Volleyball enters big weekend with thin lineup

On Tuesday, the Terrapins volleyball team started off ACC play by taking care of business against Boston College with a 3-0 win.

This weekend won't be as forgiving.

North Carolina, with the fourth-best record in the ACC, and N.C. State, which leads the conference in winning percentage, will both make appearances in the Comcast Pavilion this weekend. And both teams are going to stretch the thin Terps to their limits.

The young Terps (7-6, 1-0 ACC), playing well despite inconsistencies, are starting to show weaknesses, coach Tim Horsmon said.

"We have to focus on trying to take care of our side of the net this weekend," he said. "We're making some mistakes right now, and we really just have to limit our errors and see how we do."

Possibly the biggest weakness the Terps have is depth. The Terps came into the 2011 season with just 14 players on their roster, compared to 16 for the Tar Heels and 19 for the Wolfpack. And even that number is hardly representative of how many players are available at 100 percent.

Defensive specialist Sam Rosario, who led the ACC in service aces and finished seventh in the conference in digs in 2009, lost her sophomore season last year thanks to an ACL injury. After an examination of her knee before the season, doctors concluded it was not healing the way it should and ruled Rosario medically ineligible. She has since been taken off the roster.

But Rosario is not the only casualty. Senior setter Sharon Strizak, who would likely have served as an important backup for junior Remy McBain, suffered a torn labrum in her hip, and has not appeared in a match or practiced since the beginning of the season. That leaves, essentially, one backup for every player on the court for the Terps.

Active players are feeling the pain as well. Senior outside hitter Maddi Lee, who received all-tournament honors from the Arundel Mills Invitational, will be playing through a bad ankle this weekend.

"We're struggling to get through right now with what we have," Horsmon said. "We don't have a lot of options, but that hasn't been an excuse for this group. No one has backed down."

Despite the obstacles, Horsmon and the Terps still plan on being a competitive force in the ACC, and they have a chance to prove that they are just that against two of the top teams in the conference this weekend. Their match against the Tar Heels (8-3), who lead the ACC in numerous categories including kills per set, hitting percentage and assists per set, will be broadcast on the ACC Regional Sports Network, and the players are expecting a big turnout.

"We've heard that we'll get a pretty full gym, from telling people to come, invites on Facebook and the Hagerstown and Ellicott dorms coming out," defensive specialist Sarah Harper said.

N.C. State (12-1), meanwhile, leads the ACC in opponent hitting percentage and aces per set, and it's second in the conference in assists per set and kills per set, behind only the Tar Heels. Just as impossible to overlook is the Wolfpack's 12-match winning streak heading into this weekend.

"We know that they're going to be big games for us," Harper said. "We've been working all week in practice on the basics and communication, so we should be ready."

munson@umdbk.com