Fans Witness History in Terps' First B1G Win
10/22/2014 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
By Michael Errigo
Members of the home crowd did different things with the Maryland volleyball scarves before the game. Some wore them draped over their shoulders, some tied them like around their head like a warrior and others held them high in the air to be read like a banner. Some clutched them in close points and some waved them when a point, a set or – after two and a half hours and five hard-fought sets – the match was won.
No matter how they were used Tuesday night in the Terps win over Rutgers, the scarves stood as a symbol of unity between a crowd that refused to go home and a team that never stopped fighting on a night in which history was made.
The Terps fought through an epic five-set match that featured 31 ties and 17 lead changes in order to pick up their first-ever conference win in the Big Ten.
“It was gutty,” said head coach Steve Aird of the performance. “I was happy that we won and I'm happy for the kids.”
Outside hitter Ashleigh Crutcher led the Terps with a powerful performance, totaling 22 kills. The senior had missed the previous three matches with an injury, but told Aird before the game that she wanted to play. The final decision to let her do so was made about ten minutes before the opening serve.
“It was about her, not me,” said Aird. “She wanted to play and this was a stage she wanted to play in.”
Crutcher's 22nd kill is the one that will remain in the minds of fans long after the match ended. It leapt off her right hand with violent speed and gave the Terp their 15th and final point in the fifth set, securing a historic win and causing a deafening roar from a mentally exhausted crowd in the process.
“She's got a good arm, a good feel for the game,” said Aird of Crutcher. “I think she takes a big league swing and in this kind of match, when you play against anyone in this conference, you can't take a patty cake with stuff, you have to take a full, angry swing at the ball and, even though she made some errors, she did that. Playing her [style] and doing those things, I really respect that.”
The game was a big event for the team regardless of the final score as it was their first on the Big Ten Network and featured a sizable crowd, thanks in part to the collaboration with Phi Kappa Tau and their ΦKToberfest Greek Volleyball Tournament philanthropy event. Around 70 percent of Greek life on campus helped sponsor the event, according the Phi Kappa Tau's president, Daniel Hefter.
As the match started, the stands of the XFINITY Center Pavilion was filled with a mix of Greek life members, student-athletes and impassioned fans all excited for a shot at a B1G victory on a national stage. The event's success was due in large part to Aird, as he initiated the idea with the goal of getting that kind of atmosphere at his games.
“To see a volleyball coach that is brand new to the school recognizing the importance of the relationship between Greek life and sports shows that he really cares and that's awesome,” said Hefter. “It's just cool to see us helping each other. Hopefully it's something that we keep as go into the Big Ten and beyond.”
The fraternity specifically liked the idea of pairing with the volleyball team for this event because they were impressed by the team's commitment.
“The volleyball girls, they are so passionate about what they do,” said senior criminology major Brian Moran, also a member of Phi Kappa Tau. “Every time we met with them before the game they were all about this philanthropy event and all about doing well as a team.”
That passion stuck around for more than 150 minutes on a rainy Tuesday night, as the Terps were faced with disappointment many times in the match, starting with some early trouble in the first set. But in sets two and three, the team pulled it together and Crutcher started to find her rhythm at the net. But after going up 2-1, the team couldn't hold on and finish off the Scarlet Knights in set four so the game headed to a fifth set.
It should be said: fifth set volleyball is all its own entity. It is a nerve-wracking spectacle, a mine-field littered with gasps and cheers. But, despite going down 3-1 early, the Terps navigated the fifth set easily and removed the monkey of a winless Big Ten campaign off of their backs.
“We're a good team under pressure,” said sophomore setter Whitney Craigo. “We're getting more used to bigger environments and having to step up and we did that tonight.”
As the Terps inched closer and closer to the end of the fifth set, the faithful fans who had stuck around to see how the game would finish grew rowdier. When a timeout was called with the Terps up 6-3, they roared. When another was taken at 10-5, they danced to the music of the DJ, a victory on the tips of their fluttering fingers. And after the Crutcher kill screamed through the air and struck the court with victorious intensity to make it 15-8, they stood on their feet and applauded the first big milestone reached by a brave, young team – some simply putting their hands together and others waving their brand-new scarves in celebration of a brand-new feeling.
Michael Errigo, a sophomore journalism major at the University of Maryland, is a contributing writer to umterps.com.
