Sophomore outside hitter Erika Pritchard recorded her third double-double of the young season, totaling 15 kills and 10 digs, as the Maryland volleyball team took down Akron, winning all three sets 25-22, on Friday night.

Pritchard hit at an impressive .432 percentage, with a .577 kill percentage on the night to lead the Maryland offense that outhit their opponent for the fourth straight match, this time .282 to .193.

Alford ➡️ Jones. Nasty. #Terps with three straight points up 14-12 in Set One!#FearTheTurtle pic.twitter.com/68bGzwrggu

— Maryland Volleyball (@TerpsVolleyball) August 31, 2018

“It’s always good to get a win on the road,” said head coach Adam Hughes. “I thought we settled into the match well, but we missed out on some opportunities to take our leads and close the door earlier. We’ve all moved on as we take on a good Stony Brook team that was in the NCAA tournament last year.”

Senior outside hitter Liz Twilley also had a good night at the net, posting eight kills at a .304 percentage. Defensively, three Terps posted double-digit digs, with junior DS/libero Samantha Burgio tying a career-best with 11 and Pritchard and freshman libero Allegra Rivas tallying 10. Sophomore setter Nicole Alford had 34 assists to pace the Maryland attack.

All three sets had the same result, the Terps winning 25-22, but took different paths to get there. In the first set, Maryland went on an 8-4 run with the score tied at 12. Twilley and redshirt sophomore middle blocker Katie Myers led the charge while freshman middle blocker Rainelle Jones and sophomore middle blocker Jada Gardner helped closed it out.

Liz Twilley – three second set kills!

S2 | #Terps 12, Akron 8#FearTheTurtle pic.twitter.com/cAVSwo1grP

— Maryland Volleyball (@TerpsVolleyball) August 31, 2018

The second set was close throughout with no team leading by more than four throughout the game. With the score tied at 18, the Terps won four of the next six points to take command of the set by way of two kills by Pritchard, a Burgio service ace and kills by Jones and Myers.

Both teams went on runs in the third set with Maryland taking the first punch, going up 7-2 in the third set. Akron responded to tie the game at 13, but the Terps made a late run as they did in the first two sets to close out the match.

7-2 lead to start the third for the #Terps!

Two BIG blocks by who else…Jada Gardner#FearTheTurtle pic.twitter.com/zk5s6e5wMI

— Maryland Volleyball (@TerpsVolleyball) September 1, 2018

Maryland, now 3-1 on the season including 3-0 in true road games, will play two matches tomorrow. The Terps will take on Stony Brook at 10:00 a.m. before closing out the weekend against Canisus at 4:30 p.m.

-Via Maryland Athletics

Categories: Maryland

Tags: BIG10, Maryland, Volleyball