Maryland volleyball opens Kristen Dickmann Invitational with sweep over Old Dominion

Maryland volleyball started its weekend in Annapolis with a sweep over Old Dominion in the first game of the Kristen Dickmann Invitational.

To say that the Terps (3-1) played a clean match would be an understatement. They recorded a .412 hit percentage and 43 kills, dominating in each major statistical category. Maryland also impressed up front with 10 blocks compared to the Monarchs’ (3-1) three.

Senior Samantha Schnitta led the team in kills with 11, continuing her hot start to the season.

“She finds ways to score and a lot of that stuff is not teachable,” coach Adam Hughes said. “We’re very thankful she’s been able to produce the way she is right now.”

It was a completely different story for the Monarchs. Errors put them in an early hole that they were unable to dig out of.

Old Dominion was sloppy in the first set, misfiring eight times on the attack with a hit percentage of just .103.

Back-to-back kills from senior outside hitter Sam Csire and freshman middle blocker Eva Rohrbach set the tone early for the Terps. The Monarchs’ errors prevented them from cutting into the lead, resulting in a 25-19 first-set win for Maryland.

The Terps continued the clean play in the second set, keeping their hitting percentage in the .400s. A kill from redshirt senior middle blocker Anastasia Russ assisted by senior setter Sydney Dowler capped off a 25-21 second set win.

“We worked really hard in practice to improve our blocking with the edition of new players,” Russ said, “It was really exciting to continue that moving forward because that brings a lot of energy.”

Dowler distributed the ball well all afternoon, finishing with 34 assists and a trio of kills in the second set.

The third set was the most dominant for the Terps. A 9-0 run featuring a pair of kills from Russ grew the lead to 16-6, ending any hope of an Old Dominion comeback. A service error would end the third set, 25-17.

“It’s about how the team played well together, we were really low error across the board,” Hughes said. “The message to the group was ‘good job, well done, but let’s get ready and try to redo it tomorrow.’”

Maryland swept Lamar last Saturday and completed the same outcome today, putting its record at 3-1 to start the season. It will be back in action tomorrow at 2:30 p.m. against Utah Valley.