Weekend Preview: Maryland volleyball travels to face Michigan State and Michigan

Photo courtesy of Ian Cox/Maryland Terrapins

Entering the home stretch of the season, Maryland (13-14, 4-12 Big Ten) looks to pick up two more wins for its underclassmen against a struggling Michigan squad (16-11, 6-10 Big Ten) and Michigan State (11-16, 4-12 Big Ten), whom it beat earlier this season.

The Terps take a weekend trip to the Mitten State, playing in Ann Arbor against the Wolverines on Thursday at 7 p.m. and East Lansing versus the Spartans on Saturday at 1 p.m.

Coach Adam Hughes spoke about how this year hasn’t yielded as many wins as the team expected, but they want to finish strong nonetheless. Hughes particularly wants underclassmen to experience the pressure of late-season situations with tournament stakes.

“Make sure the youngsters realize what this would feel like if these were games where, ‘Hey you’re getting down to the wire,’” Hughes said. “This is gonna separate you and what does it feel like to need to win those games.”

Fortunately, the Terps have three manageable matchups coming up, all opportunities for young players to thrive late in the year.

After a 6-3 start in conference play, Michigan cemented itself as a top-10 team in the Big Ten and was knocking on the door of the AVCA’s top 25 rankings.

Since then, the Wolverines have lost seven in a row, the conference’s second-longest active losing streak trailing only Rutgers who failed to win a game in conference play so far.

During the stretch, Michigan dropped matches to Michigan State and Ohio State, two teams nearing the bottom of the conference with sub-.500 records and who have both lost to Maryland.

Thursday marks the Terps’ lone game of the season against the Wolverines, a change caused by the Big Ten expanding by four teams this year.

“A matchup like Michigan State in the past, it used to be ‘Hey you gotta win at home and see if you can steal one on the road,’” Hughes said. “Now you don’t often have that luxury. We’re playing Michigan for the first time and we only get them at their place.”

The Wolverines have held their home court down, posting a 10-4 home record, with two of the losses coming against No. 9 Wisconsin and No. 15 Minnesota.

Even though it’s a seven-game skid, Michigan remains one of the better statistical teams in the Big Ten.

The offense is fueled by outside hitter Allison Jacobs, one of only seven players in the conference averaging over four kills per set (4.09). 

On the other side, Michigan ranks last in the Big Ten in blocks per set (1.93), priming Maryland’s outside hitters for a productive night.

Michigan State has been trending up since its loss to Maryland on Nov. 7, rattling off three wins, tied for its longest win streak of the season.

The Spartans took down Rutgers and Iowa, both with worse records than them, but also downed Michigan for their second-best conference win of the year.

Outside hitters Akasha Anderson and Taylor Preston still lead the Spartans in kills per set at 3.37 and 2.77, respectively.

In the two teams’ first match, the Terps stifled the Spartans’ front row to the tune of a .122 hitting percentage. Taylor posted a solid 12 kills, but Anderson was held to only six.

While Maryland hit a subpar .190 for the game, they led Michigan State in kills 51 to 42, and got double-digit kills from Samantha Schnitta (14) and Katie Scherer (10). 

The Terps can beat Michigan State defensively by slowing down Anderson or Preston and giving the offense some room for error.

A win in the early November match against the Spartans sparked Maryland’s three-game win streak, its best stretch in conference play. The Terps hope to begin another run to close out the season with a second win over Michigan State.