Maryland volleyball records third consecutive sweep in win over UMBC

Photo courtesy of Dylan Davies/Maryland Athletics

UMBC entered the match against Maryland looking to claim their first win of the season and win their first set since August. The Terps denied both.

Maryland volleyball (6-2) swept UMBC (0-7) on Sunday at 3 p.m. to go undefeated on the weekend. The Terps extended their win streak to five with a third consecutive sweep.

Maryland simply did their job in the first set, playing disciplined volleyball and letting UMBC make all the mistakes. The Terps committed zero attacking errors in the first set, hitting .722, while seven of the Retrievers’ 19 attempts were errors.

The Terps also continued to do damage on the end line, with four service aces in the first set. Service errors continued to plague Maryland, though coach Adam Hughes has discussed the give-and-take nature of the service line.

Samantha Schnitta has been at the forefront of both Maryland’s service production and service woes, leading the team in aces and errors.

“While [Schnitta] might be giving up an error here, if she’s going one for one, that’s a great result for us,” Hughes said. “Schnitta’s gonna throw a lot of heat, she’s gonna miss some, but she can get us a streak … that can change the complexion of a set.”

Heat is the perfect word to describe Schnitta’s serving. When she hits a topspinner just right, the ball seems to catch fire and no one can return it.

The second set was much tighter, ending up knotted at 24. Maryland hit .286, relatively low compared to what they have been hitting in recent matches, while UMBC hit .235. The Retrievers also had their only blocks of the match in the second set.

The set saw 34 combined digs in prolonged, ground-out points.

Maryland wouldn’t allow back-to-back sloppy sets though. After a hard-fought second set, the Terps firmly closed out the match in the final set.

“I don’t think we took them lightly, I thought the group’s doing a really good job making sure that they respect whoever comes into our gym,” Hughes said.

Just as in the first set, Maryland’s offense was dominant and UMBC’s hitting faltered.

The Terps limited themselves to one error in the final set, for only seven errors in 82 total attempts in the match.

Three Terps recorded double-digit kills but, for the fifth match in a row. Schnitta paced the team in kills.

“She’s a lot more confident, and that gives a lot of people a little bit of extra ease, a little more comfort … when she’s hitting us out of trouble,” Hughes said. “We found a rock right now in Schnitta.”

Maryland has a bit of a packed schedule coming up, playing Delaware State on Wednesday at 7 p.m., then flying to Orlando for the UCF Tournament next weekend.

“We’ve got a bit of a sprint, which is also why it’s nice to get a 3-0 sweep,” Hughes said. “You don’t have to go five games.”