LOS ANGELES — Aaron Koubi froze, then dropped to his knees, staring at the spot the ball had just landed. The UC Irvine outside hitter slowly slid to the floor, lying on his back and covering his face. Across the net, Ohio State was celebrating.
UCI’s season ended Tuesday in the first round of the NCAA men’s volleyball tournament in a five-set loss to two-time defending champion Ohio State 25-19, 22-25, 25-23, 22-25, 16-14.
The Buckeyes (25-5) advance to a national semifinal, where they will meet top-seeded Long Beach State (26-1) on Thursday at 5 p.m. at Pauley Pavilion. The 49ers, looking for their first NCAA title since 1991, were scouting their opponents from the stands Tuesday night.
“For us, we want to demonstrate you’re championship relevant and anytime you’re going five and deuce games in the fifth, you’re making that statement,” UCI head coach David Kniffin said. “We play the game to win and it’s great to be on this stage, but this feels like unfinished business.”
UCI (21-10) was making its first NCAA appearance since 2015. Despite missing more than half of its lineup from last year’s national championship team, Ohio State used its experience to survive the fifth set.
After the teams traded eight straight points, going from 10-10 to a 14-14 tie without anyone leading by more than one point, the Buckeyes finally inched ahead on a block from Nick Laffin and Sanil Thomas to earn match point and a match-sealing kill from Nicolas Szerszen. Szerszen, an AVCA first-team All-American, is Ohio State’s all-time leader in aces, kills and points.
“It’s a comforting thought knowing that you’ve got a first-team All-American that kind of anchors your team and gets you out of trouble at the right times,” Ohio State head coach Pete Hanson said. “But we’ve seen growth by all of those new guys and they’ve bought into what has been established the last couple of years.”
Szerszen, a senior, had 22 kills on 41 swings and a team-high 10 digs, while redshirt freshman Jake Hanes had 22 kills with eight aces.
Junior Karl Apfelbach led UCI with 15 kills and one ace. Scott Stadick, a sophomore, had 12 kills with a solo block and six more assisted blocks. Irvine, the nation’s third-leading blocking team, had 9.5 blocks, but none in the fifth set.
“Getting here, feeling the pressure, it’s all different, so as much experience and exposure as we can get to this, it’s obviously awesome,” Stadick said. “Obviously, the game didn’t go the way we wanted it to, but now we know what it feels like to be in a deuce set against a good team and hopefully next time we’ll get them.”
