By Austin Riess
Maryland volleyball was off to a historic start at 10-1 entering Big Ten play butopened the conference slate with a tough test, facing No. 10 Purdue in West Lafayette.
Despite the Terps’ best effort, they were not able to overcome the higher-ranked Boilermakers, losing in straight sets.
Maryland started strong, splitting the first six points of the first set, but was quickly overwhelmed by Purdue’s kills, which led the Boilermakers to a 9-3 scoring run. They would ultimately win the first set, 25-16.
The Terps performed much better in the second set despite losing a lead after 4-3 and not regaining it for the remainder of the set. The Terps were still able to keep it close, only losing the set 25-22.
The final set saw pure Purdue dominance as the Boilermakers held the Terrapins to just 9 points. The Boilermakers were led by their leading point scorer, Addy Tindal, who scored 15.5 points to rise to 153.5 points on the season.
Maryland’s top scorer in the game was Brooklynne Brass, who had9.5 points, while Maryland’s top scorer this season, Ava Brown, had 9. Brown also led the team in kills in the game with 8. Overall Purdue dominated the game in kills with 47 compared to Maryland’s 27.
The Terrapins offense uncharacteristically struggled in this game, finishing with a hitting percentage of .115% which was well below their season average of .315%. On the other side of the court, the Boilermakers were hitting .320%.
This game saw Maryland record its first loss since playing Vanderbilt back on September 1st, moving their record to 10-2 and 0-1 in conference. For Purdue, it is their 6th straight win — they improve to 8-2 and 1-0 in conference.
Both teams are back in action this weekend against ranked opponents, as Purdue will take on No. 6 Wisconsin and Maryland will look to bounce back against No. 18 Indiana.
Three things to know
1. Tough schedule. Maryland’s loss could snap the team back to reality — the Big Ten is nothing short of a gauntlet in volleyball. The Terps still have 6 ranked opponents left on their schedule, including national No. 1 Nebraska.
2. Room to grow. The Terrapins freshman class was ranked 16th best in the nation. There is still time for the talent to develop and to see the team grow in the coming seasons. Also, it is still possible that with a bounceback in the remainder of Big Ten play, the Terps could head to their first tournament since 2005.
3. Errors. Maryland struggled to limit the errors against Purdue with 5 service errors, 1 ball handling error, and most notably 6 reception errors compared to Purdue’s 1.
