History was nearly made Wednesday night at St. John Arena, but it was not the kind the No. 14 Ohio State men’s volleyball team was looking to become a part of.

With Findlay in town, the upstart Oilers came within a few points from winning its first game ever against OSU.

The visitors succumbed to the pressure and OSU pulled out of their tailspin to take the first game by identical scores of 32-30 and then swept the next two 30-22, 30-22 over its MIVA foe.

Findlay took the early advantage, needing only two points to get its first win in the opening game. However, the Oilers continued to make errors and finally the Buckeyes were able to take advantage of them.

A kill by junior Mike Wauligman and then an Oiler error knotted the score up at 28. Following a service ace from Wauligman, strong net play by Tom Trantow and a block from Scott Spurlock and Andy Cole allowed the Buckeyes to escape with the win.

“It was shaky; we didn’t deserve to win that first game with the way we played,” said OSU coach Pete Hanson. “We played very flat, unemotional, very uninterested, and they should have won the game except they made two bad errors right at the end which let us off the hook, when a good team won’t do that.”

Early on, OSU was struggling to get something going in its favor. Findlay took advantage, but never led by more than four points throughout the opener. The Buckeyes kept coming at the visitors and tied the game four times but could not go ahead until the very end.

“We played pretty well the first game … then after that we just made too many unforced errors,” said Findlay coach Wick Colchagoff. “Ohio State is one of the top teams in the nation and didn’t make any mistakes to let us back in the game at that point.”

The Buckeyes improve to 12-5 overall and 8-1 in the MIVA, while Findlay falls to 8-14 and 2-10.

After the potential disaster in the first game, OSU was more in control in the next two games en route to the sweep.

Trantow served up eight straight points to put the squad up 11-6 in the second game. Findlay did not intend on going away quietly, but could not get any closer than four points.

The Buckeyes may have scored the win, but it was not one they would celebrate.

“We got a little better, and started to pick things up a little bit, but the bottom line is Findlay made too many errors,” Hanson said. “I told our guys it’s a ‘w,’ but it’s not a ‘w’ you felt good about. From the standpoint of playing your best and working on the things you’ve got to work, and we didn’t get any of that accomplished.”

Throughout the season, the Buckeyes have played down to their competition. The win over the Oilers provided another painful look at the problem.

“We just came out kind out of flat; against the better teams we always have more emotion,” Trantow said. “I think one of our struggles is to keep that emotion even when we’re not playing teams who are of the same caliber.”

OSU will need to get back to top form in a hurry. The Buckeyes will play host to No. 12 Loyola-Chicago at 7 p.m. tonight in another MIVA match-up.

“Number one, we’ve got to get the guys focused that every play is important, make a great effort on every ball and every ball and you’ve just got to play harder,” he said. “We just kind of went through the motions and we can’t do that on Friday.”