A night after Wisconsin swept them at Jersey Mike’s Arena and held them to .126, Rutgers moved across the river to the College Avenue Gym and got out-killed, out-dug and out-swung by Maryland.
Maryland had eight more kills, 10 more digs and 13 more swings. They also had eight more attack errors, and that was the match.
Rutgers beat Maryland 24-26, 25-22, 25-22, 20-25, 15-13 on Friday night in front of 413 at the College Avenue Gym, in a match that ran 154 minutes. Across five sets Rutgers scored 109
points and Maryland scored 108.
Rutgers hit .240 with 64 kills and 23 attack errors on 171 swings. Maryland hit .223 with 72 kills and 31 errors on 184. Rutgers out-blocked Maryland 13-9 and out-aced them 6-4 while missing nine serves to Maryland’s seven, and the side-out rates were nearly identical, 61.5 percent for Rutgers and 61.1 for Maryland. Thirteen of the 31 Maryland errors were Rutgers blocks, and 12 belonged to Brooklynne Brass, who took 56 swings, more than anyone on either side.
Maryland had eight more kills and one fewer point.
12 Ties in the First & a 15-7 Finish in the Second
The first set was tied 12 times and Rutgers barely led any of it. They were up 8-7 on a Sydney Bryant attack error, and that was their last lead of the set. Skylar George missed two serves, the second right after she had served Rutgers back level at 16-16, and Eva Rohrbach’s turn at the line produced an Ioanna Dimitriou kill and a Karis Willow attack error for 16-19 and a Rutgers timeout.
Rutgers got it back the slow way. Avery Jesewitz and Natalie Robinson stuffed Ava Brown at 19-20 and Lily Bolen aced Bryant to tie it at 20-20. Robinson killed twice off Bolen to keep Rutgers attached, and Kenzie Dyrstad aced Haley Melby to tie it again at 23-23. Brown killed for set point, her fifth kill of the set, and George and Imani Howell stuffed Rohrbach to save it.
Rutgers sent Kaila Kalama-Bajet in to serve at 24-24. Brass killed the first ball for 24-25, and Bolen’s attack error on the next rally ended it. Rutgers hit .171 in the set and Maryland hit .184.
Rutgers caught Maryland four times after 15-16 and never got in front.
The second looked worse for most of it. Bryant killed four times in five rallies to turn a 5-4 Rutgers lead into 6-8, Raina Chwialkowski served Maryland from 9-11 to 9-13, and Rohrbach killed twice for a 10-15 lead at the media timeout.
From there Rutgers outscored them 15-7. They trailed 18-20 when Robinson’s solo stuff of Melby made it 19-20 and George went to the line. Malia Romes, the freshman middle from Kalida, Ohio, tied it at 20-20 off Bolen, and Rohrbach and Brass hit back-to-back attack errors for 22-20, Rutgers’ first lead since 5-4. Romes killed again off a Kenzie Dyrstad set for 23-21, Howell’s kill off Bolen made it 24-22, and Bryant’s attack error ended it.
Maryland had 19 kills in the second set and they lost it.
Rutgers had 13, hit .345 with three attack errors and did not miss a serve. Maryland hit .293 and missed three.
Four Set Points for the Third & Six Straight for Maryland in the Fourth
Rutgers trailed the third 5-6, tied it, and led the rest of the way. Jenna DeLaMater’s turn at the line put them in front for good on back-to-back Maryland attack errors for 8-6, Robinson killed twice for 15-10 at the media timeout, and Romes and Howell stuffed Brass at 17-12 to send Maryland to their second timeout of the set. George aced Chwialkowski for 24-19 and five set points.
Then Rutgers stopped scoring. Robinson’s attack error made it 24-20, Chwialkowski went to the line, Romes hit an error of her own for 24-21, and Brass killed for 24-22. Rutgers called timeout.
Brass’s next swing ended the set.
Rutgers took the third 25-22 on their fourth set point, hitting .222 to Maryland’s .140, with five kills apiece from George and Romes.
The fourth went the other way. Rutgers led 8-5 after DeLaMater served two more points, on a Brass bad set and a Bryant attack error. Brooke Baldwin’s kill off a George set at 6-5 was her only swing of the night, which is how she finished atop the hitting leaders at 1.000.
Rutgers still led 11-9 after Robinson killed off Bolen. Brown and Rohrbach tied it, and Elayna Davidson went to the line. Rohrbach and Brass stuffed Robinson, Brass killed, Davidson aced Jesewitz out of a Rutgers timeout, and Rohrbach killed again for 11-15 at the media timeout.
Six straight Maryland points, and the fourth never turned back.
Rutgers got within two at 16-18 and no closer. Chwialkowski aced DeLaMater for 18-23, Brown’s seventh kill of the set gave Maryland set point, and after Romes saved one, Rohrbach’s sixth of the set ended it 20-25. Maryland hit .324 in the fourth.
Down 9-11 in the Fifth, Rutgers Takes Six of the Last Eight
The fifth opened with Maryland handing it over. George and Robinson stuffed Brown, Robinson and Romes stuffed Brass, and Brass hit another attack error for 3-0. Willow killed for 7-5, Bryant’s attack error made it 8-5, and George killed off Baldwin for 9-6.
Bolen missed her serve at 9-6. Addie Canady, who started the fifth for Maryland, went to the line and stayed there for four points: a George attack error, two Brass kills around a Rutgers timeout, and a Brown and Duru Gken stuff of George for 9-11.
Maryland led 11-9, four points from the match.
Romes ended the run off a Bolen set, then killed again off Kenzie Dyrstad to tie it at 11-11. Chwialkowski missed her fourth serve of the night for 12-12, and Kenzie Dyrstad aced Melby for 13-12, the same passer she had aced at 23-23 in the first. Rohrbach tied it, and Romes killed off Bolen for 14-13, her 19th of the match.
Baldwin went to the line for match point.
She set Willow, and Willow ended it.
Rutgers hit .200 in the fifth to Maryland’s .160, and George had all three Rutgers attack errors in the set to go with two kills and a block.
Stats Breakdown
Romes led everyone in Scarlet with 19 kills and six attack errors on 39 swings, .333, with three block assists for a team-high 20.5 points, nine of the kills in the last two sets. Robinson was the best blocker in the building by a distance, two solo stuffs and six block assists for eight total blocks, one fewer than Maryland had as a team, with 10 kills on 22 swings for .318 and 15 points. Howell hit .353 with eight kills on 17 attempts, plus five block assists and an ace.
George led Rutgers with 40 swings and finished with 12 kills and five errors, .175, with an ace, three service errors and seven digs. Willow came off the bench in every set and hit .333, nine kills and two errors on 21 swings, the good version of Willow a night after Wisconsin got the uneven one. Jesewitz could not find the floor, five kills against four errors on 30 swings, .033.
Bolen had 31 assists and Baldwin 23. Kenzie Dyrstad led the match with 18 digs and served two of Rutgers’ six aces, which came from five different servers against nine service errors.
Brown gave Maryland 20 kills on 43 swings, .372, seven of them in the fourth. Rohrbach was the most efficient attacker in the match with any real volume, 16 kills and three errors on 27 swings for .481 with four blocks. Brass led all players with 19 kills and 22 points, and also with 12 attack errors and 14 total errors, hitting .125. Bryant added 14 kills and nine errors, .122, and Sara Toth had 65 of Maryland’s 71 assists.
What Worked (and One Thing That Didn’t)
The block.
Rutgers stuffed Maryland 13 times to nine, and the stuffs came at the moments that moved sets: Robinson’s solo of Melby at 19-20 in the second, Romes and Howell on Brass at 17-12 in the third, and two in the first two rallies of the fifth. That is 13 points Maryland’s hitters handed over at the net, on top of 18 attack errors with nobody in the way.
Serve receive, for a second straight night. Maryland aced Rutgers four times and only two of those had a receiver attached, Jesewitz and DeLaMater, both in the fourth. George, the passer opponents keep hunting, was not charged with a reception error for the second night in a row.
The one thing that didn’t work was holding a lead. Rutgers led 11-9 in the fourth and gave up six straight, led 9-6 in the fifth and gave up five straight, and needed four set points to close out a third they led 24-19. Both big runs came on the serve of Maryland players who did not have a kill all night, Davidson in the fourth and Canady in the fifth. Rutgers survived it because Brass gave points back faster than Rutgers gave them away.
That is not a plan that travels to Rec Hall.
Rutgers is 13-15 and 4-12 in the Big Ten and goes back on the road, at Penn State on Tuesday at 7 p.m. at Rec Hall. Thursday was the floor again, and Friday was nowhere near the ceiling, with 72 Maryland kills and two runs of five or more against, but it was the version of this team that blocks, passes and lets the other side make the mistakes, and over 217 points that was worth exactly one more than Maryland.
