Maryland Volleyball beats Elon to open the 2014 season

The 2014 season opened up in North Carolina against the Elon Phoenix and came away victorious 3 sets to 1 (25-23, 16-25, 25-14, 25-20).

A grind it out affair saw Maryland hit .115 on the match but lead in most of the major stat categories including kills, assists, digs and aces. In Coach Aird's first match as a head coach, the Terps lineup consisted of Carlotta Oggioni at setter, Ashleigh Cructher and Emily Fraik at outside, Ashlyn MacGregor and Hailey Murray in the middle, Adreene Elliott at opposite and Amy Dion at libero.

The Terps pulled out the first set 25-23, hitting .222 (15-5-45).Crutcher and Elliott led the Terps with 5 kills apiece but few others contributed. Maryland struggled in set 2 with Elon gaining a 10 point advantage midway through the set and cruised to a 25-16 win. Kills were relatively even (25-27) but the Phoenix had a big lead in blocks (7-2) and hitting percentage (.237 to .117). Crutcher and Elliott shared the lead in kills but the rest of the team was not able to chip in with any real offense. The middles struggled, combining to hit -.153 (4-6-13). The Terps reestablished some dominance in set 3 with a commanding 25-14 win. Crutcher and Elliott continued to lead the offense with Emily Fraik chipping in late in the set. Maryland began to improve defensively with 5 total blocks and 57 digs for the match. The fourth set was all Maryland with the Terps pulling away for a 25-20 win to close out the match.

Ashleigh Crutcher led the Maryland offense with 18 kills (18-10-41 .195) with Adreene Elliott right behind her with 16 kills (16-5-42  .262). Emily Fraik had 7 kills followed by Ashlyn MacGregor with 6 and Hailey Murray in her debut with 2. Kaitlyn King had 16 digs and Carlotta Oggioni had 44 assists.

Tomorrow Maryland (1-0) takes on Liberty (1-0) at 10:00AM and San Jose State (0-1) at 4:30PM.