Buzz At College Park Over Lady Terps Volleyball
When you think of sports from the Lady Terps at Maryland, you immediately think of Brenda Frese and the dominance of their basketball program or the dominance of either their soccer or field hockey programs.
Off to their best start in more than a decade, the Lady Terps enter their fourth season in the B1G Ten. Conference play begins on Wednesday, September 20 at Ohio State. Heading into conference play, they are 11-1 overall.
But, after this weekend, this is a lot of buzz about this year’s women’s volleyball team.
It’s what happened on Friday that has this year’s team on the national radar. Each of the past few years, Maryland, Washington, Oklahoma and Southern California have played in a classic at one of the four’s home court. This year was Maryland’s turn to host and it ended the first night with a stunner.
Playing against #18 Southern California, Maryland scored one of it’s highest upsets in program history when they swept the Lady Trojans, 25-22, 25-23, 25-21 to win 3 sets to 0.
The outstanding play of the Lady Terps, came from one junior, two sophomores and a freshman!
Having 19 aces was #16 Samantha Snyder, a sophomore. #5 Abilgail Bentz, a junior, was next with 12. In the kills department, both #9 Erika Pritchard, a 6’2″ freshman and #14 Gia Milana, a 6’2″ sophomore lead the team with 12 kills a piece.
They continue their strong play the next morning, winning against Oklahoma 3-0 (25-19, 25-15, 25-23).
In that match, once again Snyder lead the team with 22 aces, followed by Bentz with 17. Milana lead the team with 14 kills.
Playing against #7 Washington in the finale Saturday night, the Lady Huskies swept the Lady Terps 3-0 (25-11, 25-19, 25-18).
Lead by head coach Steve Aird, who previous was a Championship-winning assistant at Penn State, he has this team ready to make the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2005, when Maryland made it to the 2nd Round before losing to Louisville, 3-0.
Let’s hope the momentum this year’s team has had doesn’t stop until we can another sport onto the long list of fellow sports that have won at least one National Championship!
