Maryland volleyball will lean on young talent, newcomers in 2025 season

After finishing the 2024 season 14-17, Maryland volleyball is looking towards the future. Ending their season in front of a record 13,071 home fans, all eyes are on head coach Adam Hughes’ ability to patch up the holes this program has recently had.

The most glaring statistic from Maryland’s 2024 campaign was its in-conference record. At 5-15, in-conference opponents accounted for all but two of their losses. The Terps also lost eight seniors, including Samantha Schnitta, Sam Csire, and Sydney Dowler, all of whom ended their Maryland careers in the record books.

Schnitta finished the 2024 season with the most service aces per set across all of Division I with 0.79 per game. Schnitta and Csire also tied for the second-most aces in a five-set match last season, both notching seven in separate games. Schnitta left Maryland with the all-time program record for aces in a single season with 88.

Dowler finished her career third all-time in assists with 3,858. She also finished with 123 aces, placing her fifth all-time. 

This season, the Terps will need contributions from incoming freshmen such as defensive specialist Addie Canady, middle blocker Ellis Crawford and setters Nikki Tawil and Lilly Wagner.

Canady put up a 29 kill percentage in her high school sophomore year at Cary Academy and ranked 68th in North Carolina in total digs with 371 during her junior season. Crawford was named one of the members of the 2023 MaxPreps Junior All-America team, finishing with 1,190 kills at Pope High School in Marietta, Ga. 

Wagner accrued many accolades to her name before making her way to Maryland, including 2023 Classic 8 Conference Player of the Year, 2023 WVCA Division 1 All-State First Team, and 2022 MaxPreps High School First Team All-American.

Perhaps the most important date of the season comes on Sep. 25, when the Terps travel to Iowa to face the Hawkeyes. The game will be Maryland’s first Big Ten matchup of the year, and could prove pivotal in how they perform in conference for the rest of the season. The Terps were ranked 16^th out of 18 teams in the Big Ten Preseason Poll, while Iowa was ranked 17th.

“We want to hit the ground running,” Hughes said on Big Ten media day in July.

Starting the Season in South Carolina

The Terps will start the 2025 season with a match at Coastal Carolina on Friday at 6 p.m. Last season, Maryland was excellent in non-conference play, going 9-2 overall. Coastal finished the 2024 season 13-17, with a national RPI ranking of 105. 

Despite numerous new players, the Terps return several crucial players from last year’s squad. The most notable is middle blocker Eva Rohrbach, who was stellar in her sophomore season, tallying 170 kills and securing 13 kills in a single game last year against UCF. 

The Terps also return defensive specialist Ally Williams. The senior was solid last season, ranking fourth on the team in digs with 176.

On the other side of the net, Coastal Carolina is looking to redeem itself following a sub-.500 season. 

Setter Jalyn Stout capped off her 2024 season as an All-Sun Belt First Team honoree, and enters the year leading all active Division 1 players in triple-doubles with 34. Even more notably, Stout set an NCAA single-season record by tallying 20 triple-doubles in 2024. 

Emily Fowler, an outside hitter, also looks to build off an impressive 2024 season, which she finished with 250 kills. Fowler was also one of four players on Coastal to finish with 100 digs, accruing 109. 

Coastal is not without its holes, though. The Chanticleers lost four seniors after the 2024 season wrapped, including opposite hitter Agata Lesiak and middle blocker Dilara Unal. Lesiak recorded the second-most kills on the team with 293, only behind Stout. Unal, while not a major kill threat, had the second-most aces on the team with 30 and the most blocks at 104. 

As four seniors departed, four freshmen joined the Chanticleers, including outside hitter Elin Andersson from Trelleborg, Sweden, and middle blocker Kayla Channell from Pepper Pike, Ohio. 

In the North European Volleyball Zonal Association, Andersson took home gold in U17 competition in 2022 and U19 in 2024. She was named the 2024-25 Rookie of the Year in the Elitserien, Sweden’s top volleyball league, and recently competed in the U20 European Championship. 

Channell, who attended Gilmour Academy, led the team to two state championships (2021 and 2024) and recorded 850 kills during her prep career.

Coastal defeated College of Charleston in an exhibition match on Aug. 22, taking home a 3-2 reverse sweep victory. Stout and Fowler scored the final two points of the third set, ending with a 25-19 score and forcing a fourth set. 

After falling behind 9-1, the Chanticleers went on an impressive 18-5 run and eventually won the fourth set 28-26. The teams traded scoring runs in the final set, eventually leading to a 13-13 tie. After an attack error from Charleston, middle blocker Leah Olsen sent the Cougars home with an emphatic service ace. 

Coastal Carolina and Maryland look to start the season strong, with returning stars and new faces on both sides of the court. The only prior meeting between these two teams was back in 2023, with the Terps taking home a 3-2 victory. Maryland has the opportunity to continue that winning trend on Friday and open the 2025 campaign on a positive note

After taking on Coastal Carolina, the Terps will have a tougher battle against the North Carolina Tar Heels on Saturday at 1 p.m. Last year, the Tar Heels went 23-8, falling to Penn State in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. 

They ended last season ranked 27th in the country by RPI, and return star players such as outside hitter and Maryland native Safi Hampton, who recorded 291 kills last season, and defensive specialist Maddy May, who tallied 428 digs and 19 aces.

Historically, the Terps have struggled against the Tar Heels. North Carolina holds a 42-22 all-time advantage over Maryland, and the Terps have lost seven straight to the ACC powerhouse. Saturday will mark the first matchup between the teams since Maryland left the ACC for the Big Ten in 2014. With two strong opponents on the docket this weekend, the Terps will need to step up on the road.