Ashleigh Crutcher Clutch For Terps in Final Season
11/3/2014 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
By Michael Errigo
Bang! The volleyball flew off of Ashleigh Crutcher's right hand like a bullet, hitting the court with an intensity that rang out into the XFINITY Center Pavilion. The crowd roared, the score went final and Crutcher joined her teammates in celebration of history.
Rewind to two weeks before: there was only a dozen regular-season matches left in her senior season and Crutcher was on the sidelines. The outside hitter for the Maryland volleyball team had injured her ankle against Minnesota on Oct. 10 and had sat on the bench for the next three games – all losses. It was killing her: she yearned to be able to play, to be out there with her team fighting their way through a ruthless Big Ten schedule but her body wasn't cooperating.
Next up was Rutgers, a game that presented the Terps with a golden opportunity to grab their first-ever win in the Big Ten in a raucous home environment on national television. Enough was enough for Crutcher. Ten minutes before the match started, she told head coach Steve Aird she was in. She wanted to play some Maryland volleyball while she still could, injured ankle or not.
“I was just like, you know what, I'm going to do it,” said Crutcher. “I missed playing and I missed being out there. And especially with being out the last couple of years on and off with injuries I didn't want to do that again so I just decided to push myself as much as I could.”
The resilience paid off as Crutcher led the Terps to history that night against the Scarlet Knights with 22 kills, including the final point of the night, the one that could be heard loud and clear.
Crutcher has led the Terps in kills in every match since then, including a 20-kill performance in a rematch against Rutgers for the team's second conference win. Any fear of letting down her team or herself in the middle of her last year on campus has gone. Crutcher is back.
“I wanted to come back, for my senior year and especially for my team,” she said.
That desire to be out there on the court, killing volleyballs with alarming intensity, started when Crutcher was in 8th grade. A basketball player at the time, she had never tried volleyball before, but was intrigued by the cooperative effort necessary for success.
“I loved the competition and the whole team aspect,” she said. “In volleyball, if you stop one person, other people can step up.”
By the time she got to high school, it became clear that Crutcher could be one of those players that could step up. In her four years at the Cary Academy in Cary, N.C., the Raleigh-native was a four year letter-winner. In 2009, she was nominated for the North Carolina Gatorade Player of the Year award and in her senior season, she was named an Under Armour All-American Honorable Mention. When it came time to take her game to the next level, she had offers from in-state schools, including North Carolina and NC State.
Ultimately Crutcher decided to take her talents to College Park and Terp fans are glad she did so. Despite missing seven matches with injury, Crutcher had a promising freshman season, finishing tied for second on the team in double-doubles and averaged 2.70 kills per set.
If Crutcher made some noise as a freshman, then as a sophomore she announced her name to the volleyball world loud and clear. She finished an impressive 2012 campaign with 443 kills and All-ACC honors. Her 28-kill performance against Clemson that year still stands as a career high, the most a Terp has registered in a match since 2002.
The injury bug struck again her junior season, as Crutcher missed 11 matches on the year. When healthy, her passionate play led the Terps with 3.95 kills per set and earned her a spot on the All-ACC second team. She was also recognized for her work off the floor, as the four-year honors student made the ACC All-Academic team.
She began her senior year unsure of what it would hold, as the team she knew and loved had undergone some big changes. With a new coach at the helm and a new conference to compete in, Crutcher was uncertain about how her final year in College Park would go.
“I was bit hesitant entering the Big Ten but now that I see it and I feel it and I'm playing in it, I don't want to leave,” said Crutcher. “I've totally embraced and it's been a great experience so far-way beyond my expectations. So I'm a little bit sad that I'm not going to be able to experience this more.”
That sadness is balanced by an excitement to graduate. The kinesiology major says she plans on going to graduate school next year to be an occupational therapist. She says her ultimate goal is to be able to work with children with disabilities. A profession that requires such patience and care may seem like a surprising choice for such an intense volleyball player but Crutcher insists this isn't the case.
“I'm a little more laid back and goofier than that off the floor,” she said. “I see myself as a gentle giant kind of thing. I'm not a mean person or anything like that but I guess when it comes to competitive sports, it brings out a different side of me.”
That different side has provided the Terps with some great moments over four years and she hopes it will bring out a couple more over the home stretch of her final season.
“I want try as hard as I can and push myself. The sky's the limit because this is my last opportunity to play college volleyball,” she said. “I just want to go out with a bang.”
Michael Errigo, a sophomore journalism major at the University of Maryland, is a contributing writer to umterps.com.
