The #5 UMD volleyball team came out on top 3-1 on Friday against a Mary group that found just about every way to make that result as hard to get to as possible.
Not right away, though. UMD came scorching out of the gate with a 6-0 run. This would ultimately give the Bulldogs the cushion they'd need to stave off some early Marauder pushback to leave the score at 7-3. From there, the Bulldogs took off with the set. Their lead would balloon from four to 12 on the back of an 8-0 run before Mary would snag another point. By then, the score was already 15-4 UMD. Still, the Marauders didn't fold, giving the Bulldogs a run for their money through the rest of the frame. In fact, Mary would outscore UMD 11-10 from the 15-4 point onwards. The work the Bulldogs had done early in the set was enough to help them cross the finish line with the lead. Despite Mary's 11-10 run, the Bulldogs' lead never dipped below eight points. UMD would take set one 25-15 and take a 1-0 hold on the match.
Set two seemed to be a much different story. At 2-1, the Marauders took their first lead of the match. Not only would the Bulldogs take it back, but they'd do so on an 8-4 run to leave the score at 9-5 UMD. Mary didn't seem to be all too discouraged- they went on a 7-1 run of their own to regain control at 12-10. All was knotted up until the score was 14-14. It took a little longer this time around, but this was the moment the Bulldogs got hot in this set. Suppose it's hard to complain about finishing out a frame looking nearly untouchable. UMD played a swansong for the second set with a 10-1 run to close it out at 25-15. The storyline up to this point might have had a few different twists and turns, but the conclusion was the same through it all. Match advantage 2-0 UMD.
Spoiler alert: the third set would flip the whole narrative on its head. This time, it was the Marauders that took a big lead early, sitting with a four point advantage at 5-1. Mary would be able to ride this wave of momentum built over the course of the whole match to a lead of 7-2 before the Bulldogs would really start to respond. Respond, the Bulldogs certainly did, digging to within one at a score of 10-9 Mary. A 4-0 Marauders run capped off by a Nehkyah Ellis service ace made it 13-9 Mary and reaffirmed their advantage. This established something of a trend for the rest of the frame- the Bulldogs would get tantalizingly close to evening things up only for the Marauders to pull the rug with a spurt of points. Just as quickly as 16-11 Mary shrunk down to a score of 17-15, the Marauders snapped off three more points to make it 20-15. Just when UMD had stormed back to make it 20-18, Mary decided it was time to slam the door shut. A 5-2 Marauder run closed the frame at 25-20 for Mary and left the match at a score of 2-1 UMD.
This Marauders squad hadn't let themselves be disheartened by an early disadvantage- if anything, they'd grown stronger as the match progressed. UMD would need to tighten things up to be able to cool Mary down in the fourth frame. At first, the Bulldogs settled for working in lockstep with the Marauders. This progressed until the score was 8-8. At that point, a 4-0 UMD run opened up a distance between the two teams that this set hadn't seen quite yet at a score of 12-8 Bulldogs. If this Mary team had proven anything up to this point, it was that it wasn't going to go down without a fight. Soon enough, it was 13-12, and the Marauders were knocking on the door of making it a tie ballgame once again. It was a knock that wasn't answered this time around- UMD ran out to a 5-0 run to make it 17-12 and establish the biggest lead of the frame up to that point. The advantage would reach its peak at 20-14 UMD. Once again, the Marauders got right up off the mat and made another run. Two quick points left the score at 20-16 and UMD with one less timeout. A Kaia Sueker service ace out of the break brought Mary back to within three, and they'd be there again at 21-18 Bulldogs. In a match that had been full of small but mighty point swings, UMD ended the night with perhaps the most important one of all. The Bulldogs would close things out on a 4-1 run to take the set 25-18 and get out of Romano with a hard-fought 3-1 match victory.
A pivotal player in the Bulldogs being able to hold off a tough Mary team was
Sydney Lanoue. She had 17 kills to lead all Bulldogs in that department. A big part of making this possible was
Madison Gordon, who led the team with 47 assists. Defensively,
Kaylyn Madison had a team-high 27 digs while both
Hope Schjenken and Lanoue had a solo block and two block assists to tie for the team lead.
Mary was led by Ally Gruber's 10 kills and Maddy Freed's 20 assists. Nehkyah Ellis had five service aces. Kaia Sueker had a team-high 18 digs, and McKenna Kirkpatrick had an impressive outing of seven block assists to lead her team.
BITS FROM BOOS:
The message that served as a through-line for UMD head coach
Jim Boos' post-match comments was a simple one: a win's a win, but in instances like Friday's match, wins aren't always perfect.
At a score of 6-0 UMD to kick off the first set, it didn't seem like this would be a line of discussion with this match. While a start like that is great, Boos was more worried about the fight that Mary showed from that point onwards, regardless of the hole they were in.
"I thought after the initial lead we took, we kind of slowed down a little bit, but then I liked the way that set finished for us," Boos said. "I felt like we had overcome that hurdle, and then obviously, from there on out, Mary did a nice job of slowing things down and finding ways to make us uncomfortable... it was a bit of a slugfest for us. Happy to pick up the win. I credit Mary with being in attack mode all night long and really pressuring us."
That's the thing about Mary on Friday. Whether it was 6-0 in the set, 2-0 in the match, or anything in between, it never seemed as if the Marauders were a team that felt any pressure themselves. Instead, as the match went on, their confidence grew and grew.
A sight like this is nothing new for Boos and company, but repeated sightings don't make the new encounters any easier to deal with.
"It's a challenge- we've done it many a times this year," Boos said. "Thinking back to the St. Cloud match, we were up 2-0 there and then next thing you know, that match flipped in the third set, and you feel like even though you're ahead, you're almost chasing them because momentum in this sport can swing so drastically. Certainly, after the way that third set went, it didn't feel very comfortable for the majority of the fourth either. We just never got our footing and never really had control over the action like we were trying to get. When that happens, you certainly credit your opponent for the things they're doing well. Obviously, there are some things we didn't do as well as we would've liked tonight. We're happy to get out of here with a win but certainly need to be better tomorrow."
Through it all, the Bulldogs are 24-3. Even still, there's no room for complacency. It's a mindset like the one Boos displayed after that 24th tally on Friday that helps get a team to its 25th.
