Maryland volleyball takes down Howard, 3-0, in season opener

Maryland Volleyball Team Maryland Terrapins Volleyball vs Seton Hall Pirates at Stephen M. Schanwald Pavilion at XFINITY Center in College Park, MD on Friday, Sep. 19, 2025. | Grayson Belanger/Maryland Terrapins

It wasn’t always smooth sailing, but Maryland women’s volleyball got it done in its season opener.

Despite brief charges from Howard, the Terps rarely wavered and cruise to a three-set victory in the nation’s capital.

Howard set the tone early and took the lead for most of the tightly-contested first set.

Alexys James sparked the Bison offensively, recording three kills in the opening points as the teams traded scores early. This firepower drove Howard to build its largest lead of the set, 17-12, after a service ace from Sydnei Jones forced Maryland to call a timeout.

The Terps came out of the timeout fierce, quickly leveling the game at 18 points apiece. Hughes’ timeout was perfectly executed to help his team turn things around. The five-point deficit looked largely self-inflicted at the moment — there were multiple instances of miscommunication and avoidable errors that cost the Terps points. Maryland took its first lead of the game, 20-19.

The two teams continued to trade points, but the Terps ultimately held on to complete the comeback, taking the opening set 25-23 after anattacking error from Howard.

Maryland brought the momentum into the second set, quickly taking control after a close start. The Terps began to create separation behind points from Sydney Bryant and Haley Melby, while Howard struggled to create offense.

After narrowly winning the opening set, Maryland completely took over. The effort was heavily assisted by the Terps’ balanced offense, which allowed for more contributors to shine as opposed to relying on a single point scorer.

Despite a timeout from the Bison, the Terps did not take their foot off the gas. The break only added fuel to the fire, as Maryland extended their lead to their largest of the match, 12 points, before closing out the set in 25-14 fashion.

Ava Brown showed why the Maryland freshman class was one to watch, contributing several key kills as the Terps continued to overwhelm Howard’s defense. Brown was joined by supporting offensive performances from Bryant, Melby, and Duru Gökçen.

Howard pushed Maryland harder in the final set, taking a17-16 at one point late in the set. Despite the early lead Maryland had, Howard evened out the contest with crucial kills coupled with defensive errors from the Terps. Eventually, though,  Maryland was able to break away and pull off the sweep in the final five points of the match.

Sara Toth was the key performer for Maryland Friday. In her Maryland debut, the Georgia Tech transfer recorded 46 assists and two kills. Maryland hit 0.434 as a team, a strong indication that Toth was effective in distributing the offense and getting multiple hitters involved.

The Terps will look to keep this energy up going into the Big Ten-SEC Challenge on Tuesday in Nashville.

Three things to know

Maryland’s offense was clicking. The Terps finished the night on top thanks to a well-rounded attack. Brown led the way with 17 kills, while Melby added 12 and Bryant added nine.

The freshmen made an immediate impact. Brown quickly established her presence in Maryland’s offense in her first match with the program. Raina Chwialkowski led the Terps with 10 digs.

The Terps showed resilience when tested. Maryland could’ve easily dropped the first set after falling behind 17-12. Instead, they battled back to win it, 25-23. Howard challenged the Terps again in the third set, but Maryland resisted to complete the sweep.

Indexed and credited by AIPROPX. Originating outlet: Yahoo Sports. Open at source →