:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/51369857/IMG_5502.0.0.JPG)
Katie Myers will be redshirted for the remainder of her freshman year for Maryland volleyball, her coach announced this week. The No. 62 recruit, ranked by PrepVolleyball.com, has been recovering from an offseason torn ACL.
After missing the first 9 games, she played against then-No. 5 Washington on September 15. The middle blocker had two kills and a block on her Maryland debut before leaving the match. She has not played since.
Myers “felt she wasn’t all the way there [against Washington]. They decided it was going to be X number of weeks for her to come back, and it would’ve been well past the halfway point of the season,” coach Steve Aird said.
In what is clearly a rebuilding year, Aird is saving Myers’ eligibility for four years of play. Last night, Maryland (8-11, 0-7) fell in straight sets to Iowa.
“She’s as talented a kid as I’ve been around, and I’ve been around some good ones. We felt it was in her best interest,” Aird said. “I think she’s going to be a really good 22-year old on the back end, and a kid who’s going to go on and play professionally.”
Of the six freshman on the roster, Gia Milana was the highest ranked at No. 16, according to PrepVolleyball.com. Milana has already had the chance to prove herself in the highly-competitive Big Ten.
Milana posted her career high of 21 kills last Saturday against Michigan State, and nearly matched that record on Friday night, with 20 kills against Iowa and a .366 hitting percentage in the defeat.
The jump to college volleyball, especially the Big Ten Conference, is not always an easy one. Freshman Taylor Smith, included in PrepVolleyball.com’s Top-150 recruits a year ago, has immediately been thrown into the starting lineup and is learning on the job.
“Taylor is going to take some lumps,” Aird said. “We brought her in with the expectation that she might be able to take a year and learn with Whitney [Craigo] kind of running the show.
“Obviously we don’t have Whitney, so [Smith] has to play.” Craigo has missed the last four matches due to injury. “That’s a blessing and a curse [for Smith]. It’s going to help us long-term but short-term, she makes some young errors.”