Maryland volleyball swept 3-0 at No. 11 Oregon

Photo by Dylan Davies/Maryland Athletics

In a game strangely similar to Maryland’s (10-10, 1-8 Big Ten) most recent loss to Illinois, the Terps played a solid match and tested No. 11 Oregon (15-3, 7-2 Big Ten), but made unforced errors that cost them sets.

In the two programs’ first-ever matchup and Maryland’s first trip to the West Coast for Big Ten play, Oregon convincingly defeated Maryland 3-0 behind the play of Mimi Colyer on offense.

“One thing we also didn’t have an answer for was the outside Colyer, a very special player,” Hughes said. “I thought we did a pretty good job with the rest of the team, but she had a special match and we couldn’t contain her.”

The Terps began the first set playing some of their cleanest volleyball of the season. Maryland built an early 6-2 lead behind Samantha Schnitta’s three early kills. The Terps’ offense continued rolling, committing zero attack errors in their first 15 points, helping build a 15-10 lead over Oregon and put a quick 1-0 set lead in Maryland’s sights.

But it didn’t take long for the Ducks to show why they are ranked and star outside hitter Mimi Colyer to prove why she’s one of the Big Ten’s best at her position. 

Oregon rattled off a four-point run to cut Maryland’s lead to one and scored four more unanswered points to take a two-point lead.

The Terps were now entering “the red zone,” the late period of the set which has been Maryland’s Achilles heel this season, and where coach Adam Hughes has repeatedly stressed the importance of “capitalizing.”

Once again, the Terps’ inability to finish in close sets cost them.

A service ace from Eva Rohrbach and a service error by Oregon tied the game at 19, but Maryland surrendered a four-point run to effectively seal the set.

A Michelle Ohwobete kill and an error from the end line by Sam Csire, one of Maryland’s painful 13 service errors in the match, closed out set one 25-21.

“We were probably, I wouldn’t say overaggressive, just didn’t execute on some of the serves we really needed to,” Hughes said.

Like the rest of the match, set two was a game of back-and-forth runs, but Maryland always seemed to be a step behind. Three or four-point spurts were common throughout the set, but the Terps led only once, lasting for a mere two rallies.

No sequence better illustrated how quickly momentum shifted than when Oregon led 21-18.

Maryland ripped off a three-point streak, forcing a timeout from Oregon Head Coach Matt Ulmer, then returned from the break with two more points.

As soon as the Terps looked primed to take the set and tie the match 1-1, the Ducks scored three straight to force set point. Csire gave Maryland a glimmer of hope with a kill to stave off defeat, but followed it up with yet another service error in a key moment. The Ducks’ Noemie Glover capped the set 26-24 with a kill.

“Realistically, offensively and defensively I thought we did some nice things,” Hughes said. “I thought we just missed too many serves at really unfortunate times.”

Maryland showed some fight to open up the third set, establishing a quick 4-1 lead, but then allowed Oregon to score a game-high nine straight points. 

The Terps were never able to dig themselves out of this early hole. They kept pace with the Ducks but never strung together enough points to mount a comeback, ultimately falling 25-17.

Maryland had severely struggled with the Big Ten’s premier defensive teams, namely Minnesota and USC, and Oregon’s defense has been just as dominant as those squads.

Despite not being productive through the first two sets, with four total blocks, Oregon’s block finally came alive in the final set. The Ducks bounced back matching their previous total of four blocks and handed the Terps their fifth straight sweep loss.

The driving force for Oregon’s offense was Colyer, who put on a hitting clinic with 20 kills on .500 hitting. The former AVCA National Freshman of the Year and All-American simply looked unstoppable.

The Terps now hold a .500 record overall and look to steal a win on the road at Washington on Saturday.