Virginia Tech women's basketball coach Dennis Wolff.

Photos by The Associated Press

Virginia Tech's Monet Tellier (left) protects the ball from Maryland's Whitney Bays on Thursday. Tellier scored 31 points as the Hokies beat No. 8 Maryland.

It was a result so stunning that even Virginia Tech women's basketball coach Dennis Wolff was surprised.

The Hokies entered Thursday's game at No. 8 Maryland having dropped five straight games by double digits, including three straight losses to ranked foes.

They had failed to score 50 points in their past six games.

But the Hokies knocked off the Terrapins 75-69, beating a top-10 foe for just the fifth time in their history.

"To be truthful, I didn't see it coming," Wolff said Friday. "Their resiliency should be commended."

Wolff, in his first season coaching women's basketball, hopes the upset shows he can handle his new job.

"From a program standpoint, with all the [talk] ... that I hadn't coached women and all this stuff, at least it gives us a little credibility that you can reference, as opposed to just talking about the fact that I coached a lot of games as a men's coach," he said.

The Hokies have three ACC wins this season after winning just one league game all of last season.

Now they would just like to win an ACC home game, which they have been unable to do since the 2009-10 season. Their next chance comes Sunday against North Carolina State.

Wolff will remind the Hokies (7-14, 3-5) about Thursday's victory.

"The message will be, 'Remember the feeling you had when we went in the locker room and on the bus. You got that feeling because to a person we worked like crazy on every possession,' " Wolff said.

The Hokies' point total Thursday was almost as surprising as the victory itself. This season, Tech has sometimes gone two straight games without scoring 75 points combined.

Tech entered the game ranked last in the ACC in scoring offense, scoring margin, field-goal percentage, free-throw percentage and rebounding margin.

Maryland (18-3, 5-3) played without leading scorer Alyssa Thomas, who missed the game with a sprained thumb.

But her absence doesn't account for Maryland allowing 75 points to a team that had reached 70 points in only two previous games this season.

"It was the perfect storm ... where we had everybody really able to do what they were capable of on offense on the same night," Wolff said.

Monet Tellier scored 31 points, 18 above her average, and made five 3-pointers.

"Instead of doubting whether she could make a shot, she was thinking that every shot she took was going in," Wolff said.

Aerial Wilson had 17 points, seven more than her average.

Porschia Hadley scored 14 points, 10 more than her average. Alyssa Fenyn had seven points and four assists.

"Porschia had probably the best game of her career," Wolff said. "Alyssa ... facilitated things in a way that we really have been trying to talk to her about doing."

Maryland was the highest-ranked team that Tech has beaten in 14 years. The Hokies improved to 5-67 against top-10 foes.

The Terrapins had 20 turnovers. Tech had seven turnovers, 10 below its average.

Tech, which had been outrebounded by 12 rebounds per game, grabbed just one fewer rebound than Maryland. LaTorri Hines-Allen had nine rebounds, while Fenyn snared seven.

"We were a little bit more locked in with blocking our own man out and not just kind of running in," Wolff said. "When we run in and try to just grab rebounds, we're outsized and if the ball gets tipped around, then we end up not rebounding."

Tech played seven scholarship players. It was reserve Brittni Montgomery's second game back from a knee injury.