Ohio State wins back-to-back NCAA men’s volleyball titles
BARBARA J. PERENIC / SPECIAL TO THE STAR-ADVERTISER
Ohio State players Nicolas Szerszen (9) and Christy Blough (5) celebrated a point during a semifinal match against Hawaii on Thursday.
COLUMBUS, Ohio >> Nicolas Szerszen led Ohio State to its second straight NCAA volleyball championship, hitting .480 and finishing with 16 kills and eight digs in the top-ranked Buckeyes’ 25-19, 25-20, 25-22 victory over BYU today.
Ohio State (32-2) also beat BYU (26-5) in the title game last year. The Buckeyes eliminated Hawaii in Thursday’s semifinals.
Maxime Hervoir added 10 kills, with two errors, on 17 swings (.471) and four total blocks, and Christy Blough had 35 assists for Ohio State.
The Cougars, who came in ranked fourth in the nation in hitting percentage at .323, hit just .243 and looked out of sync from the start. They hit .043 with nine errors, including two in a row as Ohio State took a 3-0 lead, in the first set. Jake Langlois led BYU with eight kills, Brenden Sander added seven, and Leo Durkin had 24 assists. Ben Patch had six kills, three aces and four digs. Freshman Wil Stanley, a Punahou graduate, had a block, assist and service error for BYU.
A kill by Langlois to open the third set gave BYU its first lead of the match and the Cougars didn’t trail again until back-to-back kills by Hervoir gave Ohio State the lead for good at 11-10.
