After falling in straight sets against No. 9 Purdue, Maryland volleyball ended its road trip on Sunday against No. 18 Indiana with the same goal in mind: snapping its losing streak and finally gaining conference play momentum.
But despite Maryland keeping it close in the first and second sets, the third set was a completely different story. The Terps were dominated, 3-0.
The first set began evenly matched —- Ajack Malual struck the middle court, which Indiana’s defense couldn’t respond to. Haley Melby
went cross-court and earned herself a kill, and Malual sent another unreturnable, powerful strike.
However, Maryland’s momentum started to fade. Indiana took advantage with a three-point run to take the lead at 8-7. The teams continued to joust — there were 10 ties and nine lead changes across the first frame.
Despite Indiana’s efforts to hold onto its lead late, Maryland cut its deficit down to 21-20. But Indiana held onto its one-point advantage and reached set point.
The Terps’ opportunity for a late comeback spark faded, as Indiana’s final kill clinched a close first set, 25-23.
Indiana got off to a slow start in the second set, committing errors on consecutive points. An unreturnable serve by Jonna Spohn made it 3-0 Maryland early.
Despite the Terps’ best effort to keep their lead with Rohrbach’s back-to-back kills, Indiana built a five-point run and took the lead in the second set, 9-6.
Maryland called a timeout and came out with a strong response, with a three-point run made up of an error by the Hoosiers, Bryant’s big swing finding the open back court and Malual and Gökçen’s block to tie the set at 9-9.
Once again, both teams were back in the same situation as the first set, but the same ending started to brew up as Indiana embarked on a three-point run to once again separate late into the set, 16-12.
Despite Maryland’s efforts to cut the lead, Indiana was able to survive late into the set during the close battle. Still, the Terps were not backing down without a fight, either cutting the lead down to two or one in the late stages of the set.
However, the close battle resulted in the same outcome as the first set. Maryland fell short in a comeback late, and Indiana clinched the second set, 25-22.
The third set began with strong Hoosiers’ play — Indiana gained a 3-1 early, but Maryland battled back. It appeared as though it would be another hotly contested set, with the Terps bringing the score to 4-3.
That score remained close. Gökçen and Melby taps gave the Terps two points, and a Malual rocket later tied the score at 8-8.
But soon enough, Indiana’s talent advantage shined brightly, carving a substantial 17-11 lead. Maryland began to fade late in the set, and it needed drastic changes in hopes of sparking a fourth set.
But that momentum only remained for Indiana, as the Hoosiers embarked on a seven-point, giving them a 22-11 lead. Soon enough, the Hoosiers propelled themselves to an uncontested straight-set victory — a Malual error ended the set at 25-14.
Three things to know
1. Stopping kills was an issue. The Terps had a hard time defending the Hoosiers’ kills — they accounted for 14 more kills than the Terps.
2. Hoosiers’ offense too much for the Terps. Indiana’s offense not only notched more kills, but it was on target with nearly half of its shots, hitting .456.
3. Same goal, different challenging opponent. Maryland will return home with hopes of capturing that elusive win, but will face another ranked opponent, hosting No. 20 Minnesota.
