Marshall University Athletics
Marshall Volleyball Falls To Defending ACC Champ Maryland, 3-1
9/2/2005 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
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Sept. 2, 2005
College Park, Md. - The Thundering Herd volleyball team gave defending ACC Champion Maryland a run for its money in the opening match of the Courtyard by Marriott Fort Meade Invitational Friday night in College Park, Md., but came up short, losing 3-1 (25-30, 28-30, 30-28, 27-30) to the Terps.
"We played them tough tonight," Marshall head coach Mitch Jacobs said. "We just missed opportunities at some big moments. We're looking a lot better and hopefully we'll win two tomorrow."
Marshall drops to 0-2 on the season and will look to get its first wins of the season Saturday when it faces UT-Arlington and Rutgers. Marshall has never faced UT-Arlington and is 0-1 all-time against Rutgers. The Mavericks finished last season 24-7 and in third place in the Southland Conference UT-Arlington is 1-1 on the year with a win against Prairie View and a loss to No. 16 ranked Texas A&M. Rutgers was 16-10 last year and 1-2 so far in 2005.
Friday's match got off to a shaky start for the Herd in game one. The Terps and Herd were tied 4-4 and Marshall would get no closer than 6-5 the rest of the way in the opener of the match. Maryland went on to take game one 30-25.
In game two, the Herd and Terrapins battled blow for blow to a 10-10 tie out of the gates, but Maryland would go on a 7-1 run to take a 17-11 lead and what looked to be control of the game. However, with the score 28-21, the Herd thundered back with a 6-0 run of its own sparked by four Stephanie Cahill kills to close the gap to one. The Terps would then regain control and close out game two 30-28.
In what would turn out to be the Herd's lone game victory of the night, game three was a back-and-forth bout. There were nine ties and nine lead changes in the third frame with the Herd coming out on top 30-28.
Maryland would go on to close out the match with a 30-27 win in game four and start its 2005 season 1-0. The Terps took a 4-3 lead and never relinquished it. Marshall pulled within one four times, the latest at 26-25, but couldn't pull it out in the end as three Maggie Schmelze kills sealed it for the Terps in the final four points.
For Marshall, Kelly-Anne Billingy led the attack with 19 kills and a .311 hitting percentage. The freshman from Trincity, Trinidad also notches three service aces. Senior Amber Sims was next in line with 15 kills for the Herd. Cahill finished with a double-double of 12 kills and 16 digs on the night.
Also for the Herd, Katie Stein put up 53 assists in the contest to go along with four block assists. Maggie Arias had 12 digs and Uche Ndubisi posted nine kills on the night.
Leading all players, Maryland's Rachel Wagener had 20 kills and an impressive .692 hitting percentage. Schmelze had 14 kills and Jade Brown had 13 for the Terps. Maryland hit .333 as a team compared to .247 for the Herd.
The Thundering Herd hits the court at the Comcast Center Pavillion against at 1 p.m. tomorrow against the UT-Arlington Mavericks. The Herd will then face off against the Scarlet Knights of Rutgers at 5:30 p.m.
