Maryland volleyball swept by Indiana in second game of weekend homestand

By: Wade DeVinney

In a match where leading a set just by one seemed like a coup for Maryland volleyball, Indiana (13-6, 3-3) shut down the Terps (13-5, 3-3) three sets to none Saturday night.

“They just did a better job than us taking care of easy plays,” coach Adam Hughes said. “It’s not even easy, just long transitions that they were very deliberate in taking care of.”

It was all Indiana in the first set. After the Terps overcame a slow start and battled to an 11-point tie, the Hoosiers scored seven unanswered points en route to a 25-18 set win.

Despite the early struggle, sophomore outside hitter Laila Ivey was going kill for kill with graduate middle blocker Kaley Rammelsberg, both registering five kills for their team in the first set. However, Ivey only recorded three more kills for the rest of the game, while Rammelsberg doubled her point total for the match in the second frame.

Indiana never registered a block in the first set, with Maryland recording six. However, the Terps struggled to land their hits, logging a .133 hitting percentage to Indiana’s .275.

The Hoosiers found their blocking game in the second set, although Maryland kept it closer. Sophomore opposite hitter Avry Tatum and senior middle blocker Savannah Kjolhede combined for two blocks as the Hoosiers took the second set, 25-19.

Indiana was the more efficient team through two sets, never hitting below .275. Meanwhile, the Terps never hit better than .190 in that time period.

Maryland led Indiana until the middle of the third set, when the Hoosiers took a 13-12 lead and never looked back. In spite of that, the Terps never trailed by more than four points until the match point, and redshirt senior middle blocker Anastasia Russ recorded six kills in the frame. But the effort was not enough to save the Terps, and Maryland lost the final set 20-25 and the match 3-0.

Russ finished the day with 11 kills, the most for the Terps. Kjolhede led Indiana with 12 kills. Maryland finished with a .174 hitting percentage, while Indiana nearly doubled their percentage with a .279 clip.

The Terps were more error-prone throughout the match. Maryland’s 19 attack errors nearly doubled Indiana’s 11, Ivery being the main culprit with five errors.

“If you’re out of system you’re going to be higher error because you’re trying to find ways to score more points,” Hughes said. “We probably have to get back to work just getting confidence back in serve-receive.”

Maryland will travel to Evanston, IL next Friday to play Northwestern, looking to get back into the win column.