Maryland volleyball swept by Michigan in poor showing

Maryland volleyball’s weekend in Michigan was one to forget. Coming off a defeat to Michigan State on Friday, the Terps looked to right the ship against Michigan on Sunday.

That didn’t happen. They saw an eight-point lead wipe away to open the second set, and the Wolverines controlled the match the rest of the way.

Maryland (15-11, 5-9 Big Ten) sputtered offensively in a loss to a Michigan (6-17, 4-10 Big Ten) team the Terps beat just over a month ago. The defeat marked a second straight sweep.

The Wolverines continued their well-hitting into the third set and quickly jumped out to a 10-6 lead. They kept their foot on the gas and scored in a variety of ways, hitting .259 on the set with 11 kills, three aces and four blocks. They ran away with the third set to secure the match win.

Maryland hit an abysmal .078 and committed 24 attack errors compared to 32 kills. Freshman Eva Rohrbach was a consistent contributor despite the Terps’ overall low hitting percentage. The middle blocker put up five kills and two blocks while hitting .833.

“In game one I thought we were actually playing pretty good ball,” coach Adam Hughes said. “We did a good job rebounding in game two and got ourselves a big lead. It was interesting, we just got a little pressure put on us and we went high error. I think we made three or four attack errors in a row and that changed the complexion of the match.”

Similar to its last match, Maryland built a quick lead and was hitting well. An early 5-0 run included kills from Rohrbach and Sam Csire and an ace from Lilly Gunter, but Michigan wiped away the lead after a 5-0 run of its own. Back-to-back service aces ignited another Wolverine spur to give them the lead.

Csire delivered two more kills down five to give the Terps some brief momentum, but Michigan later went on another run to close out the first set, 25-22. The Wolverines had three players with four or more kills in the set.

Maryland again opened the second set strong but saw its lead erased by a long Michigan run. The Terps struggled to get kills in the back half of the set, hitting .000 with as many attack errors as kills (nine). The Wolverines’ 10-1 run in the middle of the set included five kills and two blocks.

“We weren’t able to overcome the mental barrier of ‘We had a huge lead and lost it’,” Hughes said. “After that we never really regained form. [We] tried to get new people some new looks and see if somebody off the bench could give us a jump start but weren’t able to find anybody.”

Middle blocker Jacque Boney was a force at the net for Michigan. In the match, Boney contributed 14 kills and five blocks while hitting .500. This marked the junior’s fourth straight match with double-digit kills.

The third set was over as it began as the Wolverines ran away with the set and the match.

Maryland will look to get back on track following a 1-3 road trip when it returns home next weekend to face No.2 Wisconsin and Ohio State.