COLLEGE PARK, Md. – The Maryland volleyball team outhit, out-blocked and took the first set over the No. 3 Minnesota Golden Gophers on Friday night, but fell in four sets (25-17, 19-25, 23-25, 20-25).
 
"Hats off to Minnesota and congrats. They just won the Big Ten Championship," said head coach Adam Hughes. "It's pretty impressive what they've done. I thought our kids played extremely hard and gave ourselves a window. We're disappointed we weren't able to pull out that third to give ourselves the chance to win a huge match. There are definitely some positives to take away from this."
 
Maryland hit .242 in the match and held the conference undefeated Gophers to a .209 clip, while also out-blocking Minnesota 11-6. The Terps had 55 kills with four players in double-digits. Sophomore outside Erika Pritchard led the way with 16, senior outside Liz Twilley posted 11, while redshirt freshman middle Katie Myers and freshman outside Emma Schriner each tallied 10.
 
Sophomore setter Nicole Alford became the first Maryland setter to reach 1,000 assists in a single season as she notched 43 tonight, keeping the Maryland offense efficient. Alford posted her fifth double-double of the season, also tallying 11 digs.
 
On the defensive end, the Terps were led by six blocks from Schriner and five from Myers. Three Terps managed double-digit digs led by freshman libero Allegra Rivas' 25. Pritchard had 18 to round out her 16-18 double-double, while Alford had 11.
 
Schriner tallied a career-best in kills and blocks with 10 and six.
 
The Terps started off on fire, hitting .414 in the first set and holding Minnesota to just a .133 percentage. Pritchard hit .667 herself with seven kills while Myers had four and Twilley had three. Alford assisted on 14 of the Terps 17 kills and Maryland out-blocked Minnesota 3-0. Up 11-8, Maryland went on a 7-2 run to push the lead to 18-10. Maryland had five kills and only one error during that span. Back to back kills by Twilley and Pritchard got Maryland to set point before Myers put it away.
 
The momentum was kept in Maryland's favor in the second set as the Terps jumped out to a 14-8 lead by way of Schriner and Twilley, forcing a Minnesota timeout. The Gophers responded with seven straight to take a 15-14 lead. The Terps kept it close following that but dropped it 19-25.
 
The third set was a game of runs. Minnesota took the first punch, going up 7-3 and then 15-10. Maryland responded on a sophomore outside Hailey Rubino run featuring two Myers kills to even the set at 15. Minnesota then went up 20-17 before the Terps again responded with four straight through two Schriner slams to go up 21-20. At 21-21, the Gophers won four of the last six points to take it 25-23.
 
With the fourth set tied 10-10, Minnesota took control, winning seven of the next eight points. The Gophers won the set 25-20 and the match 3-1.
 
Maryland (17-12, 8-9 Big Ten) is one of just four Big Ten teams this season to take a set off the Gophers (23-2, 17-0 Big Ten), joining No. 4 Illinois, No. 6 Nebraska and Michigan State.
 
Tomorrow, the Terps will honor their two seniors, Abigail Bentz and Liz Twilley before they take on the No. 7 Wisconsin Badgers at 7:30 p.m.