That’s the best serving team we’ve seen, or played against all year. – BYU coach Shawn Olmstead
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — The BYU men's volleyball team will have to wait yet another year to pull down its much coveted NCAA championship.
Favored going in, and dominant throughout the 2016 season, the Cougars encountered some uncommon difficulty on Saturday, losing in straight sets, 32-30, 25-23, 25-17, to Ohio State in the NCAA championship match.
“Hat’s off to Ohio State,” said BYU coach Shawn Olmstead. “They put together a remarkable season and they were absolutely the better team tonight.”
The Buckeyes overcame deficits throughout the first and second sets before rolling with their dominant serving to win comfortably in the second. Miles Johnson led the way for Ohio State with a match-high 15 kills, which earned him tournament MVP honors.
As for the Cougars, they were led by Brenden Sander and his team-high 14 kills, and had prime opportunities to take the first two sets, but were unable to cash in.
The first set saw the Cougars hold a tight lead throughout — setting themselves up for set point seven different times but failing to break through. Ohio State earned just one set point, leading 31-30, and didn't squander its opportunity.
Despite the setback, Cougar players remained positive heading into the second set.
“I don’t look as it doing something because we bounced back,” Olmstead said when asked if the tough first set loss affected the team adversely. “… We’ve lost the first set in matches this year and come back and won. So we didn’t go over there thinking something had slipped out of our hands in any way.”
True to form, the Cougars jumped out to an early lead in the second set, and seemingly had things in control up to 20-18 when Ben Patch seemingly punched through a kill that would have extended the lead to 21-18. Fan interference nullified Patch's kill, however, forcing the point to be played over again.
Ohio State took full advantage of the setback, scoring two straight to tie things at 20-20 before taking the second set 25-23.
From there, things got ugly fast for the Cougars.
The Buckeyes put their dominating service game in earnest throughout the third set, rendering the Cougars helpless.
“That’s been our bread and butter all year long,” said Ohio State coach Pete Hanson when asked about his team's dominating service game in the third set. “We didn’t believe there was a team out here that could handle the servers that we had — that would be able to see and withstand that pressure over time.”
For the game, the Buckeyes scored eight aces, but the real effectiveness came with putting the Cougars out-of-system to form their typically dominant offensive attack.
“That’s the best serving team we’ve seen or played against all year,” Olmstead said. “No offense to the other opponents that we’ve played, but it’s not really that close.”
BYU's Patch was the player perhaps affected most adversely by Ohio State getting BYU out-of-system and off rhythm. The sophomore All-American scored just 10 kills in the match on a very low .091 hitting percentage.
“When you’re off the net, and you’re passing the ball down to the setter — he’s going to have — defensively — a lot of guys waiting for him. He did, and they made good plays and good moves. And they got some good touches," Olmstead said of Patch's difficulties. "Uncharacteristically he had just a few errors that maybe skew the percentages, but I felt when he was in system, and could get in rhythm, he was still doing what we needed him to do.”
Ohio State set off to build a 13-7 lead in the third set when Olmstead pulled Patch from the lineup in favor of sophomore Tim Dobbert, but it didn't matter much as the Buckeyes rolled to the win.
“The kids just played flawlessly and I’m just so proud of them,” Hanson said. “They just earned every point and earned a national championship tonight.”
As mentioned, Johnson took NCAA Tournament MVP honors for Ohio State while Nicolas Szerszen and Blake Leeson were named to the All-Tournament team. Brenden Sander and Jake Langlois were named to the All-Tournament team for the Cougars.
Email: bgurney@desnews.com
Twitter: @BrandonCGurney