’s go-to outside hitters Samantha Schnitta and Sam Csire couldn’t find kills early in set one, the team turned to middle blocker Anastasia Russ.

The Terps don’t often rely on Russ, who ranks fifth on the team in kills this year, but in the first set, she delivered. The 6-foot-5 graduate student recorded three quick kills on .600 hitting and exploited her height advantage over Michigan State’s 6-foot-1 middle blocker Nil Okur.

Spartans head coach Leah Johnson adjusted well, replacing Okur with 6-foot-4 Zuzanna Kulig. The change paid dividends, with the fresh middle blocker posting a solo block and a kill shortly after being subbed in.

When the Spartans led 23-17 after Kulig sparked a three-point run, Schnitta, the nation’s leader in aces per set (.78), came to the end line.

When asked about Schnitta’s serving this season, Hughes has often referenced the high-risk, high-reward style she’s adopted from the men’s game. 

That risk burned Maryland late in the set when Schnitta committed an error that thwarted the Terps’ best chance at a scoring run to narrow the lead. Michigan State closed out the set 25-19 following the error.

The Spartans dominated the first half of set two, hitting over. 400 while Maryland hit below .200. When Michigan State built a 22-15 lead, the Terps looked doomed to fall down 2-0 after a repeat of the first set. But Maryland showed some fire, igniting a 7-1 run with opportune blocks and staunch defense.

The Terps cut the deficit to one and forced a Michigan State timeout at 23-22. But Maryland’s streak would end there, coming up just short.

Out of the timeout, kills from Preston and fellow outside hitter Karolina Staniszewska sealed the second set 25-22 for Michigan State. Though the Terps had their most efficient set of the match (.276 hitting percentage) after rallying back, early struggles killed their chances of winning game two.

“I thought they did a good job kinda fighting there to give themselves a window,” Hughes said. “It was just too late of a run to get back in time.”

Maryland followed that set with their worst offensive showing of the match in game three, putting up 10 kills on sub-.100 hitting.

Outside of two early three-point stretches, the Terps’ offense failed to string together any momentum and only showed up in spurts.

Slow starts and being forced to play from behind, a losing formula for any team, have plagued Maryland all season.

“I thought [in the last match against Michigan State] we were in control of possessions a lot better, you know, we were in-system more, so therefore we were putting more pressure on them,” Hughes said. “Today it felt like we were playing from behind in a lot of ways.”

Moore took over the third set with seven kills and seemed to craftily hit around Maryland’s block. She fueled the Spartans’ offense as they slowly stretched their lead until her twelfth kill of the match put away the Terps 25-18.

Anderson, Preston and Moore each cracked double-digit kills on over .300 hitting, while Schnitta led the Terps with only nine kills on a .148 clip.

Maryland rounds out the season with a trip to Rutgers, whom it swept earlier this season, and a return to College Park to play its season finale against No. 2 Nebraska in the Xfinity Center’s main gym.