Just three matches away from an NCAA Championship three-peat, the No. 6 Ohio State (25-5) men’s volleyball team had to fight off a feisty UC Irvine squad (21-10) to win the quarterfinal matchup 25-19, 22-25, 25-23, 22-25, 16-14. The Buckeyes will now advance to the NCAA semifinals.
The match against the Anteaters was back-and-forth throughout, with neither team able to win consecutive sets. With the match, and a spot in the semifinals on the line, UC Irvine took a 9-7 lead in the fifth set, before the Buckeyes tied it after redshirt-senior Nick Laffin had a kill, and Irvine’s Dante Chakravorti committed an attack error.