Ohio State men’s volleyball beat Quincy (3-0) Thursday night in the first of four straight home Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association matches. OSU went into the match ranked first in the MIVA conference, alongside Ball State.
The Buckeyes dominated in the first game. The team started off the game with strong blocks from Kevin Heine, Shawn Sangrey and Steven Kehoe to put the score at 12-8 OSU. The game ended on a Quincy service error. Sophomore John Klanac had two aces, several kills and a block to help earn the Buckeyes a 30-22 victory.
The second game saw a slew of kills and a service ace from senior Robbie Klein to take the Buckeyes from 15-12 to 18-13. Klein took over again with two kills and a block to put OSU up by nine points, 26-17.
But it was senior John Albertson who dominated at the end of the game with two kills and a powerful block to take the Buckeyes from 27-19 to 30-20 for the win.
Klein said it was great having Albertson back after he sprained his ankle against Stanford early in the season.
“I love playing with John, he’s one of my best friends and he’s got probably the longest arms I’ve ever seen,” Klein said.
Game three saw the Buckeyes jump to a 6-3 lead, but they quickly gave up four points and had to battle after tying at seven. OSU managed to creep away from Quincy with three kills from Klanac and a kill from Heine to put the score at 26-18 OSU.
The game ended with a block from Heine and Kehoe and a Quincy error to set the final game at 30-18, giving OSU the match.
“We really have to go and look not at what they did but at what we didn’t,” Klein said. “We didn’t dig enough balls, we didn’t get enough transition kills. We’ve got to play our game better.”
Klein added that the team’s goal is to finish February 5-0 in the conference, which won’t happen if they play the way they did tonight against Ball State, Lewis and Loyola, he said.
Despite their dominance on the scoreboard, coach Pete Hanson said he was not happy with the performance.
“Against a team like that, we should put up better numbers than we did. On an A-E scale I’d say we were about a C,” Hanson said. “We have to take care of our business and we are really spotty about doing that. We’ll do it for a little bit and then we’ll fall asleep. We’ll do it again and then we’ll fall asleep.”
Part of that, he said, is youth, but he says that excuse is getting old.
The Buckeyes will play Quincy again Friday at 7 p.m. at St. John Arena.
Molly Gray can be reached at [email protected]. Oh
