Maryland volleyball earns first conference win with sweep over Rutgers

Photo courtesy of Dylan Davies/Maryland Athletics

Up by six points and a 2-0 set lead, Maryland was determined to complete the sweep and secure its first Big Ten victory of the season. It did just that as Sydney Dowler and Eva Rohrbach combined for the block to send the Maryland crowd into a frenzy.

Backed by dominant play by Samantha Schnitta and a second-half surge from Sam Csire, Maryland (10-5, 1-3 Big Ten) cruised past Rutgers for its first Big Ten win of the season on Saturday at the Pavilion.

“I didn’t think we played it particularly well, but we found good solutions in a variety of ways,” head coach Adam Hughes said. “That was a really good serve and pass game for us, and … when we’re good on the first touch, we put ourselves in good positions.

The Terps had dominated play recently against Rutgers (5-10, 0-4), beating the Scarlet Knights in their last five contests. Saturday’s game was no different.

For the third time in four Big Ten games, Maryland claimed the opening set. Despite winning the set, the offense did little to secure it, as the Terps claimed just ten kills. Rutgers did most of the work for the Terps, producing four attacking errors and five service errors — the last of which sealed the point for Maryland. 

But when Maryland’s offense needed a point, it came from Schnitta. The senior entered Saturday’s game, leading the nation in service aces. While she only produced two in the opening point, both sparked big runs, forcing Rutgers to use two timeouts and allowing the Terps to withstand a late set push.

Schnitta continued to dominate from the service line in the following set, claiming her third ace on the second point of the set and producing two later to give the Terps a four-point cushion. Service errors had been a continuous problem for the Terps all season, but on Saturday, they recorded just four.

“Sometimes, when you’re on, everyone feels less pressure,” Hughes said. We’re always trying to find this balance of people [who] are aggressive, some people are more like spot location changing speeds, and I thought we found a pretty good balance of that.”

From there, Schnitta and Csire took over as the duo combined to score four of Maryland’s final five points to close out the second set.

It was a different look for Csire on Saturday, coming off the bench during each set rather than playing in the starting lineup. Regardless, Csire was still dominant for the Terps, finishing the game with eight kills, all coming in the final two points.

“Jonna [Spohn] has been passing really well and practice … and she’s one of our better defenders,” Hughes said on bringing Csire off the bench. “We felt like we were gonna need a lot of defense today, and that’s one of (Spohn’s) specialties.”

The third set saw much of the same, as both sides went back and forth, eventually resulting in a sweep from Maryland – its first since Sept. 20 against Nevada.

Despite the sweep, Rutgers consistently played stingy defense. Zora Hardison and Anna Hartman dominated the front of the net as the two combined for 13 blocks. When the sophomores weren’t blocking shots, they altered the direction of Maryland’s shots by causing the outside attackers to shoot around their 6’2 frames.

“They were just reading the ball well [and] were getting to their spots well,” Sydney Bryant said of the success of Hardison and Hartman. “But just staying calm, like was important to us, and just realizing teams are good like they’re going to block us.”

Regardless of their play, it was not enough to overcome Maryland, and the Terps took the match 3-0. The Terps will begin a two-game road trip when the team travels to Wisconsin to take on the Badgers.